The Buisson family has been in the quiet Burgundian village of Saint-Romain for about 1000 years now. Today you can find their wines in some of the hippest natural wine bars in Paris, Lyon and beyond. That’s a pretty cool story already, but what happened in between?

For much of that history the Buissons were farmers, selling their harvests to merchants and negociants. In 1947 Henri and Marguerite began bottling and labeling their wine and the estate was officially born. Their son Gilles and his wife Monica took over a few decades later and now it is their sons, Franck and Frédérick who are in charge.

The Buissons began farming their vineyards organically back in the 1970s, and indeed “returned to organics” is more apt as this would have been the norm for much of their pre 19th century history. Their entire estate of 19 hectares was officially certified organic in 2009. In the cellar they have always been classic transmitters of terroir, working in a minimalist way with native yeasts and mostly older barrels.

The Brothers Buisson spent time, as you do when young, travelling and also attending schools and they soon fell in love with all things natural wine. They also realized that they’re family had been producing wines that were basically natural all along. Other than reducing the SO2 (in some cases to zero) there was nothing more to do other than get the bottles in front of the right bars and restaurants and presto: very, very old school Burgundy is hip, natural, fresh and fun!

Professional Reviews

What importer Rosenthal Wine Merchant has to say about this wine...

Solely sourced from Pinot Noir planted just above Saint-Romain’s Sous Roche (one of the lynchpin crus of Buisson’s lineup), Buisson's Bourgogne Rouge offers a similar expertly rendered balance of seriousness and breeziness as the Blanc. Saint-Romain’s tendency to produce kinetic red wines of palpable minerality is on full display here, with bright cherry fruit given lift by tremendously vibrant acidity, and while the wine is lithe and without flab it possesses admirable sap and bastes the palate with dense, mouthwatering fruit. Like the Bourgogne Blanc, it spent one full year in entirely used 228-liter barrels with minimal sulfur additions.