CLAIRE NAUDIN

It’s been nearly thirty years since Claire Naudin returned to her family estate with degrees in oenology and agronomy. Her father planned on dissolving their holdings, but fortunately, Claire was able to convince him otherwise.

She comes from a long lineage of grape growers, the first from Nantoux in the 1500s, working as labourers in the vineyards. In 1850, without an heir, her ancestor gifted the family land to the town of Magny-les-Villers. In the 1920s, Claire’s Grandfather Henri, at the insistence of his industrious wife (also Claire), purchased back some of the vineyards they had given up decades ago, although rumour has it, she would have preferred Corton. At this point, the estate was still a polyculture, raising pigs and selling berries, yet their wine was good enough to be sold to the burgeoning middle class as far away as the Loire.

They had two children interested in wine, Jeanne, who worked in the vineyard her entire life, and Henri Jr., who dropped out of school early to work with his father running the estate. He was able to purchase several plots of his own, both planted and unplanted. In 1964 Henri Jr. and Liliane Ferrand were married, creating the modern estate and releasing their domaine’s first wines. They expanded into the Hautes-Cotes, returning to their ancestral home, clearing rocks and scrub, and planting the site that would eventually yield Orchis Mascula in Bully. In the 1970s, Liliane oversaw their customers, handwriting notes to seventy clients with availability for the following year.

Claire rejoined in 1991, fully managing the estate from 1994. She purchased her parent’s remaining shares in 1999, married Jean-Yves Bizot (whom she has a negociant project with called BiNaume), and had three children of her own. At 22ha and 7-8 full-time employees (many of whom have been with her family for decades, including Manu, who is a thirty-year veteran), they’re a comfortable size.

The town of Magny-les-Villers, where the domaine is located, is the dividing line between the Cote de Nuits and Beaune, as well as the Cote d’Or and Hautes-Cotes. Her vineyards are seldom more than a few hundred meters from the winery, yet they perfectly illustrate what can feel like nebulous divisions based more on bureaucracy than terroir. The subtle climatic and geological differences between these quadrants can be easily felt in her transparent wines.

Claire has very publicly shared her views on organic farming as the effects of climate change worsen. She’s admitted to feeling exhausted and sympathizing with those who want to give in to Big Ag's pressures and quick fixes, but she remains resilient and committed. We love her vulnerability and steadfastness in equal measure.

Her farming practices are pragmatic and well-considered. She employs both anecdotal and scientific methodologies, forming a truly personal viticultural philosophy. Despite her 30+ years of experience, Claire still attends classes and seminars. Last winter, she learned from Marceau Bourdarias, François Dal, and René Mora about the latest research on pruning and sap flow, some of which she’ll integrate into her philosophy.

The estate has been entirely organic since 2019, although the practices started much earlier. She’s always working to reduce inputs, especially copper and sulphur, which she’s largely replaced with algae, herbal teas, and essential oils, but she also accepts this means she’ll need to sort out more berries. In particular, she refuses to use powdered treatments because it is both an air pollutant and a hazard to her team’s health.  

Starting in the spring, they mow as close to bud break as possible. In her experience, high grass (wild oats and bromegrass) can disrupt growth and cause stress to the vine. They delay mowing as long as possible because the grass keeps the vineyard cool, postponing bud burst and potentially saving them from frost.

Another tactic she employs to prevent spring frost damage is two-stage pruning. The vine is cut down to a two-cane guyot in the winter once the sap has flowed down to the roots. Right before the vine starts weeping in spring, they prune down to a two-bud spur and a baguette with 4-8 buds, depending on the vineyard. Since the lateral bud sends out the hormone for budburst, this can delay things by a few days, which can make all the difference. Getting the timing right is a constant battle because if you delay too long, you can stress the vine and use up valuable energy. 

Similarly, she is moving towards higher training styles for three reasons. Frost tends to sink, settling just above the ground in a thin layer. By training the buds above this cold zone, they can limit crop loss. This is also a deterrent against mildew, both because it increases airflow under the vines and limits the amount of splash-back from the ground onto the leaves during rain. Finally, the grapes are much easier to pick, saving pickers from strained backs.

Claire removes moss from the vines by hand. It creates an ecosystem for ants which can suck sap and transmit viruses. The area under the moss can also send out aerial roots, confusing the dark and humidity for soil. It can be easily dissuaded with copper, but their goal is to reduce their usage to zero.

Green grasshoppers (tettigonia veridissima) in her vineyard fight off noctuid moths and boarmies. The same organic pesticide treatment that kills leafhoppers also kills these grasshoppers and bees, so she avoids it despite its approval and widespread use in certified vineyards.

Back in the late 1970s, vines in Burgundy were occasionally planted on a rootstock called SO4. It was ideal for wet soils, but as the region dried out with climate change, Claire is looking for solutions. SO4 also has issues with magnesium uptake, so despite sufficient quantities in the soil, it needs foliar application.

2023 was the first time in 24 years that Claire did a green harvest. Clusters were oddly large (200g), and ripening was uneven and late. She waited until veraison so she could select only clusters whose colour hadn’t changed and ensured against early season hail. It’s frustrating to squander all the energy the vines put into producing those grapes, but when the goal is quality, pragmatism wins.

Her friend’s sheep will often mow the vineyard in the winter. Mechanical tillage is only done at a depth of 5-10 cm to prevent erosion.

Claire embraces new technologies and is constantly willing to experiment. She’s participating in a study that uses UV C to promote the synthesis of salicylic acid, a vital component of a vine’s immune response, which could improve resistance to oidium, frost, and even hydric stress. She is also rigging her tractor with Bliss, a technology that captures and recycles sprays which can reduce usage by 90%.

She’s toyed with the idea of Viti-Voltaic, a budding methodology that uses solar panels to provide shade, protection from hail, collect water for irrigating young vines, and clean electricity for the winery. Whether it adheres to the principals of terroir is still up for debate, but her concern for sustainability reaches far beyond aesthetics.

Her tiny plot in Echézeaux was acquired almost by chance. A friend of hers had some money to buy a vineyard as an investment so asked her if she knew of any that might be worthy. She discovered a few rows in Echézeaux that would do the trick. Before letting him know, she found out that the bank would be willing to loan her the money if she wanted to purchase them for herself. Despite the huge economic undertaking she decided it would be worth the strain. She essentially gave up years of salary knowing it would eventually be an economic safety net for her family.

It is farmed with her highest level of diligence. House sparrows nest amongst the vines while wild strawberries cover the ground. Instead of hedging she ties the shoots together into arches, preferring the extra work to making unnecessary cuts. She removes the shoulders or wings of each cluster by hand so the vine can focus exclusively on ripening the reduced crop and she can ensure evenness. Luckily this plot has dodged hail the last few vintages.

Despite Claire’s best efforts, Les Damodes, her premier cru in Nuits-St-Georges, needed an overhaul. Before she acquired the vineyard fifteen years ago, chemical farming depleted the soils, the bare earth eroding, devoid of life. The elderly vines she replaced struggled to take thanks to competition and minimal organic matter. The old site also needed upgrades for tractor access; up until now, all labour was manual. At 8-10hL/ha, it was unfeasible. This epic site now sits under a layer of cover crops designed to fix nitrogen, alleviate compaction, and increase hummus. Melliferous plants also encourage pollinators, strengthening the ecosystem as a whole. Similar efforts have been made by Claire and her team in the Haute Cotes.

Claire has become famous for her advocacy for Burgundy’s unsung hero, Aligoté. Not only is her cuvée Clou 34 celebrated by pundits and collectors alike, the Association Technique Viticole de Bourgogne has gone through Claire’s Aligoté vines, hunting for worthy candidates for propagation. The old vines yield uniquely delicious wines so they’re monitoring for markers like bunch size, berry spacing, resistance to vineyard blights, and vigour before taking cuttings. Perhaps Claire’s stewardship of these ancient genetically diverse plots will help welcome a new golden age for the variety. She also thinks that some of these biotypes could be more resistant to climate change.

In those early years, Claire was just as impressionable as the rest of us, testing microoxygenation and reverse osmosis machines on her wines. Fortunately, she has moved towards a minimalist cellar philosophy that aligns with our own.

Her team and a few locals hand-pick the grapes early in the morning. She believes that fermentation without SO2 requires sorting berry by berry, preventing any sour rot from kick-starting volatile acidity production. Dry ice is also typically added at this point, forming a protective layer of CO2 over the grapes and delaying fermentation.

Everything is fermented with indigenous yeast. No enzymes, acids, or tannins are used, but in rare vintages, she may chaptalize.

She rightfully points out that whole cluster fermentation tends to yield slightly lower alcohol levels in red wine thanks to absorption by the stems and less efficient conversion of sugar to ethanol. The stems also absorb the pigment, but they’re willing to make this sacrifice (her wines rarely lack colour). 

In 2023, Claire got two new large-format cuves from Tonnellerie Rousseau, one for Les Damodes and one for Les Corvées. Most of their red wine fermentations are carried out in new open-top concrete tanks. Her use of new wood is controversial in some circles, ranging from minimal to notable, especially in her top cuvées. It’s typically 15-30%, but it can be higher.

Ageing is always on the lees for texture and complexity. She doesn’t rack after malolactic conversion, claiming the introduction of oxygen at that point can be deleterious. She uses compressed air to get the wine out of barrel because it is more gentle; it is also much slower but worth the effort.

The reds are never fined or filtered, but the whites will occasionally undergo a gentle pass through Kieselguhr. Everything is bottled by gravity under top-quality corks from Spain.

Everything is intentional, including the custom Al-Terre spittoons in their cave and the art that adorns their walls (like Raphael Mallon who creates a new painting for their aligoté label every year). They work closely with France’s finest artisans like France Haliotis (seaweeds and abalone) and Les Salaisons du Morvan (charcuterie).

It’s impossible to overstate how much I admire Claire. She is calm, kind, thoughtful, contemplative, quietly confident, sharp witted, quick acting, observant, modest, and everything else I wish to be. Her attention to detail and unwillingness to release anything less than her best are commendable and virtually unrivaled. I’m constantly infuriated by my inability to capture their classic beauty in words. They are celebrations of life; they are open ended questions; they are nourishing and nostalgic and melancholic and jubilant all at once. I hope you will have the opportunity to experience them. Merci Claire.