Domaine Alain Gras
[The finest name in Saint-Romain — Burgundy at its most mineral and elegant]
Born into a family of Burgundian growers, Alain Gras established his base in 1979 at Saint-Romain, a village perched on a beautiful hillside between Meursault and Pommard.
Sheltered from the wind by the cliffs above them, the vineyards of Saint-Romain amount to just under fifteen hectares of limestone soil — ground ideally suited to making great wine.
The domaine produces both white and red, and its Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Meursault and Auxey-Duresses speak just as clearly of their terroir.
Alain is the fifth generation to carry forward a domaine that has become a benchmark for great white Burgundy.
Unconvinced by his father's practice of selling wine in barrel to the négociants, he struck out on his own at nineteen with a single conviction — that he wanted to make his own wine — and founded Domaine Alain Gras.
Having built the domaine's reputation, Alain has now passed it to his son Arthur, who works with the same respect for terroir, vinifying and ageing by traditional methods with one thought always in mind: to make wine that is delicious and finely made, as rewarding today as it will be after a few years in the cellar.
The estate farms by lutte raisonnée, green-harvests in summer to leave only the best bunches, and picks entirely by hand. The wines of Saint-Romain express the distinctive minerality that marks out the great wines of the Côte de Beaune, and they benefit from an exceptional situation.
That minerality and freshness in Alain Gras's wines are the signature of the terroir itself.
Both the whites and the reds carry it through in their minerality, freshness and elegance — wines of real deliciousness that are a pleasure to drink.
Twenty-one of France's twenty-seven three-star Michelin restaurants list them, and they are poured in fine dining rooms across the country.
This is the leading domaine of Saint-Romain, beloved of sommeliers and critics alike.