Bernard Dugat-Py

Bernard Dugat-Py is a traditional Gevrey-Chambertin domaine, formally separated and renamed in 1994 when Bernard Dugat split from his cousin Claude Dugat and added his wife Jocelyne's maiden name (Py) to the label. The family lineage at Gevrey goes back generations - the antecedent Domaine Dugat was formed by the 1923 marriage of Fernand Dugat and Jeanne Bolnot; Bernard began vinifying in 1975. Son Loïc joined in 1996 (the thirteenth generation), took over winemaking in 2014 and full ownership in 2015, shifting the house style away from the earlier high-extraction signature toward more elegance.

Around fifteen hectares of holdings (some sources cite twelve), mainly Côte de Nuits, with Grand Cru parcels in Chambertin, Mazis-Chambertin, Charmes-Chambertin, and Mazoyères-Chambertin, plus Premier Cru in Lavaux Saint-Jacques and Petite Chapelle, several Gevrey village lieux-dits, and a touch of Corton-Charlemagne. Average vine age sits around sixty-five years, with several plots over a hundred; replanting is by massale selection of Pinot Fin.

Organic trials began in 1999; estate-wide conversion in 2003. Biodynamic methods - herbal teas, horse plowing - are used in the Premier and Grand Cru parcels. In the cellar: hand-harvest, sorting, native-yeast fermentation, whole-cluster fraction in the 70-80% range under Loïc, no chaptalization, no filtration. Bernard's 1990s wines lean more extractive and oak-driven than the post-2014 direction Loïc has pursued.