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François de Nicolay
Côte d'Or, France6 wines4.0 avg
42
Savigny-lès-Beaune. François de Nicolay's personal négoce arm, set up in 2000 alongside the family estate Chandon de Briailles. Bought fruit from organic / biodynamic growers outside the estate's holdings - Rully, Mercurey, Champlitte, Beaujolais, plus a pét-nat - in the same Savigny cellar and the same low-intervention house style.
François de Nicolay is the personal négociant label launched in 2000 by François - the brother at Domaine Chandon de Briailles, the family estate in Savigny-lès-Beaune run with his sister Claude. Separate business, same cellar: the négoce buys whole bunches and unfermented must from neighbouring organic or biodynamic growers (Côte Chalonnaise, Haute-Saône, Beaujolais) both to extend the range beyond the estate's 13.7 hectares and to back peers through conversion.
The split: Chandon de Briailles bottles the estate wines - Savigny 1er Crus Les Lavières and Aux Fournaux, Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru Île des Vergelesses (rouge and blanc), Corton Bressandes, Corton Clos du Roi, Corton-Charlemagne. The François de Nicolay label takes the outside fruit - Bourgogne Rouge, Rully Les Maizières, Mercurey Les Montelons, a Coteaux de Champlitte from Haute-Saône, and the sparkling Objectif Bulles. Both ranges share the same house hand: whole-cluster where the vintage allows, no exogenous yeasts or enzymes, no tartaric or tannin additions, unfined and unfiltered, minimal SO2 with the occasional sans-soufre bottling.
Chandon de Briailles itself has been in the family since 1834, run by Claude since 1988 (she took over from her mother Nadine), with François joining in 2001. Organic under Nadine from the late 1980s; full biodynamic conversion from 2005; Demeter-certified in 2011. The domaine is routinely named alongside Lafarge, Lafon and d'Angerville as a Côte de Beaune reference for precise, transparent, terroir-driven Pinot.
