Winemaker
Marc Bachelet
Winemaker, Domaine Bachelet-Monnot
- Discipline
- Winemaker
- Based in
- Dezize-lès-Maranges, France
i. Biography
The Path
Burgundian domaine work is built by repeated decisions rather than declaration: farming, picking, pressing, élevage, and release timing. Since 2005, Marc Bachelet has been the co-founder of Domaine Bachelet-Monnot, where the house identity has been set through steadiness, precision, and a Burgundian reading of place, vintage by vintage. Clarity in wine comes from control of excess. At Domaine Bachelet-Monnot, Marc’s role has sat inside a style that favors tension, texture, mineral drive, and freshness over weight. The approach depends on careful farming, thoughtful cellar work, and restraint applied as a technical choice, not as an aesthetic slogan.
Current Practice
Sustainable farming at the domaine is described as très lutte raisonnée; the brothers are practicing organic and work organically, though the estate is not certified. The vineyard protocol is practical and observable: ploughed soils, monitored vine health, no herbicides, strict de-budding, and hand-picking grapes at optimum ripeness. The craft here is repetition with purpose, keeping vine condition and fruit condition ahead of cellar correction. Harvest timing in 2023 was handled as a freshness decision. Marc and Alex began harvesting in Puligny on September 5, working through the vines in the early hours to avoid heat. Temperature-controlled trucks carried the fruit, and grapes were stored overnight before pressing in an air-conditioned winery. Marc stated the reasoning directly: "we harvested early because ripening was going quickly and we wanted to keep brightness in the wines." Cellar intervention is kept measured. The brothers micro-dose sulphur when necessary and do not add sulphur at bottling; Marc’s approach uses small doses so the wine can be bottled with very little free SO2 while remaining protected. Pressing choices, lees aging, and larger oak barrels are used in service of freshness. The 350-liter barrels help avoid overt oak flavor while supporting precise mineral flavors and taut structure. White-wine élevage follows a defined sequence: long pressing, fermentation with indigenous yeasts in larger 350-liter barrels, 12 months in barrel, then an additional 6 months in stainless steel tank before release. Grand Cru wines use 50% new oak, with less new oak for the rest of the range. About 60% of production is white wine, and roughly 90% of production is exported from France. Red-wine work has moved further into whole-bunch use, between 20% and 60% in 2023, with moderate new oak usage. The red Maranges is made with a small proportion of whole bunches. The same discipline applies across the color divide: structure without heaviness, expression without exaggeration.
Recognition
Recognition for the domaine has formed around serious, structured white wines and demonstrative, pleasure-bent reds. The Bachelet brothers are noted for great white wines, with red wines said to have reached the same standard. Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatières is a signature bottle: a refined Chardonnay from a Premier Cru site in the Côte de Beaune, showing concentration and pronounced minerality. The range is described as clean, pure, transparent, and bursting with mineral energy, with little to no reduction and the structure to age. Marc favors white wines with acidity and alcohol levels around 12.8% to 13.4%. In practical terms, that places the domaine’s grammar on freshness, line, and lift.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Marc
What is Marc Bachelet's present role?
Marc Bachelet co-presides over Domaine Bachelet-Monnot with Alexandre Bachelet.
What is Marc Bachelet known for?
Marc Bachelet and Alexandre Bachelet are associated with serious, structured white wines and demonstrative, pleasure-bent red wines from Domaine Bachelet-Monnot.
What is Marc Bachelet's craft?
Marc Bachelet’s craft is Burgundian winemaking at Domaine Bachelet-Monnot: sustainable farming, hand-picking, measured cellar work, indigenous-yeast fermentation in 350-liter barrels, lees aging, and élevage directed toward tension, texture, mineral drive, and freshness.
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