Domaine Jean Grivot, Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru 2021

Domaine Jean Grivot has long been established as one of Vosne-Romanée's best producers, and they have been bottling their own wines since before the war. The domaine is today run by Jean Grivot's son Etienne with his wife Marienne, daughter Mathilde and son Hubert. Etienne took over from his father in 1990 and is the fifth generation of his family to run the domaine.

Since Etienne took charge, and began to apply his assiduous attention to detail in the vineyards and winery, the domaine has changed to a more concentrated style from lower yields than in the past. For Etienne improvements can always be made in all areas and his diligence has seen the reputation of the domaine return to an upward curve.

Vines have been densely planted to increase competition which results in less fruit and deeper roots. He thins the canopy very specifically depending on the aspect of the slopes but avoiding the southern side, and green harvests to increase fruit quality at picking.

The harvest is done by hand and the bunches are generally 95% destemmed save for some experimentation or if vintage conditions demand otherwise, and natural yeasts are responsible for the fermentation process during which Etienne does not like to punch down the cap when the fermentation begins, as many other winemakers do, instead pumping over once everything is well underway. All the wines go into barrels from several different sources to avoid the predominance of flavour from any single source. At bottling the wines are only filtered if necessary but are not fined..

The domaine's 15 hectares include parcels in Vosne-Romanée, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Clos de Vougeot, Echézeaux and Richebourg.

This is certainly a winery that is not resting on its laurels.