Ramonet: behind the acclaimed Burgundy estate plus 30 wines tasted

Viewed by many as one of the best white wine producers on the planet, Domaine Jean-Claude Ramonet is cloaked in mystery despite a long history of making sublime wines.

Domaine Ramonet: history

The confluence of some of the world’s greatest white wine appellations and a cult-like mystique provide a compelling rationale to discover the wines of Domaine Ramonet.

The appellations include Montrachet, Bâtard-Montrachet, Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet and more than 20 others.

Scroll down for 30 Ramonet wine tasting notes and scores

The cult status began long ago with Pierre Ramonet, who founded the domaine officially in 1930. His passion and drive built the domaine from scratch, beginning with his first vineyard purchase in Les Grandes Ruchottes in 1934.

His first champion was Raymond Baudoin, founder of La Revue du Vin de France, who discovered his work in the 1930s. Baudoin, in turn, raised the interest of American wine importer-cum-spymaster Frank Schoonmaker. Throughout the post-war years, Ramonet continued to build his vineyard holdings and his reputation. Today, the vineyard holdings are impressive, and the reputation has never been more lustrous.

Mystique

‘The best white wine I’ve ever had’ is a big statement. Many factors come into play: how old was the bottle? When and where did you drink it? With who? It’s too difficult, perhaps, to narrow to a single bottle. Yet, if the task were a shortlist of three, it is inevitable that a wine from Domaine Ramonet would appear on very many lists, including my own. The mystique is undeniable.

As with all mysteries, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, but there are a few facts that we can ascertain.

Grandsons Noël and Jean-Claude Ramonet began to work alongside their father, André, in 1983. André’s role was limited, however, and the true heirs to Père Ramonet’s winemaking mojo were his grandsons.

Since the 2014 vintage, Noël has stepped back from day-to-day operations and the wines made subsequently bear the name Jean-Claude Ramonet, who has lately been joined by his daughters Anne-France (since 2016) and Clarisse to complete a team of seven in the vineyard and two in the office.

Ramonet: the wine philosophy

Anne-France explained their way of working: the grapes are lightly crushed before pressing, and the must is not settled before fermentation.

Very little sulphites are used, and the total quantity is reduced each year. The fermentation is usually started in tank and continued in cask.

A modest amount of new wood is normally used: 5% for the Bourgogne and 25–35% for the premiers crus. Only the Montrachet is fermented and aged exclusively in new casks.

The wines are aged with most of the lees, but seldom stirred, and are left as long as possible without racking. The typical length of aging is eighteen months.

Premox

As grape growing and winemaking began to evolve in the 1990s, Burgundian winemakers were haunted by the spectre of premature oxidation of their white wines (often referred to as ‘premox’).

This phenomenon began to appear with the vintages in the mid-1990s, and particularly with 1996. Thereafter followed a number of vintages where buying white Burgundy could be a dangerous pastime as wines were ruined by seemingly random oxidation.

Fortunately, although it seems that Ramonet had some issues with corks in the 1990s, its way of aging the wines with most of the lees and avoiding bâtonnage has helped prevent widespread problems with premox.

In my own experience, prematurely oxidised Ramonet has been a rare occurrence.

Date founded: 1930

Owners: Noël and Jean-Claude Ramonet

Winemaker: Jean-Claude Ramonet

Annual production: 100,000 bottles

Area under vine: 19.75 ha

Key wines: Montrachet, Bâtard-Montrachet, Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru Les Ruchottes, Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru La Boudriotte (red and white), Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru Morgeot, Saint-Aubin Premier Cru En Remilly, Pernand-Vergelesses Les Belles Filles

The vineyards

Some of the first plots acquired in Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru Les Ruchottes were cleared and planted by Pierre himself.

Expansion continued in the 1940s with new holdings in Morgeot. This appellation can be confusing: seven different climats can be labeled as Morgeot.

One of these is La Boudriotte, which also includes another five climats that can be called either by their own name, or La Boudriotte, or Morgeot. Ramonet’s Boudriottes blanc, for example, is in the climat Les Fairendes; the Morgeot blanc comes from in Champ Jeandreau (also part of Boudriotte), and the red Morgeot is from Ez Crottes.

If that were not complicated enough, the winery is based in Chassagne-Montrachet, but the superlative grand cru vineyards are all located within Puligny-Montrachet.

The three parcels of Bâtard-Montrachet and the 0.45 hectares in Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet were purchased from Domaine Henri Coquet in the 1950s. These lie next to each other at the southernmost end of Bienvenues.

The iconic parcel in Montrachet that lies between the Bouchard holdings and those of Boillerault de Chauvigny was purchased in 1978, reportedly for cash.

Other holdings have entered the portfolio in other ways.

The tiny sliver of Chevalier-Montrachet comes from an exchange with Domaine Jean Chartron. Among the most recent acquisitions are the Clos du Cailleret, Abbaye de Morgeot, St.-Aubin En Remilly and St.-Aubin Murgers des Dents de Chien. These are all included in a métayage agreement with FICOFI and its investors, and they entered the portfolio in 2014 after FICOFI purchased the vineyards from Vincent Girardin.

Another recent acquisition is the hectare of Pernand-Vergelesses Les Belles Filles. This large village-level climat stretches from the top of the slope down to the village and has a reputation for good value red and white wines. Ramonet has vinified these grapes since 2012.

Ramonet’s red wines

For me, the most overlooked wines from Ramonet are the reds. Ramonet reds were for many years among the best deals on the wine list at the charming bistro at l’Hôtel de Beaune. I would order them, not because they were well-priced but because I loved to drink them with the roast chicken.

Chassagne-Montrachet had a great reputation for red wine throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Dr. Lavalle classified no fewer than three climats as ‘Hors Ligne’ (his top rating) in his authoritative 1855 book on Burgundy. Well into the middle of the 20th century, production in Chassagne was two-thirds red wine and one-third white. Today that ratio has reversed, but there are still some lovely red wines produced in the commune.

Ramonet owns 6.79 hectares of black grapes, including 2.39 hectares in the most well-regarded premier crus: the Clos St.-Jean, Clos de la Boudriotte, and Morgeot.

The grapes are destemmed and undergo a maceration before being fermented with a gentle extraction that avoids the sometimes astringent tannins found in reds from Chassagne.

These are charming and age well. They are a perfect counterpart to the profound and riveting whites.

Red and white alike, all the wines produced by Ramonet warrant the attention of the serious wine lover.

Tasting the wines of Jean-Claude Ramonet:

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