C


hristmas Eve 2024, 8:25am. After three murky days when the cloud sat heavy on the Côte d’Or, obscuring vineyard and village alike, a dazzling sun brightened the slope, making it easy to find Domaine Pierre Vincent on the outskirts of


Auxey-Duresses. Leaving Meursault behind, it is a sharp left off the D973 just before the village, down a rutted track that is subject to waterlogging no matter the season. It’s an unprepossessing approach—all the attraction here is in the wines. But first, some context.


Rolling the clock back 20 years, I first met Pierre Vincent


on October 12, 2004, early in his career, when he was working at Maison Jaffelin in Beaune, part of the Boisset group. As a schoolboy, he had harbored no winemaking ambitions, though he had an interest in agriculture, given that his father


bred Charolais cattle in the Saône-et-Loire département: “I was fascinated by nature—the technique and the analytical side of what my father did—though I did not want to join him in his profession.” After school, he studied viticulture and enology in Dijon, and following briefs spells at Antonin Guyon in Savigny-lès-Beaune and Jaffelin, he succeeded Pascal Marchand at Domaine de la Vougeraie in 2006. At the time, and notwithstanding Marchand’s good work, Vougeraie had yet to establish a solid name for itself; I still remember mentioning Vougeraie wines only to be asked if I meant Vougeot, even by Burgundians. The domaine was founded by siblings Jean-Charles and


Nathalie Boisset in 1999 and laid claim to a magnificent roster of vineyard holdings. Working with these over the decade he was in charge, Vincent solidified both his name and the domaine’s reputation. Without making radical changes, he steered the Vougeraie style toward greater finesse, with less immediate impact on the palate, and his assured methods soon gained widespread approbation. Thus, after the early, unexpected death of Anne-Claude Leflaive, châtelaine at Domaine Leflaive in Puligny-Montrachet, her successor, Brice de la Morandière, recruited Vincent to take over management duties in Puligny. In some respects, Domaine Leflaive is the Côte de Beaune’s white-wine equivalent of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in the Côte de Nuits, and it would be difficult to overstate its exalted status at the turn of the century. Renowned around the world for wines of peerless beauty, its reputation surged under the guidance of Anne-Claude Leflaive, particularly after she converted the domaine to biodynamics. Yet that reputation took a severe battering in the early years of this century, for despite her biodynamic practices—and notwithstanding the wines’ magnificence in youth—far too many bottles were corrupted by premature oxidation, a malaise that Leflaive showed little inclination to address. There was much to be done when Vincent joined in 2017, and there was a degree of urgency, too, if the slide in the domaine’s name was to be arrested and reversed. For consumers, the most obvious change was the switch to Diam closures, but many adjustments to winemaking practices were also being applied in the background. Together, de la Morandière and Vincent steadied the ship, and it seemed reasonable to suppose that Vincent would work out his days to retirement in Puligny; he had reached the top of the employment tree.


A white range bookended by brilliance This was, of course, to reckon without his desire to make wine in his own name—surely augmented by a hankering to make red wine again. To this line of inquiry, Vincent responds with a smile and a gesture. His opportunity came about thanks to investors Hervé Kratiroff and Eric Versini, and together they acquired Domaine des Terres de Velle in July 2023. Thereafter, and until the end of 2024, Vincent lived a double life, spending mornings at his newly minted eponymous domaine and afternoons at Domaine Leflaive. The 7ha (17-acre) domaine, though not large, encompasses an impressive roster of vineyard holdings, divided roughly into


Opposite: A happy Pierre Vincent at the door of his new winery, formerly Domaine des Terres de Velle, acquired with the help of confident partners.


THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 87 | 2025 | 155


All photography by Jon Wyand


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200  |  Page 201  |  Page 202  |  Page 203  |  Page 204  |  Page 205  |  Page 206  |  Page 207  |  Page 208  |  Page 209  |  Page 210  |  Page 211  |  Page 212  |  Page 213  |  Page 214  |  Page 215  |  Page 216  |  Page 217  |  Page 218  |  Page 219  |  Page 220