Domaine Rollin Pere & Fils

We began working with Maurice Rollin in 1982 shortly after his son, Remi, had joined the family enterprise. It was Maurice's father, Raymond, who first purchased vineyards in his local village of Pernand Vergelesses where, like his father before him, he was engaged as a vineyard worker. Maurice decided in 1955 to begin making and bottling wines from the family holdings and he developed a growing group of private clients to support his efforts. His success provided him with the resources to purchase additional vineyards, including a lovely parcel in the "Ile des Vergelesses", the most exalted of the vineyards of Pernand. By the mid-1980s, the Rollin family had accumulated ten hectares of vineyards and by the mid-1990s, Maurice and Remi determined to bottle all the wine made at the estate rather than to sell even a small percentage to negociants. In 2003, Simon Rollin, Remi's son, joined the estate as the fourth generation vigneron.

In its present state (as of 2011), the Rollin domaine covers twelve hectares of vineyards, eight of which are owned with the other four being rented via the system of metayage or fermage. The vineyards are spread over five separate communes (Pernand Vergelesses, Savigny les Beaune, Echevronne, Aloxe Corton and Chorey les Beaune). The estate produces approximately 60,000 bottles per year across fourteen separate appellations!

The vineyard work is meticulous and, although not certified organic, the methodology in practice is applied in a manner designed to maximize the expression of terroir by eliminating (or reducing to an absolute minimum) any treatments in the vineyards. All grapes are harvested manually and fermentations proceed with indigenous yeasts. The white wines are pressed gently and undergo long fermentations in barrel (except for the Aligote which is raised in stainless steel tanks) and are aged on the fine lees for twelve to fifteen months. The reds are hand-sorted in both the vineyard and at the cellar before being pressed. The maceration is long and the elevage is in small barrel with the malolactic fermentation occurring therein. In almost every instance, neither the white wines nor the red wines are fined or filtered.

Our long history with the Rollin family has provided us with an ever-growing appreciation of the charms of the wines of this domaine and, most particularly, the enchanting terroir of Pernand Vergelesses, one of the villages in the Cote d'Or that produces wines of exceptional value.