Terroir Insight: Cécile Tremblay Chambolle-Musigny Feusselottes

Some wines have tremendous hedonistic appeal – at least to me. One example is Chambolle-Musigny Les Feusselottes, a wine that combines refined detail with hedonistic generosity from relatively deep, ample soil.

No one seems to express the joyful, hedonistic charms of Feusselottes better than Cécile Tremblay. To be sure, others make very fine examples of it: Maxime Cheurlin at Georges Noellat and the ladies at Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg, as well as Meo-Camuzet, to name a few.

To be frank, I find more and more detail and pleasure in the wines of Cécile Tremblay; they offer forward drinkability, yet at the same time are real, substantial wines with intensity and structure. The organic feel of their mid-palate fruit is truly delightful.

So while Echezeaux and Chapelle-Chambertin are her signature wines, Cécile’s Chambolle Feusselottes is certainly one of the more sensual wines of the line-up. It is a personal favourite for pure hedonistic enjoyment.

Let’s go to Les Feusselottes!

Cécile Tremblay’s vineyards

Cécile Tremblay began her endeavour in 2002-03 as she took over some of her family’s vineyards and started producing wine.

The vineyards originally come from the Edouard Jayer estate. Edouard, Henri Jayer’s uncle, was a cooper in Nuits-Saint-Georges before World War I, and Cécile’s great-grandfather. In 1921, he married Esther Fournier, who came from a vigneron family, and they established their estate based on vineyards from her inheritance, gradually expanding the portfolio over the years.

In 1950, the vineyards were shared amongst their five children. Renée – the youngest daughter – kept her vineyards and rented them out in metayage (share-cropping). Her only daughter, Marie Annick, and her husband continued to expand the estate, while keeping it under metayage until 2002.

After her studies, their daughter Cécile decided to take over her parents’ vineyards, and this was the birth of the delightful Domaine Cécile Tremblay at the beginning of 2003.

As mentioned, the vineyards prior to 2003 were rented out to other growers. Cécile was able to take back 3 ha at the beginning, and will eventually take back more as the leases expire.

One of her original vineyards was Chambolle-Musigny Les Feusselottes, a special terroir just south of the village.

Chambolle Les Feusselottes in a historical perspective

At the risk of repeating myself, historically Les Feusselottes has not enjoyed a tremendous reputation. Thus its ownership through the years has been less prominent, according to the known sources.

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