On the experimental estate of Jean Ribéreau-Gayon.
The Legacy of the Oenologists
For decades this domaine belonged to the Ribéreau-Gayon family. Three of its researchers gave winemaking its scientific foundations — much of it on the soils we farm today.
A laboratory in the vineyard.
Our tasting room today was the fermentation cellar where oenological research was carried out here; the laboratory lay in the passage behind it. The press, the concrete vat and the instruments from that time we keep to this day.
Cellar & Craft
Ulysse Gayon
The line begins in the 19th century with Ulysse Gayon, a student of Louis Pasteur. He brought laboratory science into winemaking and helped develop the Bouillie Bordelaise (Bordeaux mixture), which protected Europe's vineyards from downy mildew. Gayon did not live on the domaine, yet his conviction — that quality arises from microbiological understanding — became the foundation on which his descendants built here.
Jean Ribéreau-Gayon
In 1938 Jean Ribéreau-Gayon — a grandson of Ulysse Gayon and one of the co-founders of modern oenology — bought the domaine and made it his experimental estate over decades. Here he deciphered malolactic fermentation: the conversion of sharp malic acid into softer lactic acid, which gives many great red wines their rounded suppleness. In 1949 he founded the Institut d’Œnologie of the University of Bordeaux — the knowledge gained here travelled from there around the world.
Pascal Ribéreau-Gayon
His son Pascal Ribéreau-Gayon carried the work forward and directed the Institut d’Œnologie in Bordeaux for nearly two decades. As one of the authors of the Traité d’Œnologie, a standard reference to this day, he shaped the understanding of phenols, tannins and phenolic ripeness. Among his students were oenologists such as Denis Dubourdieu and Michel Rolland.
Parcels 8 to 11.
Parcels 8 to 11 carry the legacy to this day: they were planted in 1938 and 1953 — the same old vines Jean Ribéreau-Gayon worked with. We harvest and vinify them parcel by parcel, because vines of this age bring a depth to the wine that cannot be hurried.
Read on.
How this family's science still shapes our wines today — explored further in our texts.
„What this family researched is still present in every decision we make today.“Scientific Craftsmanship
From this legacy comes what stands in the glass today.