Charles Joguet: The Modern Era
Following the retirement of Charles Joguet, in 2007 Alain Delaunay subsequently also released his hold on the business, and it came into the hands of Jacques Genet. Michel Pinard, the winemaker since the 1980s, had by this time also retired, and a replacement was required. One was duly found; his name was François-Xavier Barc, and he came with an impressive curriculum vitae that described stints in Sancerre, California and Bordeaux, the latter worked at Château Angélus in St Emilion.
François-Xavier Barc had worked at the domaine during the late 1990s, but then left to gain experience elsewhere. After working the stages described above he returned in 2003 to take up the joint position of viticulturist and winemaker. He is a meticulous soul who pays attention to detail, abhors machine-harvesting (his reaction to a question on picking by machine, put to him when I first met him in 2006, was a picture to behold), and he began to move the domaine away from a dependence on chemicals and towards more organic viticulture.
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