Seven hectares sold in Burgundy

Seven hectares of vineyards have been sold in Meursault in Burgundy, including an outstanding premier cru, in a €12.3m deal.

The sale consists the vineyards and their associated buildings of Domaine Rene Manuel by Burgundian firm Cottin Freres, which bottles and sells mostly under the well-known label of Laboure-Roi.

In addition the domaine includes an excellent Village site, the 2.4ha Clos de la Baronne. The entire value of the sale is €12.3m, a press release says, adding that the land was last valued in September 2009 at €6.7m.

The new owners are a group of investors headed by New York sommelier Robert Bohr.

The vineyards will be farmed by two of Meursualt’s most distinguished winemakers, Jean-Marc Roulot of Domaine Roulot (who already owns some Boucheres), and Dominique Lafon of Domaine Lafon.

According to a well-placed source in Burgundy the domaine will in effect be leased to Roulot and Lafon, with some vineyards farmed separately, others jointly.

The wines produced will be labelled and marketed by those two domaines, and there is no plan to create a new label for these wines.

It is very rare for holdings of this size to come on the market, and the negotiations, which have been going on for some months, have only recently been concluded. The official transfer of the property will take place in January 2011.

Written by Stephen Brook

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Stephen Brook has been a contributing editor to Decanter since 1996 and has won a clutch of awards for his writing on wine. The author of more than 30 books, his works include Complete Bordeaux, now the definitive study of the region and in its third edition, and The Wines of California, which won three awards. His most recently published book is The Wines of Austria. Brook also fully revised the last two editions of Hugh Johnson’s Wine Companion, and he writes for magazines in many countries.