Pierre Ramonet and the first bottles
Pierre Ramonet, born in 1906, started his estate at Chassagne-Montrachet in the 1920s with almost nothing. His first vines were in Les Ruchottes, where he cleared and planted some plots by hand. He made the first of his sixty-five harvests in 1929. In the 1930s Raymond Baudoin, founder of La Revue du Vin de France, took up his wines and drew the American importer Frank Schoonmaker to them. William Kelley records the 1934 Ruchottes as the first estate-bottled white Burgundy imported into the United States by Schoonmaker. The domaine grew in Morgeot in the 1940s. In the 1950s Pierre bought his Bâtard-Montrachet and Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet from Domaine Henri Coquet, and the Montrachet followed in 1978. He died in 1994.
The family and its labels
Pierre's son André worked at the domaine, but his role stayed limited. His sons, Noël and Jean-Claude, joined him in 1983 and became Pierre's true heirs, keeping the rich style he had set. From the 2014 vintage the brothers ran their vines separately, and Noël sold his grapes to Jean-Claude. From the mid-2010s the labels carried Jean-Claude's name alone, also for the vineyards he took on in his own name. Older bottles read Domaine Ramonet. By 2021 his daughters Anne-France, there since 2016, and Clarisse had joined him. From the 2023 vintage, Noël and his sons Michael and Pierre-François have made their own wines under the label Ramonet Noël & Fils. They are white only, from Chassagne and Puligny, grands crus included. It is a separate producer.
The grands crus
Montrachet and Bâtard-Montrachet straddle the line between Chassagne and Puligny-Montrachet, while Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet and Chevalier-Montrachet lie wholly in Puligny. In 2022 Jasper Morris listed 0.26 hectare of Montrachet, 0.64 of Bâtard-Montrachet, 0.45 of Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet and 0.09 of Chevalier-Montrachet. These figures predate 2023, when Noël's label began bottling its own Montrachet, Bâtard and Bienvenues. Stephen Brook writes that Montrachet, between Bâtard below and Chevalier above, often joins the power of the first to the finesse of the second. The Bâtard comes from several parcels, one of them next to the Bienvenues. Kelley finds it tighter than the Bienvenues and more a wine for the cellar. The small Chevalier came some twenty years after the Montrachet, through a vine exchange with Domaine Jean Chartron.
Chassagne premiers crus and the reds
Most of the domaine lies in Chassagne-Montrachet. In white, Morris listed in 2022 the premiers crus Les Ruchottes, Boudriotte, Morgeot, Les Caillerets, Clos du Cailleret, Les Vergers and Les Chaumées. He finds the Ruchottes perhaps the most exciting of them, dense and in need of time. Kelley finds the Boudriotte usually the most open. The name Morgeot can confuse. Seven climats may be sold under it. One of them, La Boudriotte, takes in five more, each of which may appear under its own name, as Boudriotte or as Morgeot. At Ramonet the white Boudriotte comes from Les Fairendes, the white Morgeot from Champ Jeandreau and the red Morgeot from Ez Crottes.
Dr Lavalle placed three Chassagne climats in his top class in 1855, and red made up two thirds of the village's wine until the mid-20th century. In 2021 Decanter counted 6.79 hectares of Pinot Noir at Ramonet, 2.39 of them in the premiers crus Clos Saint-Jean, Clos de la Boudriotte and Morgeot. The grapes are destemmed and extracted gently. Morris finds in the Clos de la Boudriotte a fruit that recalls the Côte de Nuits.
In the cellar and in the glass
Picking is by hand, and vines under eighteen years old are kept out of the domaine's wines. The grapes are lightly crushed, and the juice is not settled before fermentation. Fermentation starts in tank and goes on in barrel, with very little sulphur. New oak stays modest, about 5 percent for the Bourgogne and 25 to 35 percent for the premiers crus. Only the Montrachet is raised entirely in new barrels. The wines stay on most of their lees, with little or no stirring, for twelve to eighteen months depending on the appellation.
Kelley describes the whites as full and firm at once, and Brook ties their rich texture to the long time on the lees. The wines can show a note of mint or menthol when first opened. Morris says it blows off with air, so a carafe or some patience helps. He recalls blind tastings in the 1980s where Ramonet started slowly and often finished first. The whites have long been known for their capacity to age.
The range
The whites also include Puligny premier cru Les Champs Canet, village Puligny and Les Enseignères, just below Bâtard, the Saint-Aubin premiers crus Le Charmois, En Remilly and Murgers des Dents de Chien, village Chassagne, a Bourgogne blanc and a Bourgogne Aligoté. Bouzeron, an Aligoté from the Côte Chalonnaise, joined in 2011, and Pernand-Vergelesses Les Belles Filles, white and red, in 2012. In 2014 a sharecropping agreement with FICOFI, which had bought vineyards from Vincent Girardin, brought in the Clos du Cailleret, Abbaye de Morgeot, En Remilly and Murgers des Dents de Chien. The reds add village Chassagne and a Bourgogne rouge. The bottles above are this domaine's wines in our cellar. Our premier cru and grand cru pages cover the ranks, Burgundy wines the rest of the region, and older vintages, when we have them, join our collector wines.
