Bouchard Père et Fils

The house did not begin in wine. Michel Bouchard founded it in Beaune in 1731 as a cloth business, and it was his son Joseph who in 1746 began selling wine and, above all, buying vineyards. The first purchase came in 1775 and it was no ordinary one: Volnay Les Caillerets.

The other landmark is from 1820, when Bernard Bouchard bought the Château de Beaune, a former royal fortress built in the fifteenth century on the orders of Louis XI. The house's cellars are still there: a military building turned into a winery.

Almost three centuries of buying parcel by parcel have left an uncommon holding: some one hundred and thirty hectares across four hundred and fifty plots, with twelve hectares of grand cru, seventy-four of premier cru and four monopoles. It is one of the largest vineyard owners in the Côte d'Or.

In 1995 the family sold the house to Joseph Henriot, who brought it into a group alongside Champagne Henriot and the Chablis house William Fèvre.