Domaine Méo-Camuzet

The Méo family originates from the Burgundian village of Selongey, in the north of the Côte d'Or, and established itself in Vosne-Romanée through Jean Méo's mother, Marcelle Lamarche-Confuron, who came from an old Vosne winegrowing family. Jean Méo's grandmother was the first cousin of Étienne Camuzet (1867-1946), a winegrower in Vosne-Romanée who was mayor of the village and deputy of the Côte d'Or from 1902 to 1932, and who played a decisive role in getting the Chamber of Deputies to ratify the amendment enabling the creation of the Appellations d'Origine in 1919. In 1920 Camuzet bought the Château du Clos de Vougeot; of the upper 20 hectares of the Clos that were for sale, he kept 3 hectares at the foot of the château, and in November 1944 he handed the château over to the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin. In 1946 the estate passed to his daughter Maria Noirot-Camuzet (d. 1959), who kept the tenant farmers; having no children of her own, she bequeathed it to her nephew Jean Méo, then working in General de Gaulle's cabinet. Jean Méo, a mining engineer, pursued a Parisian career managing companies including ELF, France Soir, the Havas agency and the Institut Français du Pétrole, was elected to the European Assembly and sat on the Paris City Council. He managed the estate from 1959 to 1984, relying on four tenant farmers: Jean and Jacques Faurois, Jean Tardy and Henri Jayer. In 1981 Domaine Camuzet became Méo-Camuzet, and the first wines bottled under this name were those of the 1983 vintage.

• Étienne Camuzet (1867-1946): Vosne-Romanée winegrower, mayor of the village, deputy of the Côte d'Or from 1902 to 1932
• 1920: Camuzet buys the Château du Clos de Vougeot and keeps 3 hectares at the foot of the château; November 1944: he hands the château over to the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin
• 1946: Maria Noirot-Camuzet inherits the estate; 1959: she bequeaths it to her nephew Jean Méo
• 1981: Domaine Camuzet becomes Méo-Camuzet; 1983: first vintage bottled under the new name

Jean Méo and his wife Nicole had three children: Isabelle, Angeline and Jean-Nicolas. In 1984 Jean Méo asked his son, then 20 years old and a student at ESCP, to take over the running of the estate. Jean-Nicolas completed his studies in France, with a detour to the University of Burgundy to study oenology, spent a year studying at the University of Pennsylvania, and returned to Vosne-Romanée in 1989. His mentors were Henri Jayer, who was retiring and agreed to share his know-how and his art of winemaking, and Christian Faurois, son and nephew of historic tenant farmers on the estate, who taught him the vine. Since 2008 the tenant farmers have all retired, and Jean-Nicolas has cultivated all of the estate's vineyards. Christian Faurois retired in 2018, and Damien Hudelot, from Chambolle, has taken his place. As of the estate's site in October 2026, Jean-Nicolas's wife Nathalie supports the domaine in raising its profile beyond its wines, and of their three sons, Adrien, Tristan and Séverin, Tristan already has a few harvests behind him.

• Jean-Nicolas Méo: asked to take over in 1984; returned to Vosne-Romanée in 1989 after studies at ESCP, the University of Burgundy (oenology) and the University of Pennsylvania
• Mentors: Henri Jayer and Christian Faurois
• Team: Damien Hudelot has taken the place of Christian Faurois, who retired in 2018
• Since 2008: all tenant farmers retired; Jean-Nicolas cultivates all of the estate's vineyards

Henri Jayer was one of the four tenant farmers Jean Méo relied on, and the estate credits him as one of the first to vinify with systematic temperature control, emphasizing freshness and fruit. Cros Parantoux, a virtually uncultivated terroir that is well oriented towards the east but difficult to work, is the climat from which, in the estate's words, Jayer "succeeded in obtaining quintessential Vosne-Romanée". The Jayer family owns the largest part of Cros Parantoux; Méo-Camuzet works about three quarters of an acre of it, the domaine's smallest cuvée. Jean-Nicolas Méo told Decanter that Jayer conveyed his philosophical approach: "that wine should, above all, bring pleasure; that a good wine should have ample fruit, body and integrated tannins."

• Henri Jayer: one of four tenant farmers under Jean Méo; mentor to Jean-Nicolas Méo
• Cros Parantoux: sloping, stony, shallow soil and a cool situation; vines dating from the 1950s
• Méo-Camuzet works about three quarters of an acre of Cros Parantoux; the Jayer family owns the largest part

The domaine's Grands Crus are Richebourg, Clos de Vougeot, Échezeaux and three Cortons: Clos Rognet, Les Perrières and La Vigne au Saint. In Richebourg the estate holds about three quarters of an acre in Les Verroilles plus a tenth of an acre in Les Richebourg, just below Cros Parantoux, planted during the 1950s. The Clos de Vougeot plot, nearly 3 hectares (7.5 acres) in one piece at the top of the appellation at the foot of the château, has about one third of its vines planted in 1920 and another third planted in the 1960s. The Échezeaux plot of about 1 acre, in the lieu-dit Les Rouges du Bas, lies at the upper limit of the appellation, and its original planting dates from the end of the 1940s. Corton Clos Rognet, in the northern part of the appellation in Ladoix-Serrigny, is a walled plot of just over one acre planted in the 1920s; Corton Les Perrières is a plot of about one and a half acres just north of the village of Aloxe, planted in 1953-54; and Corton La Vigne au Saint, nearly half an acre planted in 1959-60, is one of the few red Cortons facing due south.

• Vosne-Romanée Premier Cru Au Cros Parantoux: about three quarters of an acre, vines dating from the 1950s
• Vosne-Romanée Premier Cru Aux Brûlées: at the foot of the slope just below Richebourg; most of the original planting dates from the 1930s
• Vosne-Romanée Premier Cru Les Chaumes: two plots totalling about 4 acres at the foot of La Tâche and Les Malconsorts, planted in the late 1950s and in the 1970s
• Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Aux Boudots: a plot of over two acres neighbouring Vosne Malconsorts, half planted in the early 1950s and half in the mid-1960s
• Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Aux Murgers: lying halfway between Vosne and Nuits-Saint-Georges, planted in two sessions between 1965 and 1972
• Vosne-Romanée village: two plots, Les Barreaux and Les Communes, totalling about three and a half acres
• Clos Saint-Philibert: a white wine from nearly 9 acres in Flagey-Échezeaux at an altitude of over 1,200 feet, planted at the beginning of the 1990s and classed as Hautes-Côtes de Nuits

The estate has no official certification, but its practices are those of organic viticulture: approved products only, ploughing of the soil, and precision vinegrowing that seeks to prevent diseases and keep yields under control, with a synthetic molecule used only as a last resort. The soil is ploughed five times a year, and the horse is being reintroduced in difficult places. The harvest is manual and takes place in mid-September; grapes travel in crates of 15 to 20 kg and are sorted on a table in the winery by a team of 6 to 12 people, who remove between 5 and 20% of the fruit depending on the vintage or the appellation. The grapes macerate at about 15°C for 3 to 5 days before the juice begins to ferment naturally, and fermentation temperatures are kept from going above 34-35°C. Pumping over is practised at the beginning and pigeage only towards the end of a fermentation cycle of two to three weeks in concrete vats, with very little sulphur and very little chaptalisation or acidification. Malolactic fermentation is not induced, and the proportion of new casks is adapted to the appellation. The wines are bottled after seventeen months in cask on average, by gravity and without any filtration; with the occasional exception, particularly for the whites, there is no fining.

• Organic practices without official certification; ploughing five times a year; the horse reintroduced in difficult places
• Hand harvest; sorting table team of 6 to 12 people; 5 to 20% of the fruit eliminated depending on vintage or appellation
• Cold maceration at about 15°C for 3 to 5 days; natural start to fermentation; concrete vats; pigeage only towards the end
• About seventeen months in cask on average; Richebourg regularly matured in new casks of oak from Tronçais and Bertranges; Vosne-Romanée village generally about 50% new oak
• Bottled by gravity without filtration; generally no fining

Because land in Burgundy is scarce and very expensive, Jean-Nicolas set up a négoce company in the early 2000s, named Méo-Camuzet frère et soeurs, with the same family shareholding as the domaine and a range oriented towards more accessible wines. The company buys grapes to ensure a unity of methods, and therefore style, with the estate's wines from the harvest onwards. Its wines include Marsannay, Fixin and Fixin Clos du Chapitre, Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny and the Chambolle-Musigny Premier Crus Les Cras and Les Feusselottes, Nuits-Saint-Georges and the Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Crus Aux Argillas and Les Perrières, and Bourgogne Rouge. In Oregon, Jay Boberg, an old friend Jean-Nicolas met during his year in the United States, supported his project to create a winery in the Willamette Valley; Jean-Nicolas has worked there since 2014 at Nicolas-Jay, a personal project supported by the domaine.

• Méo-Camuzet frère et soeurs: négoce set up in the early 2000s, buying grapes; same family shareholding as the domaine
• Négoce Premier Crus: Chambolle-Musigny Les Cras and Les Feusselottes, Fixin Clos du Chapitre, Nuits-Saint-Georges Aux Argillas and Les Perrières
• Nicolas-Jay: Willamette Valley winery, Oregon, with Jay Boberg; Jean-Nicolas involved since 2014

The estate gives its objective as wines that combine "structure and finesse, concentration and charm", achieved while respecting the personality of the terroir and the vintage, with winemaking characterised by minimum interference to encourage "the fineness, the expression of the fruit and the personality of each wine rather than just extraction." In an interview with Decanter, Jean-Nicolas Méo said: "As for my ideal style, I look for fruit and elegance rather than stalkiness and tannin." He added: "I don’t like wines that are over-concentrated, as you lose elegance. I want balance and finesse, which are essential components of a great wine."

Primary sources (producer's own site): https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/, https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/the-estate/histoire, https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/the-wines, https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/art-du-vin/la-demarche, https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/the-wines/1/richebourg, https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/the-wines/2/clos-de-vougeot, https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/the-wines/3/corton-clos-rognet, https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/the-wines/4/corton-les-perrieres, https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/the-wines/5/corton-la-vigne-au-saint, https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/the-wines/6/echezeaux, https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/the-wines/7/vosne-romanee-aux-brulees, https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/the-wines/8/vosne-romanee-au-cros-parantoux, https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/the-wines/9/vosne-romanee-les-chaumes, https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/the-wines/10/nuits-saint-georges-aux-boudots, https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/the-wines/11/nuits-saint-georges-aux-murgers, https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/the-wines/17/clos-saint-philibert, https://www.meo-camuzet.com/en/the-wines/18/vosne-romanee. Secondary sources: Decanter (Stephen Brook interview with Jean-Nicolas Méo, last updated 15 May 2020; Charles Curtis MW, Burgundy 2019 reviews, last updated 25 January 2023), the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) producer page, and Burgundy Report (Clos St-Philibert profile, July 2004). Last verified 2026-10-18. Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs.