Celebrating Women Wine Producers

This is a charming, 7 hectares Cote de Brouilly Domaine owned and run by Nicole Chanrion, who is a star grower. Nicole studied viticulture in Beaune at a time when there were not many women doing so. She is delighted that there are more female winemakers nowadays. The Domaine was started by her grandfather but she can trace her family roots in viticulture back to the 1840s.

Together with her son Romain, they produce delicious, pure Cote de Brouilly. Their vines are east facing, some slightly south facing. The alluvial soils here are very diverse and the roches bleues gives a mineral, pepper spice note to the wine.

Each parcel is vinified separately. Nicole looks to produce a balanced and stable wine in the most natural sense possible.

She explains “Wine is living. It is complex. We must respect it.” Very little sulphur is used – just after malo – but only for the sake of conserving the wine.

Their philosophy of working is ‘Terra Vitis’, as Nicole says: “preserving our nature is a passage” through to the next generations.

At the same time, Nicole is not afraid of scientific advancements, she describes wine as being like a human, when a human being sincerely needs medicine, we should use it and we should apply this thinking to wine production similarly – but only when absolutely necessary!