The history of Jaffelin is inseparable from that of the Collégiale Notre Dame de Beaune (the Notre Dame collegiate church in Beaune). Over the centuries, our cellars have housed the wines of the Collégiale and the Cardinals. The Chapitre’s cellars changed ownership in 1816, the year in which the Jaffelin brothers founded their négociant (wine trading) business. Today our wines rest in the monastic tranquility of the Chapitre’s cellars, as they did eight centuries ago. Jaffelin, the smallest of the great Burgundy négociants, as it likes to describe itself, entered a new chapter in its history in 2004 when it completely renovated its vat room and fitted it out with high-precision equipment. Marinette Garnier, our oenologist-winemaker, crafts ‘hand-made’ wines in this magical location in the historical centre of Beaune. Jaffelin continues to present the very best of the finest Burgundy terroirs with a comprehensive collection of fine wines, which are recognised in prestigious wine competitions and appreciated by wine connoisseurs around the world.
We strive to bring out the Burgundy terroirs, cru by cru, cuvée by cuvée, at every stage of the winemaking process.
Harvesting: The grapes arrive at the winery in small crates. They are very carefully sorted on two successive sorting tables, then partially or fully destemmed and transferred into wooden vats by gravity in order to preserve the quality of the grapes.
Vinification: The vat room contains oval–shaped wooden vats, ideal for the red wines, as these provide good thermal inertia for alcoholic fermentation. Stainless-steel tanks are preferred for the white wines.
Pressing: At Jaffelin, we use a vertical press with a capacity of 5 hl, perfect for our small cuvées. The advantages of this equipment, a successor to the wooden presses of yesteryear, are extraordinary. The juice is filtered from the pomace made up of pips, skins and bits of stalk. This pressing method gives us a clear juice with no bitterness. The pressing is slow and carried out only once, with no final pressing.
Ageing: The wines are transferred by gravity into barrels lying in the Chapitre de Notre Dame cellars beneath the vat room. They are then aged for 10 to 18 months in French oak barrels to allow the wines to develop all their aromas and flavours in the cellars where the temperature and humidity are regulated naturally