Renaud Boyer
Burgundy

Renaud Boyer comes from a family of winemakers, but he is an anomaly in Burgundy.

Located in Meursault with vineyards spread between Saint-Romain, Beaune and Puligny-Montrachet, he became a vigneron from a matter of opportunity. 

Renaud, trained as an engineer, was offered an opportunity in 2001 to take over his cousin, Thierry Guyot’s vineyards in Saint Romain. These vineyards had been farmed in organics since 1986. In 2005 Renaud moved into his grandfather’s former cellar in Mersault, a small simple cellar to this day, and began work on 5 hectares of vineyards in Saint Romain and Puligny Montrachet.

In the Cote de Beaune and Cote de Nuits, not many choose to work naturally. With land being so expensive they are risk adverse. But Renaud Boyer has no intention of adapting his wines or methods to the expectations of Burgundy. 

Surrounding oneself with like-minded winemakers for council has been imperative, the two most influential over the past 15 years being Patrick Meyer and Pierre Overnoy.  Renaud chose to focus on the vineyards, 90% of a wine is made in the vineyard. In Burgundy less than 10% of land is farmed in organics.

The Les Riaux vineyard is located between Puligny Montrachet and Saint Aubin with limestone clay soils. In Saint Romain the soils are limestone marl, both vineyards are planted to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and more recently Aligote also.
The Les Reucheaux vineyard in Puligny Montrachet is a stony limestone plot. 

As you would expect, his work in the cellar is kept to a minimum. The whites are directly pressed, slowly over 6 to 7 hours. Renaud works with gravity for transfer to barrel and amphora where the wine rests on lees. The sandstone amphoras were a new addition in 2022, the result of fermentation challenges with Les Riaux in stainless steel over some years. 
 
“The wines are their own selves… Sometimes I bottle after 10 months, other times I might wait more than two years. There is no one way”.

Renaud will not release wine into the market unless he is happy and it has stability.