Wisdom and modesty do not exclude excellence, at least that's how one feels when meeting Benoit and Jean-Baptiste Bachelet, who took over their father Jean-Claude's estate in the early 2000s, in Saint-Aubin in the Côte de Beaune. The Bachelet name is well-known on the "côte," and the family's genealogical tree dates back to 1648, with records of a Pierre Bachelet. However, the true starting point is much more recent, with the beginning of estate bottling and Jean-Claude's arrival at the family estate in 1965. Jean-Claude quickly engaged in developing single vineyard cuvées, still rare at the time. Gradually but steadily, Jean-Claude elevated the estate to among the finest in Saint-Aubin. Since their arrival, his sons Benoit and Jean-Baptiste have proceeded with gradual evolutions, such as stopping the use of herbicides in 2001 and transitioning the estate to biodynamics. 

Vinification is pragmatic: once the grapes are harvested, sorted, and lightly crushed, the pressing is long. The musts are quickly cooled in tanks and settled the following morning to ferment entirely in barrels. Increasingly rare practice, the estate ages the wines for a long time, for two years on lees. The wines are racked from barrels in February-March, blended in tanks, and bottled in July. This tank phase with very little lees is important. The wines gain stability, finesse, freshness, allowing the elimination of fining agents. This 18-month aging in barrels on lees without racking allows for better integration of wood and purity. During the first winter in barrels, the wine works, undergoes alcoholic and malolactic fermentations, and structures itself. During the second winter, it refines on its lees to stabilize in tanks. The estate's wines are rich, structured, generous yet with freshness, a balance to better express each terroir with a fantastic ageing potential on each cuvee.