Domaine Chanson

The area

Chanson's 43 hectares in the Côte de Beaune sit in Beaune, Chassagne-Montrachet, Corton, Puligny-Montrachet, Santenay, Savigny-lès-Beaune and Pernand-Vergelesses. The domaine calls Beaune “the historic cradle of the Beaune Premier Cru appellation”, and it is home ground. The best-known holding is the Clos des Fèves, a Beaune Premier Cru that Chanson owns outright as a monopole. The domaine says its vines average 40 years old.

The Côte Chalonnaise vines are mostly in Mercurey and Rully. Trade press reported the 2023 move as the Bollinger group buying Château d'Etroyes, an estate in Mercurey and Rully. It more than doubled the size of the domaine, which is why the Mercurey and Rully wines we stock carry the Chanson name.

History

Simon Verry's widow bought the Bastion in 1794, and the domaine still ages its wine there today. Alexis Chanson, a partner in the business, added the tower's third and fourth floors in 1826. Once the Chanson family took over from the Verrys, the house carried their name, and it has done ever since.

A modern winery was built in 1972. In 1999 Philippe Marion-Chanson sold the domaine to the Bollinger group, having found in Christian Bizot of Bollinger a shared philosophy. New parcels in Chassagne-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet followed in 2007, giving Chanson a foothold among the great white wine villages.

Vincent Avenel became chief executive in 2017. The Côte Chalonnaise expansion came in 2023, the first certified organic vintage in 2024, and Thierry Berger took charge of the domaine in September 2025.

The Bastion

The Bastion is what visitors remember. A stone salamander, the emblem of François I, dates the work on its two original floors. The tower was first nicknamed the “Tour des Filles”, after the working girls who lived nearby, and later renamed the Bastion de l'Oratoire after the chapel next door. By the French Revolution there were already over 100,000 bottles inside.

The thick stone walls keep the temperature and humidity steady all year. The first three floors hold the reds, one vintage per floor, and the top floor holds the whites. The spiral layout means no machine can get in, so the barrels are moved and stacked by hand. The building and roof were fully renovated in 2019.

The Bastion also gives its name to a wine. Beaune 1er Cru “Le Bastion” is a blend of several of Chanson's Beaune Premier Cru parcels. Hachette puts it at seven Premier Crus, and Burgundy Report describes it as the parcels too small to bottle on their own. We stock both the red and the white.

Farming and winemaking

Chanson began converting to organic farming in 2021, and the Côte Chalonnaise vines started their own conversion in 2024. The vineyard work is led by Justine Savoye, an agronomist and oenologist who joined in 2016.

In the cellar, Chanson vinifies each plot separately and decides how much to destem cru by cru and vintage by vintage. The reds are sorted by hand, given a long cold soak before fermentation, then aged 14 to 20 months in French oak. Chanson points out that bottling them unfiltered is unusual in Burgundy.

The whites are pressed gently, fermented in barrel and aged 8 to 18 months on their lees in 15 to 20% new oak. The lees are stirred only when needed. Chanson works with around five main coopers and is experimenting with glass globes and barrel-shaped steel tanks to keep freshness as summers get hotter.

How it's run today

Chanson calls itself a family-spirited house within the family-owned Bollinger group, alongside Bollinger, Ayala, Langlois-Chateau and Domaine Hubert Brochard. Wine decisions go through a “Chanson Style Committee” that tastes together across management, vineyard, cellar and sales.

In 2023 it became the first wine estate in France to be certified a Great Place To Work, with a staff score of 95 out of 100 against a French average of 56.