CASTLES can be found everywhere in Bordeaux. A few can also be found in Burgundy. But it’s not the castles that have made the region’s reputation, which is more based on its terroirs, its winemakers and its wine-trading houses. In fact, in Burgundy, there’s almost a tendency to look down on them. And yet, they do make wine there, and not any less good than elsewhere. Perhaps even better? This is undoubtedly the ambition of Stéphane Follin-Arbelet, who welcomed us in mid-July. A sprightly, slender man in his sixties who doesn’t look his age, he makes no mention of the skiing accident that injured his shoulder. He greets us at a brisk pace. Time never stands still at the Château de Meursault, where construction projects follow one another without interruption. The company that manages the estate was taken over in 2012 by Olivier Halley, a man from Normandy. His family has always been in the distribution business, particularly wine, starting in the Cotentin region. The Pro-modès company continued to grow and merged with Carrefour in 1999. The Halley family were the largest shareholder. In 2008, Olivier Halley decided to pursue a different path. A meeting with the former owners, the Boisseaux family, who founded the Patriarche wine group, led him to come full circle and return to the wine business by jointly purchasing Château de Marsannay and the Château de Meursault company, 94 hectares at the time of the sale, now 112.

“It is by increasing the organic matter in the soil that we develop its robustness and resilience. It’s a race against time for the natural system to strengthen itself faster than climate change and its risks. It’s the opposite of focusing on performance. We are looking for balance.” A magnificent vineyard estate throughout the Côte-d’Or, but one that required significant investment.

MAJOR RENOVATIONS
To oversee this acquisition, Olivier Halley hired Stéphane Follin-Arbelet, from a family of winemakers in Aloxe-Corton. A determined student, Follin-Arbelet holds degrees in agronomy, molecular biology, and international business. “I didn’t really want to work. So I studied a lot,” he says, with a false air of modesty. He started with a few years in the food industry in Paris before quickly returning to what he truly loves: vines and wine. He then spent more than fifteen years at Bouchard Père et Fils, under the direction of the Henriot family. First in sales, then as general manager. A valuable experience in growth and development. He briefly worked for Jean Loron in Beaujolais before the opportunity arose to manage Château de Marsannay, Château de Meursault, and the Marché aux Vins, a wine sales and tourism venue located in Beaune, in the former Cordeliers monastery, right in front of the Hospices. A magnificent setting and an owner who gives him the resources he needs.

At the beginning, he had to focus on the essentials. Everything had to be redone. The cellar master, Emmanuel Escutenaire, already present, got stuck in with him. The priority was to improve the harvest season and especially the barrel yard, which produced woody notes that were not always well controlled. There were now three coopers. The barrels were adjusted as best as possible according to the plot and were not kept for more than four years to avoid the vagaries of old wood. For the vines, he called on consultant François Dal so that all employees were properly trained in Poussard pruning. In 2016, the first organic viticulture trials took place. The conversion was confirmed in 2019 and the first organic-certified vintage was 2022. A source of satisfaction for Stéphane Follin-Arbelet, who does not intend to stop there. What has been a lot of the newspapers lately is the work on the building. The château, which had remained the property of the Bois-seaux family, had not been in any real use since 1945. Following the purchase of the building in 2018, major works were undertaken between 2020 and 2022. A colossal renovation, to restore its former glory, with the removal of intermediate floors and the recreation of a large central staircase. Now functional, the Château de Meursault can receive its guests in a tasting room and host receptions and seminars as part of cenotourism activities. In 2024, work began on the old vat. Since 1979, it had only been used for festivities, in particular the famous Meursault paulée. It was decided to renovate it at great expense, with a new boat frame whose surface area represents twenty percent of that of Notre Dame, our host tells us. Eventually, it is planned that the Paulée will return to the premises, but a small adjoining vat room will allow the production of the Premiers and Grands Crus while the current vat room, which dates from the 1980s and is in need of a facelift, is updated.

THE ROBUSTNESS OF THE SYSTEM

Of course, if this accumulation of construction sites tires Stéphane Follin-Arbelet, the crux of the matter is not there. The crux of the matter is the vines, those that produce the grapes that are the only guarantors of quality. If they must not be damaged by processing, it is their intrinsic quality that makes the wine vibrant rather than just good. Our interlocutor becomes animated. He has a green thumb. He has replanted part of the land of his own house to make his garden wine, in the Corton appellation. Father of seven children, including six sons, two who are doctors and four who work in the environment, he is keen to close the parenthesis of synthetic viticulture. Even a beautiful horizontal of eight crus from the 2022 vintage allows us to see the progression of the estate’s wines. Each climat has gained in precision, in delicacy. Some plots have also been isolated, to conform to the spirit of the climats of Burgundy, classified UNESCO since 2015, and because this is what the clientele of great Burgundies demands. If he only reveals himself sparingly, he is quite blunt when we talk about the environment. Insecticides and pesticides are like chemotherapy. What is needed is to increase the robustness of the system. It is by increasing organic matter in the soil that we develop the robustness of the soil and its capacity for resilience. It’s a race against time to ensure the natural system strengthens itself faster than global warming and its hazards. It’s the opposite of performance. We’re looking for balance. To find it, he joined forces with Fabrice Des Jours, who developed the concept of the gourmet forest, inspired by what he saw in the forest gardens he explored around the world. The idea is simple on paper: it involves increasing the number of edible plants planted, or those that produce edibles (fruits, berries) in order to create an organic mutualization with the vines. The plot adjacent to the château is crossed by a small river, Les Clous. Along it, 300 different types of plants have been planted to bring biodiversity and ensure that all these species communicate with each other, particularly in the soil, to nourish and irrigate it. The living world is more interesting than the world of the Internet, says Follin-Arbelet. It doesn’t just mean that he doesn’t spend his days with his nose in his smartphone, but also that the information routes of the living, the invisible ones that the roots create between themselves in the soil, are more complex, richer, more multiple than those of the servers and routers of the World Wide Web. He is almost hopping when he takes us to see the property’s enclosure, an expanse of vines that produces an excellent white Burgundy located below the château. There, tree planting has begun: peach trees, almond trees, so many new friends for the vine that will retain water, serve as nesting boxes for birds (which eliminate insects), provide shade, but also communicate with the vines, which will feel less alone. Time flies. We barely have time to mention geothermal energy, namely 26 wells that plunge 110 meters underground and allow the buildings to be cooled when it’s too hot and heated when it’s too cold. We almost get into a conversation about the Duplomb law, which he doesn’t comment on, even though we sense he doesn’t like it. But we must quickly taste a few wines. A beautiful horizontal tasting of eight crus from the 2022 vintage allows us to see the progression of the estate’s wines. Each climat has gained in precision and delicacy. Some plots have even been isolated, to conform to the spirit of the climats of Burgundy, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2015, and because this is what the clientele of great Burgundies demands. Such is the case with the Meursault Les Dressoles, from a century-old vine used to make massal selections. Or the Meursault Premier Cru Les Charmes-Dessus, distinct from the Charmes cuvée, made with the vines below. It’s a secret among connoisseurs that the upper part of this premier cru is superior to the lower part. The wine is excellent, with a beautiful density of dry extracts and plenty of depth. Stéphane Follin-Arbelet is keen to defend his Meursault Premier Cru Perrières, widely considered the equivalent of a grand cru in Meursault. He quotes his friend Michel Bettane, whom he enjoys inviting every year to the Paulée. Michel talks about ascensional tasting. That’s what makes the difference. Understanding that these are wines that don’t look like much at first glance, but whose power and length rise in the mouth, discreetly but surely. Inexorably. Exactly what the Château de Meursault is doing. who anticipates the coming decades so that his wines will rise again and again.