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From cheese salesman to celebrated winemaker: Jérôme Galeyrand's route into Burgundy is anything but ordinary. Born in the Loire, he arrived in Gevrey-Chambertin with no winemaking family behind him and bought his first parcel in 2002: a mere 0.05 hectares. Today Domaine Jérôme Galeyrand in Saint-Philibert farms 5.25 hectares in the finest sites of the Côte de Nuits, from Marsannay via Fixin to Gevrey-Chambertin. His creed is terroir transparency without technological intervention. No industrial yeasts, no fining agents, no enzymes, only a little sulphur. The wines are precise, elegant and wonderfully fragrant. In 2020 he received a star in the Guide des Meilleurs Vins de France, a distinction that cemented his reputation as one of the most exciting winemakers in the region.
More about Jérôme Galeyrand
From cheese to wine
For eight years Jérôme Galeyrand worked in the food industry, in the cheese trade to be precise. His love of good food led him to wine. When he began helping with the harvest at Domaine Alain Burguet in Gevrey-Chambertin in 1996, he was gripped by a passion for viticulture. He gave up his secure job, enrolled at the renowned wine institute in Beaune and made a fresh start. In 2002 he bought his first tiny parcel: 0.05 hectares, about as small as it gets. In September of the same year he made his first vinification of his own. Today, a good twenty years later, the domaine covers 5.25 hectares in Saint-Philibert, east of Gevrey-Chambertin. The barrel cellar lies in the very heart of the famous wine village. Every year Jérôme harvests with a group of well-trained friends: a family business without a family, but with all the more heart and dedication.
Terroir without a mask
"Nous travaillons le jus de raisin frais sans procédé technologique et œnologique": we work with fresh grape juice, without technological or oenological processes. That is how Jérôme describes his philosophy. In concrete terms it means no industrial yeasts, no fining agents, no enzymes, little sulphur. The aim is to reveal the terroir without altering the intrinsic nature of the grape. 70 per cent of the vineyards are farmed organically, 30 per cent according to sustainable principles. Pesticides are completely off-limits, and all the vines are ploughed mechanically rather than treated chemically. Depending on cuvée and vintage, Jérôme varies between 100 per cent destemmed and 100 per cent whole bunches, always according to what the character of the wine demands. This purist approach recalls other free thinkers of the Côte de Nuits such as Charlopin Tissier, who likewise put terroir expression above technique.
Precision in a small cellar
Vinification takes place in a small winery at Jérôme's home: no industrial facility, but an artisanal operation in which every barrel receives personal attention. All the wines mature in oak barrels from French forests: 12 months for the whites, 18 to 24 months for the reds. The proportion of new oak is kept deliberately low so as not to mask the character of the grapes. Production is modest, around 2,000 cases depending on the vintage, or about 24,000 bottles. This scarcity explains why Galeyrand's wines are so sought after among connoisseurs. They are precise, refined and elegant, with beguiling perfume and sheer drinking pleasure. The wines speak softly, but insistently.
From Marsannay to Gevrey-Chambertin
The range spans several appellations of the northern Côte de Nuits, a remarkable portfolio for a grower who once started with a twentieth of a hectare. The Gevrey-Chambertin "En Billard" shows the full class of this prestigious appellation with its silky texture and notes of dark cherry, forest floor and a hint of spice. The Fixin "Champs de Vosger" surprises with its depth, structure and astonishing ageing potential. Among the whites, the Bourgogne Aligoté from various parcels stands out in particular: Chaumont, Les Blanches and Alligotay, each with its own character and expression. The wines from Marsannay combine approachability with complexity. What all of Jérôme Galeyrand's wines have in common is that they taste of Burgundy and its soil, not of the cellar and technology.