Domaine Jacqueson    

The Professor

Henri Jacqueson is 83 now. He celebrated his 75th birthday by cutting back his work week to 5 days, 4 hours a day, all in the vineyards. In the torrid summer of 2003 he suffered and son Paul finally convinced him to retire completely. It didn’t come easily to Henri. He lives quietly in the village of Rully, spending time with friends and family, watching rugby, tasting wine and giving incisive opinions about quality and what can be done to improve it.

Jacquesons

The family is of Welsh origin. The name is pronounced ZHACK-son. In the days of the Sun King it was chic to have Welsh guards (like the Pope has Swiss guards today). The first Jacqueson in France was appreciated by Louis XIV and he detailed him to Marguerite, Duchess of Burgundy when he owed her a favor. When Jacqueson retired Marguerite granted him farmland in the village of Rully. Today’s Jacquesons don’t speak English but their faces still reflect their origins.

The Professor

When the professor was born Rully wasn’t really wine country and the farm provided just a subsistence livelihood. He became a baker. In WW II he fought bravely in the resistance and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. After the war he wanted to change careers. He never really liked baker’s hours, 2AM to noon.

The Rully appellation existed before WW II, but in the previous 20 years only one bottling of 100 cases had been made. It obviously didn’t sell well because it wasn’t repeated. Still Henri decided to become a winegrower. He first planted Chardonnay in Rully 1er Cru ‘Gresigny’, then Pinot Noir in Rully 1er Cru ‘Les Cloux’. These vineyards are now about 55 years old and are Jacqueson’s flagship wines.

When I first visited, Henri told me “It’s curious. In every village there are about 50 winegrowers. Most make ordinary wines but a handful make miracles.” From the beginning Henri has been one of the miracle makers. Few winegrowers anywhere in the world are so respected. After 30 years he retired as president of the Rully grower’s association. He leaves not only a legacy of great wine from a minor Appellation, but the renewal from nothing of a wonderful source of good, fairly priced Burgundy for the world to enjoy. Rully today is widely sought after as a source of good value Burgundy. If not for Henri, it is far from certain that the Appellation would even exist.

Paul Jacqueson

Henri’s only son is a worthy successor. He inherited all of his father’s energy and then some. Besides making wine, he runs marathons and enjoys skiing and trekking all over the world. When I visited recently he had just returned from Nepal where he had taken a full month to trek from 3500 feet above sea level to the Everest base camp at 21,500 feet! Every few years he spends 3 days after harvest in the mountains picking wild currants to make into what is surely the world’s best cassis. Local politics and a vast range of reading occupies the rest of his time. I assume that he sleeps. I just don’t know when.

Still most of what he does is grow wine – and what wine!

The Wines

Revue du Vin de France uses the word ‘cult’ (spelled ‘culte’) to describe Jacqueson’s wines. This is not a word that usually appears in French wine discussions. The wines are on half of the three star Michelin restaurant lists. They are the house pour at Burgundy’s Lameloise and a number of other starred restaurants.

When Henri retired, Paul leased some vineyards, something Henri had never wanted to do. There is an increase in production, not much, but enough to make a difference to the many consumers who want the wines but can’t get enough of them.

Aligote is inevitable. Jacqueson’s tastes like fine Chardonnay. The new Appellation Bouzeron is the only single village in France to enjoy a specific Appellation for Aligote and this is a step up on the basic Aligote.

The principal result of the leased vineyards is the introduction of a white Rully ‘village’ wine. Paul selected his parcels with great care; one is 30 years old, the other 46. Quality is virtually equal to the Premier Crus (as of course is the price).

There are four 1er Cru white Rullys! Gresigny is the oldest vineyard but Pucelles may prove to be even better as the vines age, and there is twice as much of it. Margotes and Rabource are the others, a small parcel of young vines in the first case and a tiny parcel of old vines in the second. There isn’t much wine and these rarely make it to the U.S. or anywhere except for a few Burgundy restaurants.

Besides ‘Les Cloux’ there is a single vineyard red Rully, Chaponnieres, that is almost as good and shares the beautiful hardwood forest after rain character of the best red Rully. There are also two red Mercureys, single-vineyard village ‘le Vaux’ and 1er Cru ‘Naugues’. Until recently these sold out before the red Rullys, Mercurey being better known, but the Rullys are the best wines and now they sell out first.