Domaine Vigot

Vosne-Romanée | Côte de Nuits | Burgundy

One of the best-kept secrets in the historic Burgundy village of Vosne-Romanée is the husband and wife team of Fabrice and Christine Vigot. Their humble demeanor and low profile belie their outsized talent and influence on some of Vosne’s most famous Pinot Noir wines – and it is past time that their wines received the attention they’ve for so long deserved.

Most Burgundy collectors should know the name Mugneret-Gibourg. In the 1960s, Dr. Georges Mugneret hired Fabrice Vigot’s father to tend a number of his prized vineyards in a crop-sharing agreement, including grand cru Echezeaux and plots in Nuits-Saint-Georges and Vosne-Romanée. The contract was passed down to Fabrice, who with his wife, Christine, continued his father’s exacting work.

Every great Burgundy wine begins in the vineyard. That Mugneret-Gibourg Burgundy wines are legend is news to no one; but that the foundation upon which this legend stands was actually built by a modest grower couple down the road is the sort of insider knowledge that should make a wine collector very excited.

Because now, the Burgundy wines of that very couple are finally available in the United States. Fabrice and Christine started their own domaine in 1990, combining some of Fabrice’s family’s land in Vosne and Nuits-Saint-Georges with vineyards that Christine inherited from her family in Gevrey-Chambertin – plus, of course, the metayage land from the Mugnerets.

What’s important to note is that this hard-working, generations-deep Burgundian family – particularly among the rarified air of Vosne-Romanée – are hands-in-the-soil growers, first and foremost. Caring for their few acres according to organic principles (with a more recent focus on biodynamics), Fabrice and Christine craft Burgundy wines that are earthy and soulful and utterly transparent to their underlying terroir. Crucially, each of their older-vine plots – all villages-level vineyards – perform far above their station; each approach grand cru levels of quality year in and year out.

As of the 2016 vintage, however, the Vigots had to rescind their crop-sharing agreement with the Mugneret family, as a series of low-yielding vintages capped with the frost of 2016 pushed them to make a painful, yet necessary, financial choice. Today the family farms only their own vineyards, some six acres across Vosne, Nuits-Saint-Georges and Gevrey-Chambertin.

FARMING & WINEMAKING

The family tends vineyards in Vosne-Romanée, Gevrey-Chambertin and Nuits-Saint-Georges, plus smaller parcels classified either Bourgogne or Coteaux Bourguignons (all 100% Pinot Noir) near Vosne-Romanée and Vougeot. The estate follows organic principles and will be organically certified as of the 2024 vintage.

Grapes are harvested by hand, and can be destemmed or left full-cluster, depending on the vintage. The estate ferments on indigenous yeasts in stainless steel tanks, with temperature controls. Wines are aged in new 228L French oak tonneaux for around 12 months, then transferred to older tonneaux for an additional six months’ aging before bottling. Wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered.

RED WINES

Coteaux Bourguignons

A fresh and refined, anything-but-basic Bourgogne sourced in part from older vines in a perfect plot that sits at the foot of grand cru Clos Vougeot. High-toned summer berry fruit, lots of spice and soul.

Download fact sheet (PDF)

Bourgogne Rouge ‘Les Maladières’

Another overachieving, anything-but-basic Bourgogne from terroir in Nuits-Saint-Georges. ‘Les Maladières’ cozies up to villages-level Nuits vineyards, and shares a vein of darker fruit and lots of spice. Taste it blind and tell us where you really think it’s from!

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Nuits-Saint-Georges Vieilles Vignes

The Vigot family’s vines sit on the Vosne side of Nuits-Saint-Georges, located in two perfect parcels that were planted mostly in the 1950s. There’s a Vosne aromatic energy here, with a heady core of Nuits fruit and soul.

Download fact sheet (2021 vintage PDF)
Download fact sheet (2019 vintage PDF)
Download fact sheet (2018 vintage PDF)

Gevrey-Chambertin ‘Aux Etelois’

‘Etelois’ has some of the grander neighbors in Gevrey-Chambertin; this perfect parcel borders both grand cru Chapelle-Chambertin and premier cru ‘Petite Chapelle.’ Older vines planted in the early 1960s, soils that couldn’t be better if they tried: this is one heady, handsome and long-hauler Gevrey.

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Vosne-Romanée

A picture-perfect example of the elegant complexity and aromatic intensity of the best of Vosne. Here the Vigots combine fruit from two plots, ‘La Colombière,’ near the heart of the village and planted in 1979/1980, and ‘La Croix Blanche,’ at the border with Nuits, planted in 1947/1948. (Know that Mugneret-Gibourg’s Vosne villages sources fruit from these same vineyards!) Silky, refined, sublime.

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Vosne-Romanée ‘Les Chalandins’

The vineyard ‘Les Chalandins’ is found in Flagey-Echezeaux, not far from grand cru Clos Vougeot. Here you’ll find some of the family’s oldest vines, as a majority of their holdings were planted in 1939. Extremely low yielding vines produce fruit of such intensity and depth, the result is overwhelming! A villages-level Burgundy that seriously overperforms.

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Vosne-Romanée ‘Les Damaudes’

The estate’s prized possession, a vineyard that showcases the Vigot family’s incredible talent in caring for older vines. Here high up on the slope at the forest line, ‘Damaudes’ touches premier cru ‘Malconsorts’ in Vosne and premier cru ‘Damodes’ in Nuits-Saint-Georges. The family’s few rows were planted in 1935; soils are pure limestone. Structured and silky; a glorious Vosne.

Download fact sheet (PDF)

Established: 1990
Winemaker: Fabrice Vigot
Region: France • Côte de Nuits • Vosne-Romanée
Vineyard size: 6 acres

PRACTICING ORGANIC

This domaine produces honest wines, balanced with an eco-responsible approach oriented towards biodynamics, without seeking certification. We really like the digestibility of the wines here, a quality that is not so common even in Burgundy.

—Bettane & Desseauve