Philippe Pacalet was born to a wine producer’s family. He studied and majored in organic viticulture and in natural wine-making. He is a graduate in oenology specialising in natural yeasts and collaborated with Jules Chauvet in his research on the ecology of indigenous yeasts of various terroirs. (His other mentor is Marcel Lapierre). In 2001 he became a negociant-vigneron in Gevrey-Chambertin. In the face of astronomic real estate prices for vineyards in Burgundy, he simply jettisoned the notion of ownership when he started his activity several years ago and decided to rely exclusively on rented vineyard to make his wines, thus having also more choice to choose among what he considered the best suited terroirs and vineyard in the Cote de Beaune and Cote de Nuits for the type of wines he wanted to make. His wines were soon remarked for their aromatic purity, proving that there were other ways than inheritance or considerable wealth to be successful independent wine-maker in Burgundy.

The selection of parcels was originally guided by several criteria: the use of Pinot Fin (a qualitative plant giving small yields), average age of each parcel of 45 years, orientation, exposition and quality of viticultural work. Today Philippe Pacalet works seven hectares of rented vineyards, where organic work is done and focuses on making “terroir” wines, which means that all wines should be representative of their individual location and retain their own unique flavour signature. Thus the wine-making follows a non-interventionist code as in is conducted without sulphites, using the stems of the grapes, with natural yeasts during fermentation (which takes place in wooden vat for three to four weeks) and finally matured in (mainly used) barrels on the lees without racking. Pacalet says he makes wine like his grandfather did, but with “more consciousness”. As far as he is concerned he is a scientist and an artist, respecting nature by trying to understand its consciousness, identifying how best to liberate raw materials that great terroir confers.

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