Maison Jaffelin

What you will see

Visits take you down into the vaulted cellars of the old chapter, a few steps from the Collégiale, where the wines are made and aged. You see the traditional equipment, including the vertical press and the oval wooden vats, then taste a selection of the house's wines. It is a rare chance to see inside cellars that once belonged to the medieval canons. Much of the work relies on gravity. At harvest the grapes arrive in small crates, are sorted on two tables in turn and go into the wooden vats by gravity rather than by pump. The reds ferment in the oval wooden vats, which keep the temperature steady, and the whites in stainless steel. The vertical press holds only 5 hectolitres, a size chosen for small cuvées: it presses slowly, in a single pass, and the skins and pips act as a natural filter, which gives clear juice without bitterness. The new wines then run down into the Caves du Chapitre beneath the winery to age for 10 to 18 months in French oak barrels, in cellars where temperature and humidity regulate themselves. The winery was entirely restored in 2004. The wines are made by the oenologist Marinette Garnier, who gained her experience at houses such as the Domaine des Comtes Lafon and Méo-Camuzet, and who says what she loves most is the bustle of winemaking and the calm of the historic cellars while the wines age.

History

Jaffelin was founded in Beaune in 1816. It works in the Caves du Chapitre on the rue Paradis, the cellars that once belonged to the canons of the Collégiale Notre-Dame. The building known as the Cave du Chapitre dates mainly from the 13th century and has been a listed historic monument since 1971. Jaffelin keeps traditional tools such as a vertical press and oval wooden vats.