Domaine Bachey-Legros is a 19 hectares large domaine in Santenay, Burgundy. Two brothers, Samuel Bachey-Legros and Lénaïc Bachey-Legros, are the winemakers at the domaine.

Samuel Bachey-Legros and Lénaïc Bachey-Legro’s wines are dark-coloured and powerful.

The top wines of the domaine are Santenay Premier Cru Clos Rousseau Les Fourneaux, Chassagne-Montrachet Les Plantes Momières Rouge, and Santenay Clos des Hâtes.

The Santenay Premier Cru Clos Rousseau Les Fourneaux 2012 scored 91, the Chassagne-Montrachet Les Plantes Momières Rouge 2012 scored 90, and the Santenay Clos des Hâtes 2018 scored 89 by the Wine Advocate.

Robert Parker’s tasting notes on the Santenay Premier Cru Clos Rousseau Les Fourneaux 2012: “The 2012 Santenay Premier Cru Les Fourneaux comes from some of the domaine’s oldest vines located in Clos Rousseau, planted way back in 1914. It sports a crisp, stony bouquet with limestone and tangible marine elements. There is very good weight and concentration in the mouth; well-judged acidity and good weight on the finish. Given the pedigree of the vines, I was hoping for more persistency to come through, but it is still a commendable Santenay.”

Lénaïc Bachey-Legros and Samuel Bachey-Legros are the sixth generation vignerons at Domaine Bachey-Legros.

The grandfather of Lénaïc Bachey-Legros and Samuel Bachey-Legros had a single daughter, Christiane Bachey, who became a psychologist. Thus, the domaine was rented out from the mid-1970s. She returned to the domaine in 1993, having married a Legros, and was joined by her sons, Lenaic Bachey-Legros in 1999 and Samuel Bachey-Legros in 2005.

Only after 2008, after some big renovation work has been done, they started to make volumes of domaine-bottled wines.

The brothers managed to take back the final vineyards from farming or sharecropping contracts in 2017.

Lénaïc and Samuel Bachey-Legros also started a négociant** business. These wines are labelled Bachey-Legros & Fils.

The key vineyard, which came back under their control in 1998, is the Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeot Petits Clos, which benefits from 70-year-old vines. All the domaine reds come from really old vines, too, planted between 1935 and 1955, plus the Fourneaux plot of Clos Rousseau, which dates right back to 1914.

19 hectares vines in the appellations of Santenay, Chassagne-Montrachet and Maranges, with a healthy stock of old vines. Farming is conventional, with cultured yeasts used for the fermentation.

The white grapes have a light crushing, are pressed and settled, then straight to barrel for fermentation without stirring. Racked to tank after 12 months, then bottled before the end of the year.

The red grapes are destemmed, though kept as whole berries and given a long but non-extractive cuvaison for a month. The Bachey-Legros brothers use 20 percent new wood for smaller appellations, 20 to 25 percent for village wines and 25 to 30 percent for the premier and grand crus.

Different coopers and toasting levels are used depending on the cuvée.