CLARISSE DE SUREMAIN

Sampigny-lès-Maranges, Bourgundy

It might not always be apparent, but Burgundy today is teeming with a new generation of talented and passionate young winemakers. Clarisse de Suremain personifies this new wave of growers, who are more concerned with making honest wines of passion and place, than the wines that gain prestige by way of price or appellation. A native Burgundian, Clarisse was into a family with a few hectares of holdings in the village of Monthelie and Rully. After some time away as a professional pianist and then as a business student, she had a chance encounter with the great Richard Leroy, who encouraged her to pursue winemaking. She then returned home, studying at Beaune Viticole and then training under the likes of Thomas Pico in Chablis and at the Chateau de Puligny Montrachet.

In 2019, she was given some vines – literally given to her for nothing – because the old owner didn’t see the value in growing Aligoté and Gamay in Burgundy. These two parcels, located in Volnay and Pommard, formed the backbone of a tiny new domaine that would bear her name. Eventually she secured another tiny plot in Monthelie through her family, giving her just over 2ha in estate holdings. She has supplemented her tiny estate production by purchasing some organic grapes from Chablis, Pernand-Vergelesses, Beaune, and Chorey-lès-Beaune.  

To the now former owner of those vines, we can only thank him for putting them in the hands of such a talented and passionate young winemaker. Clarisse only works with organic grapes and deploys minimal intervention in the cellar, sometimes adding no SO2 and sometimes just a small amount at bottling These are serious wines of terroir that err on the side of transparency, elegance, and contemplation rather than power or fruit.