A key to staying in touch with your favorite wine regions is keeping your ear to the ground and your eyes open; asking a favorite producer, "Whose wines have you been impressed by?" can open doors to new, exciting winemakers for whom you'd have otherwise been late to the party. So it is that the name Adrien Lattard came up in conversation; a bright, thoughtful and earnest young winemaker with a stellar CV, having been cellar master under Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey and at Genot-Boulanger. Naturally curious and with a tireless work ethic, Adrien has set his ideals within this world: "I want to use my experience to show my work, show my effort; f you’re a good person, you will make a good wine."
The Beaune-born and raised Adrien grew up near many of the producers in Burgundy's economic capitol, where his mother owned a small bar and wine was interwoven with everyday life. As a young man he studied international trade, choosing winegrowing and sales as a focus, longing to travel and discover the world's cultures. In 2010, after two years of studies, Adrien wanted to learn more about the practical side of winemaking, winding up at Chateau Valandraud in St. Emilion. "It was a great experience, incredibly hard work, but I loved it! The environment, the bond with the people was fantastic - you work hard but eat and drink pretty well!" Overall, thankful for the experience but finding Bordeaux more corporate than his home region of Burgundy, Adrien sought another experience. His boss, sensing Adrien's lust for travel, set him up with a harvest job in Australia, setting Adrien on a course to a dizzying next ten years.
From 2010 through 2018, Adrien amassed more than 20 harvests; this includes a year (2016) in which he participated in 4 harvests due to the differing growing seasons - one each in South Africa, New Zealand, Oregon and Burgundy. Gaining the experience was vital for Adrien, seeing different techniques through both large- and small-scale wineries on 5 different continents, though he knew his heart and his home was in Burgundy. In 2012, he worked his first harvest with David Duband, the first of 6 consecutive vintages. "I consider David a mentor, he's very inspiring to me, a friend I still call on this day."
Continuing his work alongside the greats, Lattard assisted Sauzet during 3 of those harvests as well, and in between was introduced to Pierre-Yves Colin. After proving his mettle over a 2-week trial period, PY took Adrien on full-time in 2018 as cellar master, allowing Adrien to give his passport a rest and truly fine-tune his Burgundian methodologies. In this period, Adrien started to formulate the idea of his own project, and presented it to a customer of his mother's local bar, who happened to own some choice vineyards in the Cote de Beaune.. His mother would purchase wine from the gentleman, and Adrien would pick it up for her, and through conversation the two became quite friendly. Though he didn't think himself ready quite yet, this was the genesis of a friendship and working partnership that would form the basis of Adrien's own label. Over his remaining time with Pierre-Yves, Adrien would trial new methods for his future project, such as clay vessels, lowering sulfur use, and imparting less reduction.
After 3 vintages with Colin-Morey, Adrien moved on to become cellar master at Genot-Boulanger for the 2022 harvest; this year, he also decided to make his own wine, hoping to create 1-2 barrels' worth. The conversation with his new friend expanded, and over 2021 he got to see the vineyards in person; this finally led to a partnership forming with the 2022 vintage. "Honestly I could not expect more from this kind of relationship; I didn't want to make wine just to make wine," Adrien says, "I want to know the vineyards, understand the methods and form a good collaboration."
In 2022, Adrien finally got to vinify 4 wines from his partner's vineyards: Bourgogne Aligote, Bourgogne Cote d'Or Chardonnay, Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault. For the 2023 vintage, Adrien began making the wine at a local "Wine Studio (similar to what we call a crush pad), for whom he is now cellar master, overseeing the elevage of several small winemakers' production.
What impresses us the most about Adrien is his honesty and thoughtful manner. "I'm naturally a stressful person," Adrien admits, referring to his desire to create a product worthy of his training, and for all of his efforts to be rewarded. "I want to spread the image of a cultural product, even though the grapes are not my own; to be a negociant is expensive, but now I step into the wine industry as a winemaker. It’s only grape juice! For me, making dinner, making memories, this is not quantifiable. As I learned from Duband, from Benoit [Riffault] at Sauzet, with wine it’s hard to be mad, hard to be a bad person!"
Viticulture & Vinification
After assisting in the vineyard work throughout the growing season, Adrien will receive the pressed juice from his selected parcels; he prefers to take not only the free-run juice, but also the press juice (up to 1.2 bars) and the fine lees, loving the phenolics and the density & nutrients the lees provide to the fermenting juice. He mimics some pieces of the Colin-Morey method, in terms of in-barrel fermenting and an 18-month elevage, but does not aim for the same level of reduction in his wines; he will utilize a screw-in bung to prevent more oxygen seeping in, and top-up as necessary. The lees will be divided into the barrels (228L) and aged with the wine (without batonnage) until Summer when the wine is racked off the lees and back into barrel. The following spring, there is another racking into tank, where it will settle before bottling. Sulfur is kept to a minimum, another difference from his experience at Colin-Morey, as the resulting flavors and aromatics Adrien found less to his liking. Overall, the use of new oak is about 33%, with the Bourgogne Chardonnay the lightest with only 1 new barrel out of 6.
Looking to the future as we await his stellar first release, it is clear that Adrien has and will continue to shape his own vision utilizing his impressive wealth of experience. He has expressed a great fondness of many producers within Burgundy including those he's worked for, but also has the highest praise for those abroad, such as Bergström (Oregon), Pegasus Bay (New Zealand) and Jericho Canyon (Napa Valley), each lending a unique perspective to the winemaking craft. As he had set out to find in his original career path, traveling and learning about wine, wine is the ultimate cultural product.
