WINE is about people. Perhaps nowhere is this better illustrated than in the Domaines of Burgundy where personal commitment by succeeding generations to the honour, reputation and integrity of the House ensures its continued success and fame. And who else better to entrust this critical responsibility to than the next generation.

You can certainly hire someone suitably qualified and with the required competence and ability to take over, but it will not be the same as having your children take over. The personal commitment of an employee, however dedicated, would not be the same. Thus, in recent years I have been increasingly received at the Domaines by the next generation, sons or daughters or both, whose fathers had received me when I first visited in 1986.

At Domaine Drouhin, it is now Veronique or Frederic, Robert Drouhin's children, at Domaine Louis Jadot by Andre Gagey's son Pierre-Henry, and at Domaine Faiveley by Francois Faiveley's son Erwan, who took over in 2007. (Francois himself is the sixth in line from the Francois Faiveley who founded the company in 1825.)