By Bruce Neyers

Saturday 6th June, 2026

Our 2023 Chardonnay ‘Carneros District’ – A long story with a happy ending

In December of 2015 I found myself in Boston on a cold, wintry night after a day of meetings and sales calls. I was headed to dinner with a group of sales people from Martignetti Company, our distributor in Massachusetts. The dinner was celebratory. Martignetti is one of the most important companies in the wine and spirits business, and they had once again turned in a record-breaking performance for us. I had arranged with my brand manager there, Brian Keeping — a wine industry superstar with whom I worked for almost 20 years — to take the sales force out to dinner. To embellish the celebration a bit, Barbara and I had selected from our cellar two cases of magnums of classic wines from Kermit Lynch and a few ‘All Stars’ from Neyers Winery. There were 20 of us if I recall correctly, and the second wine was the 2010 Meursault ‘Charmes’ from Domaine Roulot. I tasted it and thought to myself that it was a real beauty. Then Brian tasted it and remarked that it was ‘the wine of the day’. He paused, then corrected himself, saying ‘No, this is the wine of the year!’ We passed the magnum to one of Brian’s colleagues who tasted it, then pronounced it as possibly the single greatest white Burgundy he’d had in his life! It was a remarkable bottle. Someone at the table asked me about the wine and the producer, and I began the long story. Get comfy.

I went to work for Joseph Phelps Vineyards in March 1975, and it seemed like all I ever wanted in a job. A few weeks later, a friend of mine – a wine loving attorney who had just returned from a trip to Burgundy – called me, reporting that while in Burgundy he had met a young man whose family owned an important estate in Meursault. The young man had just graduated from the wine school in Beaune, and he was looking for a winery in California where he could work as a ‘Stagier’ to further his education. Could we use him, I was asked? Nothing to lose, I thought, so I asked Joe Phelps. Joe was lukewarm on the idea, but agreed, only if Barbara and I would house and feed him. We had no children then, and were renting a small two-bedroom cabin on the Phelps property, so we agreed. Two weeks later, we drove to the bus stop in San Francisco and picked up this tall, youthful, gallic man who spoke little English but seemed to be curious about everything. Our experiment was a great success. Jean-Marc Roulot was willing to engage in everything. He worked in the cellar tirelessly and brought the same work ethic to the vineyards. He was like that at home too, cooking dinner several nights a week, and cleaning up after himself as if he were a raw recruit in the army. We tasted wines together regularly, visited scores of wine properties at his insistence, and I learned way more from him than I could have ever taught him. He was 19 years old but had been working in the vineyards and cellars in Meursault since he was 10. Even Joe came around, and remarked that Jean-Marc was the best deal in an employee he’d ever hired. When the harvest was over, Jean-Marc decided to buy the Greyhound Bus equivalent of an Eurail Pass and travel through the country. At Barbara’s suggestion, he ended up in our hometown, Wilmington, Delaware, where he was a guest of her parents for a month or so. They were empty nesters and her mother was delighted to have a young man with a big appetite around. Barbara’s dad had been a fighter pilot during WWII, and he kept his pilot’s license active. He was a high school history teacher and loved flying Jean-Marc all over the east coast to see historical sites. Jean-Marc purported to enjoy it as well. Eventually it was time for him to go home, though, and with that we move to another chapter of our story.

Jean-Marc, it turns out, did not want to be a winemaker. He wanted to be an actor. Barbara later fessed up that he had told her, but she kept the story to herself. I then began to hear from Jean-Marc weekly with details of his discussions with his parents about their talks regarding his future. Eventually, though, a compromise was reached. His parents rented a Garrett in the 7th arrondissement in Paris – near the theater district – and he would stay there for a week every month, then come home and work on the wines for three weeks every month. The arrangement became even more important when Jean-Marc’s father Guy, a celebrated and respected vigneron, succumbed to cancer in 1982. Somehow Jean-Marc managed to keep both careers alive and successful. The wines he made drew praise wherever they were sold, and his appearances in film and on the stage scaled new heights. He became famous.

Jean-Marc, now a single parent with two sons, visited San Francisco last spring and met Barbara and me for lunch. He’s lean and fit, and carries his 69 years with grace and dignity. His older son helps him in the cellars and vineyards, and his wines are celebrated throughout the world. A few years ago though, we were able to persuade him to join us for dinner at our home in Saint Helena. We visited the winery first, and he tasted our Chardonnay ‘Carneros District’ with Tadeo. I won’t bother to tell you what he said about our wine – and our cellars — but it was very complimentary. Tadeo and I were both flattered.

We have just released our 2023 Chardonnay ‘Carneros District’, and like the many vintages before it, it’s rich and complex, with flavors of butterscotch and wildflower. It has a lovely finish of nutmeg, lemon-lime, and toast. Every year, when we release our new Chardonnay, Tadeo and I look at one another, and wonder if the wine will meet Jean-Marc’s high standards. This one certainly will.