BEAUNE, France – It is a short walk from the historic Hospice de Beaune in the town center to the offices of Maison Joseph Drouhin, located in a 15th Century house built over the 13th Century cellars that are a huge piece of the history of Burgundy.
The family Drouhin is nothing if not mindful of the history of Burgundy. Joseph Drouhin was born nearly 100 miles to the north, near the village of Chablis, but he chose Beaune when he established his firm as a wine negociant in 1880, eventually settling next door to the Collegiale Church Notre-Dame, a stone’s throw from the cellars where the Dukes of Burgundy stored wines for the kings of France.
Robert Drouhin, the current patriarch of the Drouhin clan, lives in the house behind the office, next to the church. He is a throwback to a bygone era when a quaint notion existed that the name on the bottle meant everything in the wine business, even more than the classification of the wine or the quality of the vintage.
Navigating Burgundy’s maze of village classifications and specific cru can leave even the most earnest wine enthusiast dazed and confused, but seeking out the wines of a proven house of Burgundy is tried and true.
Robert intends to keep it that way, even as he settles into a cozy retirement with wife Francoise. He toiled in the family business from 1957 until 2003, and was largely responsible for building the Drouhin reputation throughout the world, but particularly in the United States.
In these modern times when large wine conglomerates gobble up small wine companies merely to gain better position on the retail shelf, the family run wine business has become an endangered species. But Robert and Francoise can sleep easy at night, for the future of Maison Joseph Drouhin in the hands of the Drouhin family is assured.
The Drouhins behind Maison Joseph Drouhin would be Robert and Francoise’s four children — Philippe, Veronique, Laurent and Frederic — each of whom occupies a key position in the company.
Philippe, the oldest, is responsible for the vineyards. Drouhin the negociant is also Drouhin the domaine, for its vineyard holdings in the Cote d’Or, Chablis and the Cote Chalonaise now total nearly 200 acres. Shortly after Philippe assumed control of the vineyards he pushed them into organic agriculture, and he’s now closely scrutinizing the possibility of taking them bio-dynamic.
Veronique is the winemaker in the family, overseeing production at Domaine Drouhin Oregon as well as participating in tasting trials and selection at Drouhin in Burgundy.
Laurent Drouhin is the export manager and lives in the United States, Drouhin’s most important market outside of France. And Frederic Drouhin, the youngest of the four children, became CEO upon Robert’s retirement. Frederic received an MBA in marketing from the University of Hartford in Connecticut in 1991.
I have now had a chance to visit the entire next generation and observed their professionalism and dedication, as well as their warmth and generosity of spirit. Perhaps it is my imagination, but it seems to me that the internal balance of the family is reflected in the wines of Drouhin, from its least expensive Bourgognes to its finest and rarest grands cru.
In a world where wood chips have replaced barrels to impart the aromas of oak, where the individual nuances of entire vineyards are lost in gigantic blending tanks, where winemakers change wineries the way the rest of us change socks, where great wine names have been sold to the highest bidder, it is reassuring to know that in some corners of the wine globe there continues to be a real person with a familial interest behind the name on the bottle, and that they are protecting that name with every breath of air they take.
What’s in a name? Too often nothing. Sometimes, everything.
Photos top to bottom: 1. The historic old press has been preserved. 2. A domaine marker at Burgundy’s oldest named vineyard, Chambertin Clos de Beze. 3. Philippe Drouhin explaining the terroir of a Drouhin vineyard in Chablis. 4. The cellars at Maison Drouhin.
Photos by Robert Whitley
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