The wines of Château de Garnerot

Château de Garnerot is a young wine estate in Mercurey, one of the best-known wine villages in southern Burgundy. The estate is based in an eighteenth-century château that was long a hub of winegrowing in the area. Winemaker Caroline Fyot farms organically there, with biodynamic elements, and makes white and red wines from plots in the Côte Chalonnaise and the Côte de Beaune, from simple Bourgogne to Premier Cru. The château is also a wine tourism destination.

The château has long played an important role in the wine world of Mercurey. For years it was home to the Confrérie Saint-Vincent, Mercurey's wine guild. It hosted major wine events such as the Grands Jours de Bourgogne and the Saint-Vincent Tournante, the wine festival held each year in a different Burgundian village.

The château's new chapter began with Caroline Fyot. She first worked in insurance, but wanted to reconnect with nature and fulfil a childhood dream: a wine estate of her own. She graduated from the wine school in Beaune and did internships in the Côte de Nuits and the Côte Chalonnaise. She made her first wine in 2018, and around 2019 she started her own domaine at Château de Garnerot. She stresses that this is not a story of returning to family roots, but of a renaissance: a new life for the historic château.

Caroline chose Burgundy, the Côte Chalonnaise and Château de Garnerot because of their deep historical roots in the wine tradition. Her aim is to breathe new life into the château, partly through tourist activities around wine and local food. The estate covers 7.2 hectares. Its vineyards lie in places including Mercurey, Rully and Bouzeron, Chorey-lès-Beaune and Beaune. Caroline deliberately chooses vineyards with great potential, based on old-vine selection, soil quality and the position of the plots. Each plot produces its own wine.

The estate has been farmed organically since 2019 and has been certified organic since 2022. On some plots Caroline uses biodynamic methods, including the Maria Thun preparations to strengthen soil life. In the cellar, too, Caroline works as naturally as possible.

The grapes are picked by hand and taken to the cellar in open crates. For the white wines she lets the juice settle for 24 hours, after which it ferments in oak barrels. The red grapes are rigorously sorted and fully or partly destemmed depending on the wine. A cold maceration gives a gentle extraction of tannins, colour and aromas, and fermentation is spontaneous, with each plot's wild yeasts. The wines mature for ten to eighteen months in oak barrels, 10 to 30 per cent of them new.

Château de Garnerot is also a wine tourism destination. Visitors can attend tastings, tour the vineyards and the cellar, and help out during the harvest to get to know the winemaker's work. The château has a gîte where guests can stay among the vineyards, as well as rooms for seminars, weddings and other events.

If you want to know more about this winery, here you will find the link to the website of Château de Garnerot.