A family estate in Chambolle-Musigny
The domaine was born in 1924, when Georges Roumier, a native of the Charolais, married Geneviève Quanquin of Chambolle-Musigny. Her dowry brought vines in the village, among them parts of Les Amoureuses, Les Cras and Bonnes-Mares. Georges also worked as vineyard manager for Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé. In the late 1920s he joined the growers who began to bottle part of their wine and sell it in the United States through the importer Frank Schoonmaker.
His son Jean-Marie took over in stages during the 1950s and became the official head of the domaine in 1961. Jean-Marie's son Christophe, trained in oenology, joined him in 1981, and from the early 1980s the whole crop was bottled at the domaine. Christophe took full charge when his father retired in 1990 and has carried on since then alongside his sister Delphine. The cellars stand on a bend of the village street, next to the Château de Chambolle-Musigny of Domaine Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier.
The climats
In 2026 the domaine gave its vineyard as more than 12 hectares, most of it in Chambolle-Musigny. In Bonnes-Mares, the grand cru the village shares with Morey-Saint-Denis, the domaine holds about 1.4 hectares, split equally between two soils. The upper part, the white soils, is limestone marl rich in small fossil oysters. The lower part, the red soils towards Morey, is clay and limestone over hard rock. The white-soil parcel came with the founding in 1924, the red-soil parcel in 1952. The two are fermented apart and blended for ageing.
In Musigny the domaine works barely a tenth of a hectare, at the top of the grand cru on its northern corner, from vines first planted in 1905. Georges worked it under a sharecropping agreement and Jean-Marie bought it in 1978. Les Amoureuses, 0.4 hectare on a gentle slope close to Musigny, was part of the founding vines of 1924. Les Cras lies at the foot of the slope on fossil-rich marl and has been bottled on its own since 1993. Les Combottes, a small hollow on the bed of an old torrent from the combe, followed in 2005. Before that both went into the village wine, a blend of many plots across Chambolle.
Outside Chambolle, the domaine has owned the Clos de la Bussière in Morey-Saint-Denis since 1953. This walled premier cru of almost 2.6 hectares once belonged to the Cistercian abbey of La Bussière and has always had a single owner. Its iron-rich clay gives a firmer, more powerful wine than Chambolle. The only white, a Corton-Charlemagne, comes from 0.2 hectare facing west at Pernand-Vergelesses, bought bare in 1968 and planted, with a first vintage in 1974.
Two names on the label
Two grands crus of Gevrey-Chambertin come from vines long worked under sharecropping, and the Roumier bottlings carry the name Christophe Roumier rather than Domaine Georges Roumier. Ruchottes-Chambertin comes from a parcel owned by Michel Bonnefond and worked by the domaine since 1977. A third of the crop carries the Christophe Roumier label. Charmes-Chambertin, from the Mazoyères part of the grand cru, has been worked the same way since 1984. Part of the crop is sold as Christophe Roumier and part under the owner's name. Both are made in the domaine's cellar. In 2026 the domaine's website mentioned buying vines it once worked under lease or sharecropping, such as in these two grands crus.
The first Corton-Charlemagne, in 1974, carried the name Jean-Marie Roumier. Domaine Hervé Roumier is the separate estate of a grandson of Georges. In the 1990s it received part of the family vines, including some Clos de Vougeot.
In the vineyard and the cellar
Chemical fertilisers were dropped in 1988 and herbicides the following year. The domaine works without organic certification, ploughs, uses compost and prunes hard for small crops. It keeps its old vines by replacing dead plants one by one rather than replanting whole plots.
Most stems are removed, though the share varies by wine, and the Musigny keeps the most whole clusters. Fermentation runs on native yeasts only, without enzymes, with punching down over about three weeks of vatting. The reds age 14 to 16 months in barrel, with limited new oak, from none for the Musigny to 30 percent for Bonnes-Mares and the Gevrey grands crus. They are bottled without fining or filtration. The Corton-Charlemagne spends a year in older barrels and five months in steel, and is fined with bentonite and lightly filtered.
Style, ageing and the range
Christophe Roumier has said his wines can seem a little tough when young, and they reward patience. He describes Bonnes-Mares as the flowers and pepper of Chambolle over the density of Morey. The domaine suggests five to twenty years for Bonnes-Mares, Musigny, Les Amoureuses and the Gevrey grands crus, four to twenty for Les Cras and four to fifteen for Les Combottes. The Clos de la Bussière needs eight to twelve years to start showing well. The village wine keeps three to fifteen years, and the Corton-Charlemagne wants at least five before opening.
The range starts with a Bourgogne from two parcels just below the Chambolle-Musigny appellation, and the village wine. Then come the premiers crus Les Combottes, Les Cras, Les Amoureuses and Clos de la Bussière, and the grands crus Bonnes-Mares, Musigny and Corton-Charlemagne. The wines above are the ones in our cellar.
