Domaine Bachelet-Monnot

After completing their studies in oenology and important internships in France and Australia, brothers Marc and Alex Bachelet took over the family Domaine, which had until then been managed by their father and uncle. In 2005, Domaine Bachelet-Monnot was born.

Marc and Alex immediately began with their own vision of wine, cultivating about twenty hectares equally divided between Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in an ethical and environmentally respectful way. No herbicides are used in the vineyards; the rows are regularly plowed to manage weeds, aerate the soil, and cut horizontal roots, thus encouraging deeper vine growth.

In the cellar, the Chardonnay grapes undergo a long pressing before fermenting with indigenous yeasts. The Pinot Noir grapes are mostly destemmed, with only 15 to 30 percent of whole clusters kept for fermentation. In the past, cold maceration was applied to the red grapes, but the two brothers decided to abandon this practice due to the excessive use of sulfur dioxide it required.

In addition to traditional barriques, Alex and Marc also use larger 350-liter barrels for their white wines to prevent the wood from influencing the final taste too much.

The wines mature for 12 months, then are racked into steel or cement tanks for another six to eight months of aging on the lees before bottling.