Nicolas Potel, the dynamic Burgundian vintner behind Domaine de Bellene and négociant Maison Roche de Bellene, died on June 27. He was 56.
Potel fought through adversity seemingly his entire life and career. His father, Gérard, the former winemaker at Domaine de la Pousse d’Or in Volnay, died suddenly from a heart attack in 1997 at the age of 61. Potel and his mother were forced to leave the home he grew up in.
He used his contacts and wine knowledge to start a négociant house called Maison Nicolas Potel. When he ran into financial hardships, he received majority financial backing from the larger négociant firm Labouré-Roi, but that firm’s owners ousted Potel from his namesake winery in 2009. He began Maison Roche de Bellene later that year.
“I met Nico in 1994 when I was a student in Paris. We ended up starting the Bellene project together in 2008,” Manoël Bouchet, partner with Ernst Loosen in the Perron de Mypont négociant business, told Wine Spectator. “He was a visionary and very creative, always open to new models to explore. He did a lot for the new [vintner] model in Burgundy and very early we wrestled with the now-common model, a hybrid of both négociant and estate.”
Potel learned from his father and studied viticulture in Beaune, but also gained experience in Australia and California, as well as with other growers in Burgundy. Full of ideas, ambition and energy, he built his own business, starting with 6,500 cases in 1997. By 2008, it had 9 million euros in sales. Along the way, he founded Nicolas Potel Selections, a line of collectible older Burgundies, as well as a négociant business in Beaujolais called Potel-Aviron with friend Stéphane Aviron.
He believed that quality came from the vineyards and was constantly in search of old-vine parcels. His cellar in Beaune was environmentally conscious, the energy sourced from solar panels and vine cuttings. His wines were made without additives, with the intention of expressing place.
Nicolas Potel is survived by his former wife, Anna, and his children, Alphonse, Antonia and Emilien.
