Emmanuel Hautus

The Path

Cellar management at Bonneau du Martray in Pernand-Vergelesses, France gave Emmanuel Hautus a base in one of Burgundy’s more exacting settings. A role like that is built on repetition, vigilance, and the discipline of timing; the cellar teaches through accumulation, not display. His later move to Chef de Cave at Domaine Bonneau du Martray reads less as a change of course than a broadening of responsibility within the same estate, with the line of work remaining intact.

The Work Today

As winemaker, Hautus describes his part in the process with deliberate narrowness: “I'm the only change here, for the tasting.” That is a useful trade definition of scope. At a domaine with established habits, the craft sits inside fine margins, where the work is not to reset the house style but to present it faithfully. His own framing makes that clear: “It's the same team and the same philosophy that we have followed for a number of years.” In practice, that places the emphasis on stewardship, not interruption.

Signature

Emmanuel's signature wines include Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru, Charlemagne Grand Cru, Corton Grand Cru, and 2016 Corton-Charlemagne Assemblage. Taken together, the list maps the estate’s core language in Burgundy. These names carry place, hierarchy, and expectation; the work behind them is one of precision, consistency, and respect for what the vineyard already declares.

In Their Words “It's the same team and the same philosophy that we have followed for a number of years.”

Acclaim

The clearest public markers in Hautus’s record are tied to vintage conditions, and they show how closely cellar work is bound to the weather above it. Of 2017, he said, “2017 was great for us in terms of both quantity and quality.” Of 2016, he was equally direct: “In 2016 we were touched by the black frost – that meant about 40% losses in white and 50% in red.” Those comments set out the practical reality of the job: harvest by harvest, the work is to make sense of what the season allows.