Domaine Benjamin Roblot
Chambolle-Musigny
Domaine Benjamin Roblot is a relatively young but promising small domaine in Chambolle-Musigny. Trained as an engineer, Benjamin Roblot took over the family vineyards and started his own domaine in 2016 at the age of 31.
Benjamin Roblot’s grandfather, Maurice was a vigneron based in the village of Chambolle-Musigny. When he passed away in 1980, the vineyard ownership was transferred to Benjamin’s father and Aunt but as none of them were interested in taking over the domain, they decided to lease the vineyard.
Benjamin being an industrial designer by training started his career designing parts for the aviation industry, though all along the possible idea of returning to the vineyards of his grandfather remained in the back of his head. Perpetually in 2015, Benjamin removed himself from the designing career to take on the course of Le Brevet Professionnel Responsable d'Exploitation Agricole (BPREA) and study oenology in Beaune.
Benjamin returned to Chambolle upon completion, with the excellent condition of the vineyards the previous farmer had worked on, he established his own domain in 2016, debuting his first production in the critically acclaimed vintage.
Few years later when Benjamin’s aunt passed way her children sold the holdings, which included a small plot of Échezeaux. When the lease was finished in 2006, Benjamin’s father retrieved the vineyard, which had just completed conversion to organic farming. From 2006 to 2016, all of the harvested fruit were exclusively sold to négociants.
An enormous financial capital fund was needed to acquire essential equipment such as sorting table, destemmer, vertical press, wooden vat as well as barrels in 2017, so with a calculated decision, Benjamin sold his grapes from Bonnes Mares to négociants in order to maintain the cash flow condition of the business.
Attention is paid extensively to the vineyards, with the practice of organic viticulture, though certification is not currently in the agenda.
Benjamin is very adaptive in his approach to vinification. The wines are all fermented in barrel with natural yeast with temperature control. Usually 10 days into fermentation, the must is pressed by a vertical press to further extract phenolics and flavour.
In 2016 – 2018, Benjamin decided to age his Bonnes Mares in 100% new oak. Premier Crus with 50% new oak. In the furture, the aim is to use 50% for Grand Crus and 30% for Premier Crus.
The wines are bottled unfiltered with small amounts of sulphur.
