«We always kept one eye on returning to Burgundy,» said Laurent. The puzzle started to come together when at a lunch with Jean-Claude Boisset he asked the question, and Boisset replied that in fact he had already been thinking that the name should return to him. He also meanwhile bought back their original property, Château de Charmont, in the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits, and began renovations to the highest standard. «I bought the right to use my family name again. The original vineyards, however, were not for sale.»
« My family always kept very good relationships in Burgundy,», explained Laurent, acknowledging that his siblings’ connections, along with the small distribution company he started in Burgundy in 2003, DVP allowed him to source grapes from more than 150 different growers. He assembled a star team, led by cellar master, Christophe Briotet, who was previously chief winemaker at Domaine du Lycée Viticole de Beaune, with experience making wine in Chile and Turkey. They create around 25 different wines from purchased grapes, but the termss allow them to take responsibility from harvest. «We set the harvest date and pick the grapes ourselves, » said Laurent. «We work in a very precise way. It’s very important to be aware of our strenghts and weaknesses. Even preparation to bottling and bottling- we can make important improvements with attention to details.» Edouard Delaunay produced 60,000 bottles in 2017, 75 percent of which were Pinot Noir. White grapes where more difficult to find, but Laurent plans to increase white production, and doube his overall volume in his second vintage, while continuing to improve quality.
