Alain and Julien Vignot

Côte Saint-Jacques appellation is closely linked to the Vignot family. With 10 hectares exploited by Alain Vignot and now by Julien Vinot on the 13 hectares – 30 benefiting from the appellation –, we could almost talk about identification. Moreover, the Vignot estate is the only producer of white Burgundy Côte Saint-Jacques.

But Alain’s humility and his son’s, Julien, lead them to place the vineyard and the land at the heart of their story. For it is indeed evoking the vine, its secrets, the care it requires daily that makes Julien’s eyes shine. It is by talking about his work with his interlocutors that the young winemaker modestly reveals himself.

A line of winemakers

The eight hours a day spent in the vineyard, in which he has been walking since childhood, allow him to know the particularity of each foot and the taste characteristics of each cluster. This rigor to which Julien has been subjected since he took over the domain is the pride of Alain Vignot. The line of winemakers that has begun in 1639 by Toussaint Vignot still has beautiful pages to write.

However, the success of Domaine Vignot and the very survival of the Côte Saint Jacques vineyard were not easy. It took selflessness and perseverance to revive the Joigny vineyard, which had almost disappeared after the Second World War. With the war, the ravages of phylloxera and competition from other wine-growing regions the railway had brought Paris closer, the coasts overlooking Joigny became covered with wastelands.

A few hectares here and there survived. It took all the determination of Fernand Vignot and his son Jacques to revive the vineyard. New plots expanded the vineyard. In 1975, obtaining the appellation contrôlée «Bourgogne» with the authorization to add the denomination Côte Saint-Jacques consecrated years of hard work under Yonne sky.

Red, white and grey wines

When Alain Vignot took over the vineyard, he extended the estate which now covers 12 hectares. To the Pinot gris which was grown exclusively since the phylloxera disaster, he successively added Pinot noir and Chardonnay.

The relentless quest for quality led Alain Vignot to modernize his winery, to chose to plough the trellis of the vines in order to improve the richness of the soil and thus bringing the minerals essential to the quality of the grapes. Throughout his years of work, Alain Vignot has had only one goal: to please his visitors and wine lovers by producing exceptional wines.

It is this concern to do well, with respect for the traditions that Alain passed on to his son Julien. And when one observes the proud gaze that he gently lays on his son, no doubt that Julien Vignot, since he took over the estate, does honour to the line of Yonne winemakers who have forged the identity of the family over the centuries.

Heir to a name, a know-how and a terroir, Julien is everything to his vineyard. This is his garden. He expresses his talent, his art, in the open air, for the greatest satisfaction of our taste buds.