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Negociants also have domaine wines from their own vineyards. Thanks to Lompian Wines, we can enjoy these wines back home in Minnesota!

Moral of the Story: When your wine industry friend sets up a visit, JUMP ON IT!
While planning our visit in France last fall, I contacted a couple of local Minnesota wine industry folks for any tips or visits we might make while in the Côte de Nuits in Burgundy. I didn’t hear anything back, so I finished up our planning on my own. Then, when we were in France on our last full day in Burgundy, I received an email from Fred who works for a small importer back home:

And just like that, we had one more visit! Wednesday morning with Sophie, the oenologue (head winemaker) at Louis Max, a negociant in Nuits St. George.

A Thing or Two about Negociants
Negociants are brokers. They buy grapes, unfinished wines, or finished wines from winegrowers too small to export on their own. The negociant has the connections to sell the wines to a larger market. Often, a negociant does have their own estate wines, but their business is much larger, to include all their suppliers in their international dealings. As a consumer, my impression had been that negociant wines were a step below estate grown & bottled wines. After our tour at Louis Max, I had a distinctly different impression. Sophie, the oenologue, and Eric the cellarmaster care for every barrel of wine as if it were their own. They have long term relationships with their growers and they work closely to ensure both vineyard and cellar are managed for the absolute highest quality! In recent vintages, they are moving to organic work in the vineyard and minimal intervention in the winery with native yeasts and minimal treatments.

I hope you enjoy crawling around the cellar at Louis Max in the slideshow below. (click on any photo to enter the slide show, “escape” to return).

The imposing Louis Max winery in Nuits-Saint-Georges

Sophie (on the right), the head winemaker met us and immediately took us into the winery

Extensive cellars hold new wines from all over Burgundy

Red wines being racked, intensely manual work

A little like moving a pile of sand from one spot to another, then back. He’s racking from 1 barrel to another, then on to the next barrel, all to naturally clarify the wine

All the while, we were getting a lesson in recent progress in winemaking at Louis Max.

Sampling from a few barrels

Eric de la Broise, the cellarmaster, has spent 25+ years in this place.

I loved seeing Eric’s notes tracing the fermentation process in 1 tank

The lower cellar with older wines

Eric de la Broise, Julie (my lovely wife) and Sophie Doche.

Our deepest thanks to Sophie, Eric and to Fred Petters and Lompian Wines for setting up our tour!