Nuits Saint Georges 1st Growth Les Vaucrains 2021 - Domaine Henri Gouges

Domaine Henri Gouges

Winemaking family from Nuits-Saint-Georges

When World War I ended, Henri Gouges (1889-1967) took advantage of the lower prices of vineyards. He acquired many parcels located on the Nuits-Saint-Georges terroir (in the Burgundian Côte de Nuits). The year was 1919 and the official appellation had not been registered yet (it was created in 1936), but Henri saw that these grapevines were worth a lot. This pioneer understood the importance of the notion of terroir in the region. He was even one of the first French winemakers who bottled his own products at the time, and in 1929 even sold them at the estate! Meanwhile, his contemporaries still gave their harvests to local merchants, who didn't care what kind of grapes they put in their wines.

Like Henri, the entire Gouges family wanted to develop the quality of the produced wines instead of simply selling bottles. That philosophy motivated Michel and Marcel Gouges, the two sons of Henri who joined their father in 1940. Together, they planted new grapevines in the family vineyard, to guarantee the growth of new fruits. An initiative that was heavily criticized by many of their colleagues at the time. Wrongly, of course. Forty years later, Christian and Pierre Gouges, Henri's grandsons, inherited the family business. The two cousins developed the sales outside of Europe and improved the supply chain. On top of that, they renewed the estate's equipment and took the first steps leading to reasoned farming.

Between 2003 and 2011, Grégory Gouges and his cousin Antoine, made their debut in the 15 hectares family vineyard. They later both became the new managers of the Domaine Henri Gouges. Their goal is to keep modernizing the methods and machines used at the estate, all the while staying true to their great-grandfather's teachings and his deep respect for nature and terroir. The two men are also responsible for the switch to organic winemaking, with a special attention given to the protection of local soils and biodiversity.

Discover the wine from the Domaine Henri Gouges.