Arnaud Pelletier produces dreams at the Château de Prémeaux

Château de Prémeaux is a 15-hectare family estate located in several prestigious Burgundy appellations: Nuits-Saint-Georges, Premier Cru "Clos des Argillières", Premier Cru white "Aux Champs Perdrix"... Arnaud Pelletier wasn't initially destined to take over the family estate, but he ultimately settled in, and it's been a resounding success! With meticulous attention to detail, hard work, enthusiasm, and passion, the wines of Château de Prémeaux reflect the typicity and richness of the terroirs, as well as the simplicity and conviviality of the estate.

Arnaud Pelletier returns to the family estate

Arnaud Pelletier comes from a family of winemakers in Burgundy. Surrounded by two brothers, he wasn't expected to take over the estate. " I was a professional basketball player, but I had to stop due to an injury," Arnaud explains. He discovered New Caledonia during his military service and decided to settle there. " I went to live among the northern tribes. I lived by hunting and fishing. We didn't have set hours; it was exactly what I loved ," he recalls.

“ One day, I received a handwritten letter from my father. He told me that my brothers didn’t want to take over the estate and asked me to consider coming back. ” Arnaud didn’t want to abandon the estate, which had been in the family for five generations. So, in 2003, he left New Caledonia to become a winemaker. After a year at the Beaune wine school, he took over the reins of the family property: “ It was love at first sight! Now, we’re completely inseparable ,” Arnaud exclaims about the estate.

In 2008, Arnaud and his wife returned to the estate and took up the family torch.

Our favorite wines from the estate:

Nuits-Saint-Georges : A full and robust nose of red fruit and spices: pepper, cinnamon. Its tannins are silky. It is a perfectly balanced, structured, and rounded wine.

Hautes Côtes de Nuits Rouges : A magnificent, silky, and brilliant color. An explosive nose with aromas of exotic fruits and slightly smoky lemon.

Bourgogne Aligoté 2017 : A lively white wine with pronounced fruitiness, with aromas of small yellow fruits (plum, mirabelle) which is pleasing as an aperitif and ideally accompanies seafood.

Organic farming at Château de Prémeaux

Château de Prémeaux is fully certified organic. " It was my father who started converting the estate to organic , on the plots in the Hautes Côtes de Nuits ," explains the winemaker. " He had cancer because of the use of chemical treatments. That was a wake-up call, and we decided to work differently. " At that time, Arnaud and his father had unplanted land in the Hautes Côtes de Nuits. " My father thought: I have clean land, it's time to start organic ." First one plot, then another; little by little, the entire estate was converted to organic farming. The result is undeniable for Arnaud: " We've seen enormous improvements in grape ripening and, consequently, better quality wines. "

Arnaud's father converted the estate to organic farming.

Burgundy wines that represent the diversity of the terroirs

The range of wines at Château de Prémeaux is very diverse. In fact, each plot of vines yields a specific cuvée of wine. In total, nine red wines and four white wines demonstrate the richness of the château's vineyard terroirs. " We have many appellations," explains Arnaud, "even within a single appellation, each plot is different from the others. The difference is so pronounced that we prefer to keep our terroirs separate. How fortunate we are!"

The work is precise, refined, and delicate because Arnaud considers every aspect of his process according to the desired vine profile and the quality of the grapes. " I make my wines the way I like them ," he confides. " I look for the sensation, the mouthfeel. The texture of the wine is very important to me; for me, it's the absolute foundation. " Arnaud has his own work philosophy: " I often say: my job is to do nothing. If I've done a good job in the vineyards and sorting the grapes, all I have to do is check my wine very regularly ." This implies meticulous and rigorous work because the grapes that arrive at the winery must be absolutely perfect. " It's very important to harvest at optimum ripeness. The goal is to avoid having to move the wines once they're in the vats ," explains the winemaker. For Arnaud, ripeness isn't measured solely by sugar levels. He also considers skin detachment, seed crispness, and phenolic content. The winemaker works with meticulous attention to detail, from the vine to the barrels. " We don't use filtration or fining ," adds Arnaud.

Arnaud Pelletier chooses French oak to make his barrels

Indeed, all the estate's wines are aged in 228L barrels, although " the aging period isn't fixed," Arnaud clarifies, "it can vary from 12 to 26 months. It's through tasting that I decide whether or not to rack the wine. " For the past two years, Arnaud has been sourcing his own oak trees to make his own barrels and ensuring traceability from start to finish. " We have to be precise about every little detail. I choose my own oak trees from the best soils, I buy them, and four or five years after they've dried, I send the staves back to the cooper to make the barrel, " he explains. And he adds, " It's these tiny details that allow me to achieve what I love. "

Arnaud Pelletier: " We are producers of pleasure "

Château de Prémeaux invests in quality. It requires a functional winery and a dedicated workspace, but that's not all. As Arnaud emphasizes, " It's not machinery, whatever it may be, that makes good wines. We think, we're constantly asking ourselves questions. " And what if the key to quality lay simply there? In intelligent work practices, open-mindedness, curiosity, but also the desire to dream. " We plant vines and we produce a product that serves only for pleasure. We are producers of pleasure. All this work for a product that serves no purpose other than to inspire dreams—it's fantastic! " concludes Arnaud Pelletier.

Manon Mouly (for Les Grappes )