Aubert de Villaine is a
social economist and co-owner of the
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, often abbreviated to DRC, is an estate in Burgundy, France that produces white and red wine. It is widely considered among the world's greatest wine producers, and DRC bottles are among the world's most expensive. I ...
; he served as the Domaine's co-director from 1974 to 2021, stepping down to an advisory role in 2022.
Some of the world's most expensive wines are produced on several of its approximately
vineyard
A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...
holdings in
Vosne-Romanée
Vosne-Romanée () is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France.
Population
Wine
It produces the region's most celebrated wines, all made entirely from the Pinot noir grape: "There can be little ...
and
Montrachet ''For the restaurant, see Montrachet (restaurant)''
Montrachet (pronounced ''Mon-rashay''; ) is an ''Appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (AOC) and Grand Cru vineyard for white wine made of Chardonnay in the Côte de Beaune subregion of Burgundy. I ...
. He was originally co-director with
Lalou Bize-Leroy Lalou Bize-Leroy (born 1932) is a French businesswoman and winery owner in the Burgundy wine region.Clive Coates (1997): ''Côte d'Or: a celebration of the great wines of Burgundy'', p. 528 Bize-Leroy owns the wineries Domaine d'Auvenay and Domain ...
, both having inherited their ownership. However disagreements over the direction of the estate, led to Bize-Leroy's 1991 expulsion from the management and her replacement by her nephews, Charles and later Henry-Frédéric Roch, and eventually Bize-Leroy's daughter, Perrine Fenal, in 2018.
De Villaine resigned from co-directorship at the end of 2021 and was replaced by his own nephew, Bertrand de Villaine.
Together with his wife Pamela, Aubert also owns and runs a domain in
Bouzeron
Bouzeron () is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France.
Geography
Bouzeron is a wine-growing village located near Chagny. It is from Beaune and from Chalon-sur-Saône.
Wine
Bouzeron ...
named Domaine de Villaine (alternately A et P de Villaine on some labels). This domain has extensive plantings of
Aligoté
Aligoté is a white grape used to make dry white wines, especially in the Burgundy region of France where it was first recorded in the 18th century.winepros.com.au. Since it is tolerant to cold, this variety is also cultivated in Eastern Europ ...
Doré (golden Aligoté as opposed to the more greenish Aligoté Vert which is considered by many top winemakers in Burgundy to make inferior wine
and the de Villaines were part of the campaign to create a separate appellation for the Aligoté wines of Bouzeron, which succeeded in 1998, when the
Bouzeron AOC Bouzeron is an ''appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (AOC) for white wine produced in the French communes of Bouzeron and Chassey-le-Camp in the Côte Chalonnaise subregion of Burgundy. was created.
Aubert de Villaine is also the Director of HdV (Hyde de Villaine) Wines, a highly regarded winery in
Napa Valley
Napa Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in Napa County in California's Wine Country. It was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) on January 27, 1981. Napa Valley is considered one of the premier ...
, California with an adjacent wholly owned 40 acre vineyard. Founded in 2000, most of the partnership's fruit is sourced from the nearby 170 acre Hyde Vineyard in the
Los Carneros
Los Carneros AVA (also known as Carneros AVA) is an American Viticultural Area which includes parts of both Sonoma and Napa counties in California, U.S.A. It is located north of San Pablo Bay. The proximity to the cool fog and breezes from th ...
appellation.
He served as a judge at the
Paris Wine Tasting of 1976.
He is the great-grandson of
Peter von Baranoff (Peter’s daughter Olga was Aubert’s maternal grandmother).
References
Further reading
*
External links
Domaine de VillaineHdV Wines
French winemakers
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
{{France-academic-bio-stub