Interview with Romain Derey of Domaine Derey Frères
Friday, April 1, 2022
by Justine Puaud
Interview with The Derey Brothers
As I live in Burgundy now, I decided to drive for the first time to Couchey and to visit the Derey family. Couchey is the neighbor of Marsannay, in the northern part of the Côte de Nuits. I met Romain Derey who is a member of the young next generation of winemakers in Burgundy. The family team also includes his parents and brothers Maxime & Pierre-Marie, and together they are building a strong reputation in the Marsannay appellation.
Left to right: Pierre-Marie, Maxime, Pierre, and Romain Derey
1 - Your family is known for being winemakers since 1670 - can you tell me more about your family and the history around your domaine?
You know, in 1670 you were not really a winemaker. You were a farmer, a winemaker, a restaurant owner. At that time, my ancestors were making bulk wine to sell at their restaurant. Their priority was to make a living and not necessarily to make a “good” wine. It was really in 1850, two hundred years later, that Claude Derey was the one who started to truly focus on viticulture in the village of Couchey, in the heart of what was called the Dijon vineyard.
Claude’s son Pierre Derey was in the Resistance during World War 2. He was unfortunately arrested by the Germans and sent to a concentration camp where he passed away a few years later, which was a tragedy for his two orphaned sons, Maurice and Albert (my grandfather), who then took over the domaine in the 1950’s. They had two completely different personalities which was a strength for the business but not necessarily easy on an interpersonal level.
In the 2000s, the estate took a step up with the transmission to my father Pierre, who was joined by my mother Suzanne a few years later. It took many years for my grandfather Albert to accept my mother, who is originally from Rottenburg, in the south-west of Germany, because of the experience of losing his own father to the Nazis. They had to hide their relationship for a few years before he finally accepted it.
2 - You joined your father in 2010. How did you manage the job partition between your two brothers, your dad and your mom? Was it easy?
My oldest brother Maxime is the first one who joined my dad. We all knew he was born to be a winemaker. We almost think he said the word “tractor” before the word “mommy”. He was so passionate about farming and the vineyard, and is the true winemaker between us three. The quality of our wines has been getting better and better since his arrival in 2010. My dad doesn’t always agree with him about his choices but he trusts him.
A few years later, after my studies in business, I decided to join the family estate. I remember seeing my dad in the living room asking me nervously “are you joining us or not?” He was so happy when I said yes… With my background, I decided to take care of sales and building relationships with importers and sales representatives in Europe and in the United States.
My youngest brother, Pierre-Marie, is an artist but is also one of the best tasters I know. It is so annoying to taste with him because he always find mistakes. It is never enough. He does all the communications and marketing but spends lot of time with the pickers during the harvest and with me and my brother during the vinification.
We work really well together. In fact, nearly all of us live together too… My brother and I live on the right side of the house, my mom and my dad on the left side, and my oldest brother lives next door…
3 - Did you make any changes in the vineyard and/or cellar since you took over with your brothers?
The three of us have definitely made changes in the vineyard and in the cellar. However, our goal is not to change the style and the identity of the Derey wines. Maxime decided to stop using the harvesting machine. We plow our vineyards and have entered the second year of our conversion to organic farming. We also decided to limit the filtration of the wine and have recently started to do whole cluster fermentation. Depending on the vintage, we do between 20% to 100% whole cluster.
Our dad was really in a mindset of “laissez-faire”. But he said one day to us “you can do what you want but please never leave the cellar, always taste and make good wines”. It took him so many years to make changes with his dad that he didn’t want to subject us to the same restrictions.
4 - What do you think about the 2021 vintage?
We did 100% whole clusters for this vintage. It was not an easy vintage and there were many potential pitfalls… but we stayed spontaneous, believed in our vision and are happy with the results. My dad said 2021 reminded him of the difficult vintages in the eighties. He said “you had been lucky to only have easy vintages so far”.
5- Last month you were with us at La Paulée de New York. What were your best memories?
It was such an honor and also a dream to experience La Paulée de New York. We just couldn’t believe that we were part of the line-up of amazing winemakers, next to Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg or Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair. We of course had the chance to taste fantastic wines like 2013 Montrachet of Domaine Ramonet, 1990 Vosne-Romanée les Beaux Monts of Leroy. But this Paulée was really about the people. We discovered so many winemakers who didn’t know, all the sommeliers were fantastic and the clients were so generous. I think my craziest memory was sitting next to Chef Léo Troisgros at Wu’s Wonton King on Sunday. You can only experience this kind of moment in New York!