Winemaker
Thibaud Clerget
Winemaker, Domaine Yvon Clerget
- Discipline
- Winemaker
- Based in
- Volnay, France
i. Biography
Since 2015, the modern work at Domaine Yvon Clerget in Volnay, France, has centered on vineyard presence and the return to domaine bottling with the 2015 vintage. In Thibaud Clerget's hands, the family name returned to the label with a practical emphasis on farming, handling, and letting Burgundy's most transparent red grape carry site and season without excess.
The Making
Burgundian training gives a grower the grammar before the variations. Thibaud Clerget trained at Beaune's Lycée Viticole, entering the discipline through a school rooted in the region's viticultural and cellar expectations before widening his reference points. Completed vintages with Pinot Noir specialists in New Zealand, Oregon, and Côte de Nuits gave Clerget three different readings of the same grape across climates, cellars, and sensibilities. The value was not novelty for its own sake, but calibration: how timing, extraction, fruit weight, and restraint register differently when the variety is handled outside a single local reflex. The work at Domaine Yvon Clerget since 2015 keeps that wider experience tied to Volnay rather than set against it. As winemaker with family responsibilities at the domaine, Clerget carries Burgundian discipline into a renewed chapter of domaine bottling, with attention placed on vineyard decisions first and cellar action measured against what the fruit will tolerate.
Where They Are Now
Vineyard management is the base of the domaine's current practice, not a detached agricultural stage. At the estate in Volnay, France, Clerget has managed the vineyards since 2015, keeping the first decisions of the wine in the rows, under the pressure of weather, season, and the requirements of the red Burgundian variety. The farming is described through specific adjustments: all vineyards are ploughed; vines are trained higher to improve photosynthesis in warmer vintages; more leaf coverage is kept to protect grapes from heat. The approach is organic, with minimal intervention, and the stated target is purity, finesse, and intensity. In trade terms, these are viticultural choices made in response to warmer conditions and to fruit that shows imprecision quickly. Since 2019, the cellar work has moved toward less force. Clerget began limiting yields, adopted a more delicate vinification approach, and stopped pigeage completely. That change places extraction, texture, and structure under tighter control, drawing less on mechanical insistence and more on what the crop can give without being overworked. Whole bunch use is not fixed across the range: some cuvées are around 50% whole bunch, while others are completely destemmed. New oak also changes substantially from wine to wine. One defined trial sits outside conventional oak entirely: a special cuvée of Clos Vougeot aged completely in wine globes. The pattern is not rejection of tradition, but selective pressure on the tools available to it.
Signature
Volnay 1er Cru Clos du Verseuil functions as a signature bottling within a Pinot Noir portfolio organized around transparency, purity, finesse, and intensity. In Clerget's range, the wine gives those aims a named Volnay reference rather than leaving them as general stylistic claims.
Acclaim
Volnay 1er Cru Clos du Verseuil also carries a fixed family and site reference: a 0.68-hectare monopole acquired by the Clerget family in 1936. That parcel, surface area, and year give Domaine Yvon Clerget's continuity a precise anchor in Volnay. The tasting register used by Clerget stays close to Pinot Noir's freshness, fruit, and color: "I love this vintage, it's fresh, with elegant fruit, and ruby colours which are typical of Pinot Noir. It will be more ready to drink soon, compared to the 2018."
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Thibaud
What does Thibaud Clerget do now?
Thibaud Clerget manages the domaine's vineyards.
Where did Thibaud Clerget train or study?
Thibaud Clerget trained at Beaune's Lycée Viticole.
What is Thibaud Clerget known for?
Pinot Noir.
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