Wines of Henri Jayer

About the wine

In 1945, Henri entered into a 10-year contract with Madame Noirot-Camuzet. In exchange for caring for all her vineyards, he received 50% of the harvest and the remainder went to Madame Noirot-Camuzet. From his share, he produced wines which he labeled under his own name.

In 1959, Madame Noirot-Camuzet passed away and left her estate to her cousin, Jean Meo. The domaine became Meo-Camuzet. Henri continued to make wine from fruits of the Meo-Camuzet vineyards in Richebourg, Vosne-Romanee, Les Brulees and Nuit-Meurgers.

The original 10-year contract was extended until 1987 when Henri ended this share-cropping relationship with Meo-Camuzet. When Jean-Nicolas Meo, the son of Jean Meo, took over the operation upon Henri’s retirement, Henri remained as his consultant. Although Henri no longer produced the wines of Meo-Camuzet, Jean-Nicolas adopted Henri’s winemaking methods.

The undisputed star of Henri’s wines is those produced from Cros Parantoux, a vineyard in Vosne-Romanee. This small premier cru lies above Richebourg and alongside that bit of Richebourg known as Les Veroilles. It comprised of a very thin layer of clay limestone soil sitting on a bed of rock. The soil is very poor, it is very rocky and very cold. These conditions make for a very good natural acidity. The whole area is only 1.01 hectares and Henri owns about 72% of it with Meo-Camuzet owning the rest.

As is customary in Burgundy, Henri built up his holdings in Cros Parantoux piece by piece. He purchased a small piece in 1951 and acquired another piece from Madame Noirot-Camuzet in 1953. In 1956, Henri re-planted his holdings at Cros Parantoux. In 1970, Henri bought the last available piece of the vineyard and this brought his total holdings to 0.72 hectares. In 1996, this property was ceded to his nephew, Emmanuel Rouget.

Prior to 1976, Henri blended the Cros Parantoux fruit with other vineyards. In 1976, he created a wine which was 75% Cros Parantoux and the rest from a very delicious Vosne-Romanee Villages fruit. He saw the remarkable quality of Cros Parantoux and Henri bottled a wine exclusively from Cros Parantoux in 1978. This was the first vintage labeled as Cros Parantoux. Henri produced Cros Parantoux from 1970 until 1995. For each vintage, he produced about 3,500 bottles.

Henri was the youngest of 3 children, Lucien and Georges were his 2 elder brothers. He oversaw their vineyards and made their wines. Lucien owned a piece of Vosne Beaumonts and Georges owned a piece of Echezeaux. Therefore, you would find Echezeaux described as Georges & Henri Jayer or Georges for Henri Jayer. This means that Henri made these wines for Georges from his vineyards in Echezeaux.

Henri has 2 daughters but they were not interested in winemaking. Therefore, Emmanuel, his nephew by marriage, came to work for him in the early eighties. During this period, Henri’s wines were labeled in his own name and that of Rouget. In 1996, Henri retired and transferred his vineyards to Rouget upon his retirement. However, after his retirement and until his last vintage in 2001, Henri still made wines bottled under Rouget’s name and had bottlings corresponding to the brothers’ three holdings.

Since Henri essentially made Rouget’s wine prior to 2001 and Rouget strictly follows his methods of viticulture and winemaking, the quality in most cases is inseparable. It is therefore not a very well-kept secret that you should be buying Rouget’s wine if you are a fan of Henri Jayer.

Vinsionaire Tip

Although buying Emmanuel Rouget wines is hardly an insider’s tip, there is still a reasonable gap between the astronomical prices commanded by Jayer wines (3 bottles of 1983 Richebourg by Henri Jayer were sold for HK$240,000 at Christie’s May 2009 auction in Hong Kong) and the more earthbound prices of Rouget. For legends such as Cros Parantoux and Echezeaux, Rouget represents great value and we expect prices to match that of Henri Jayer as stock of his wine diminishes. Look out for our 1990 Rouget Cros Parantoux, a great vintage which is essentially the same as the Henri Jayer wine (they divided the wine and bottled it under their respective labels).

Another useful tip is to look for Meo-Camuzet either for vintages when Henri Jayer was the winemaker (pre-1988). Even for vintages after 1988, the style of the wine is the same and the quality is comparable because Meo-Camuzet had adopted the same style and Henri consulted on the winemaking.

By way of a simple illustration, the market price for the 1990 Cros Parantoux with the following 3 labels are approximately

We have a selection of wines from Henri Jayer, Henri for Georges Jayer, Georges Jayer, Meo-Camuzet and Emmanuel Rouget (please see our list).