Emmanuel Rouget

A tractor engineer by training, Emmanuel discovered a love of winemaking in 1976, after being given a job by his uncle, the legendary Henri Jayer. Under Henri’s careful tutelage, Emmanuel learned the skills of fine wine production, employing the same careful techniques that rocketed Henri to global acclaim: ultra low yields, pre-fermentation cold maceration, 100% new oak barrels. By 1996 Emmanuel was producing wines from the vineyards of three of his uncles - Henri, Lucien and Georges, as well as from the vineyards of the Michelin star chef, Jean Crottet. The grapes are sorted both in the vineyard and again in the cuvérie, before being destalked and fermented after a cool pre-maceration. Emmanuel Rougeot favours pumping over ahead of punching down. The wine is matured in barrels from Francois Frères and Taransaud. One year old barrels are used for Bourgogne Rouge, 50% new oak for Vosne Romanée but 100% for Savigny-lès-Beaune, Nuits-St-Georges and the crus.

Rouget's best-known wines include the famed Vosne-Romanée Premier Cru Cros Parantoux, famously planted during 1940s by Jayer after it had been abandoned in the wake of the phylloxera devastation at the beginning of the 20th Century. Rouget controls two thirds of the one hectare (2.5 acre) site with Méo-Camuzet taking the remainder.
Other prized holdings include 1.4 hectares (3.4 acres) in Echézeaux and a small plot in the premier cru Les Beaux Monts (which Rouget labels as "Les Beaumonts"). He also has vineyards at village-level in Vosne-Romanée, Savigny-lès-Beaune and Nuits-Saint-Georges as well as Côte de Nuits-Villages.

His wines are now very highly rated and keenly sought-after by connoisseurs worldwide. They continue broadly in the same style as those of Henri Jayer without perhaps touching the same heights – it may be a question of meticulousness, or just of green fingers – though they can still be breathtakingly good, and continue to command high prices in secondary markets. They are luscious, red-fruited wines with a perceptible oak aspect. Now, Emmanuel, with the help of his sons Nicolas and Guillaume, creates wine for both his own label and his uncle George Jayer, both of which are the toast of Burgundy, and are naturally extremely sought-after.