Henri Bourgeois (Famille Bourgeois)

The Bourgeois family has cultivated the vine in Chavignol, a village in the Sancerre appellation of the Loire Valley, since 1696. For many generations the family worked a smallholding given over to mixed farming, with a few hectares of vines among it. The domaine takes its name from Etienne Henri Bourgeois (d. 1985), who took control in the mid-20th century and steered the family towards pure and active viticulture. Starting with two hectares on the hills of Chavignol, he chose in the 1950s to devote himself to his vines. His sons, Jean-Marie and the late Rémi Bourgeois, joined him in the 1960s; they discovered new terroirs and acquired land. In Chavignol the family also runs a tasting room open year-round, a hotel and a restaurant, La Côte des Monts Damnés.

• Bourgeois family vines in Chavignol since 1696
• Etienne Henri Bourgeois (d. 1985) moved the family from mixed farming to viticulture
• Jean-Marie and Rémi Bourgeois joined their father in the 1960s
• Hotel, restaurant and year-round tasting room in Chavignol

The estate has been passed down through ten generations of the family. Today the current generation is Arnaud, Lionel and Jean-Christophe Bourgeois. As of 2020, Jean-Christophe Bourgeois worked principally in the cellars, Lionel Bourgeois tended the vineyards and Arnaud Bourgeois looked after clients; that shared involvement led the family to introduce the name Famille Bourgeois for some cuvées. As of October 2026, Damien Yvon is General Manager, Winemaker and Vineyard Manager at Clos Henri, and Selin Civanby is its Assistant Winemaker.

• Ten generations of the Bourgeois family
• Jean-Christophe Bourgeois: cellars (as of 2020)
• Lionel Bourgeois: vineyards (as of 2020)
• Arnaud Bourgeois: clients (as of 2020)
• Damien Yvon: General Manager, Winemaker and Vineyard Manager, Clos Henri (as of October 2026)

As of 2024 the family directed 74 hectares of vineyards, scattered across 120 parcels and planted entirely to Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, with Sauvignon Blanc dominant. Most lie in Sancerre, chiefly in Chavignol, with other plots across the appellations of the Central Vineyards. The business is part domaine, part négociant: the family's own vines around Chavignol supply about 60% of the fruit it needs, and the rest is bought from local growers. The vineyards rest on three main soil families. Kimmeridgian marl, the Terres Blanches, is calcareous clay from the Kimmeridgian period, approximately 150 million years old, and is the terroir of Chavignol and of La Côte des Monts Damnés. Limestone-clay, the Caillottes, is a very stony calcareous soil, primarily of Oxfordian origin, found between Chavignol and Sancerre. Flint, the Silex, is rarer and younger, dating from the Eocene approximately 56 million years ago, and is found along the Loire at the foot of Sancerre. Each plot is vinified separately.

• 74 hectares across 120 parcels (as of 2024)
• About 60% of the fruit comes from the family's own vines; the rest is bought from local growers
• Terres Blanches (Kimmeridgian marl), Caillottes (limestone-clay) and Silex (flint)
• Appellations: Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé, Menetou-Salon, Châteaumeillant, Quincy and IGP Loire

Domaine Henri Bourgeois is fully certified organic, a conversion formalized with the 2023 vintage. Practices include natural-origin fertilizers, spontaneous cover crops, soil tillage and precise canopy management. Picking is partly by hand, certainly for the top cuvées, with several passes where needed, while large areas for the lesser cuvées are picked by machine. Yields run broadly between 40 and 50 hl/ha, with the top cuvées towards the lower end of that range. Fruit is delivered to four-level cellars and sorted on a sorting table; the whites are then pressed and the reds destemmed. Winemaking follows a philosophy of minimal intervention, alongside grape pomace and lees valorization and specialized effluent treatment.

• Certified organic since the 2023 vintage
• Spontaneous cover crops and soil tillage
• Yields broadly 40 to 50 hl/ha
• Each plot vinified separately

In 2024 the range was overhauled: many of the less informative names gave way to terroir definitions, and the labels were redesigned. The three main streams are the Terroir, Legacy and Single Vineyard ranges. Grande Réserve, the Sancerre label in white, rosé and red, has carried the historical alternative names Les Baronnes and Les Bonnes Bouches. The cuvées are grouped by soil, and the Pinot Noir goes into the red and rosé Sancerre.

• Caillottes: Sancerre Grande Réserve and the single-parcel Les Côtes aux Valets
• Terres Blanches: La Côte des Monts Damnés, Jadis and the single-vineyard Le Cotelin
• Silex: ES-56, d'Antan and the single-plot Les Ruchons
• Pouilly-Fumé: En Travertin (limestone), JS-150 (Kimmeridgian marls) and La Demoiselle de Bourgeois
• Red Sancerre: Grande Réserve rouge, ES-56 rouge (La Bourgeoise) and the single-vineyard Le Graveron
• Also Menetou-Salon Sauvignon Blanc, and IGP Val de Loire wines under Esprit de Bourgeois and Petit Bourgeois

After a search that spanned 12 years, Jean-Marie and Rémi Bourgeois reached Marlborough in 2000 and settled in the Wairau Valley, where they found soils most similar to their native Sancerre. They purchased 98 hectares there and named the estate Clos Henri in honour of their father. The estate sits on three soil types, the Otira Glacial Stones and two Waimaunga clays, Broadbridge Clay and Wither Clay, and the Wairau fault runs through its centre. Clos Henri has been fully certified organic since the 2013 harvest, is BioGro certified, belongs to MANA (Marlborough Natural Winegrowers) and follows biodynamic practices. The vineyard is planted at high density with controlled yields; Burgundian (Dijon) clones were planted for Pinot Noir, and the Pinot Noir's debut vintage was 2003. The current range includes Estate and Waimaunga Sauvignon Blanc, Estate and Waimaunga Pinot Noir, Otira, Stones, Patience and the Solange Blanc de Noirs.

• Marlborough reached in 2000 after a 12-year search
• 98 hectares purchased in the Wairau Valley
• Certified organic since the 2013 harvest; biodynamic practices
• Pinot Noir debut vintage: 2003

Arnaud Bourgeois has set out the aim in his own words: 'We are looking for elegance, for finesse. If you have a wine that had intense aromatics, that would cover the minerality. We press directly to have a terroir expression.' On cellaring, he says many wines from Sancerre can last 'perhaps eight, twelve or twenty years, like a ‘Burgundy Villages’ wine.' The estate describes its Caillottes wines as fresh, round and citrusy, its Terres Blanches wines as taut, mineral, saline and structured, and its Silex wines as intense, with saline and iodine notes, a smoky character and a long finish.

• Arnaud Bourgeois: 'We are looking for elegance, for finesse.'
• Pressing direct, in Arnaud Bourgeois's words, 'to have a terroir expression'

Primary sources (producer's own sites): https://famillebourgeois-sancerre.com/en, https://famillebourgeois-sancerre.com/en/pages/famille-bourgeois, https://famillebourgeois-sancerre.com/en/pages/domaine-henri-bourgeois, https://famillebourgeois-sancerre.com/en/pages/nos-engagements, https://famillebourgeois-sancerre.com/en/pages/vins-de-sancerre, https://famillebourgeois-sancerre.com/en/pages/clos-henri, https://famillebourgeois-sancerre.com/en/blogs/news/les-3-terroirs-de-sancerre-silex-caillottes-terres-blanches, the estate's product pages for En Travertin, La Côte des Monts Damnés, Jadis, d'Antan, Grande Réserve blanc, JS-150 and ES-56 rouge (famillebourgeois-sancerre.com/en/products/), and the Clos Henri site: https://closhenri.com/pages/the-bourgeois-family, https://closhenri.com/pages/from-sancerre-to-marlborough, https://closhenri.com/pages/our-place, https://closhenri.com/pages/our-team, https://closhenri.com/pages/organics. Secondary sources: Jancis Robinson (15 March 2005), Decanter (Rebecca Gibb MW, last updated 8 October 2019) and The Wine Doctor (Henri Bourgeois profile, last updated 4 August 2024, and Henri Bourgeois, 2020 Update). Last verified 2026-10-14. Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs.