Erni Loosen takes on Burgundy

The globetrotting Riesling Master launches new venture

Fans of Ernst Loosen know that he rarely sits still. As owner of Weingut Dr. Loosen, his family property in Germany’s Mosel region, he’s renowned for his Rieslings, from serious single-site bottlings to his popular, widely available Dr. L. He co-created Washington State’s Eroica Riesling in a joint venture with Chateau Ste. Michelle. In Oregon, he owns Appassionata winery, focused on age-worthy Pinot Noirs and a Grosse Gewächs-style Riesling. He also collaborates with Jim Barry Wines in Australia and Telmo Rodriguez in Rioja.

Now, Loosen is launching a new venture in Burgundy, called Perron de Mypont, with wines releasing soon in U.S. markets and several other countries, including in Scandinavia and Taiwan. Loosen’s partner in this venture is Manoël Bouchet, a member of the BIVB (the Burgundy trade association) as well as the Burgundy negociants’ federation and Dijon University. U.S. consumers will soon see Maison Perron de Mypont Bourgogne Pinot Noir and Bourgogne Chardonnay, with an Aligoté coming later this year.

I recently chatted with Erni and Mano (it’s easy to get on a first-name basis with these guys) about their new project. This conversation has been edited for conciseness and clarity, but I trust it conveys the obvious friendship and camaraderie between the two partners.

Manoël Bouchet (left) and Ernst Loosen, on the terrace of the Vieux Château de Puligny-Montrachet in Burgundy. Photo: Maison Perron de Mypont

Dave McIntyre: I realize this project must have been in the works for a few years, but this is a tough time to launch a new wine venture.

Erni Loosen: It’s the worst timing! But there’s never the best time. If you do it while business is booming, then everyone’s doing it and you end up with big competition. So from that point of view …

Mano Bouchet: When we started to talk about this project [in 2022] I said, Erni, do you realize Burgundy is under a lot of pressure? Pricing is through the roof, grower contracts are hard to get… But we’re very fortunate that Burgundy remains a strong brand, with very loyal consumers.

DM: You’re following the negociant model?

MB: Yes. When I started in this business 20 years ago, there were about 300 negociants in Burgundy. Now there are nearly 1,400. So it’s a big boom in the negoce business, for good and bad reasons. A lot of growers are getting into the negociant business because it’s nimble. It’s a way for them to expand without buying property. And when you start from scratch in this very expensive region, it’s pretty much the only way to get straight into the game. So this is the first step for us as we try to get to this hybrid model of grower-negociant. We have been looking for some vineyards or long-term contracts.

EL: You know Dave, the old way to acquire vineyards in Burgundy was to find a girl who is going to inherit them and marry her. But we are two old donkeys, that won’t work for us.

DM: So for now you’ll have two tiers. This Maison tier will have the regional wines being released now, and an Editions tier will have some village-level wines. How big do you envision your portfolio growing in the Editions tier?

EL: We are not under pressure to grow it like crazy. I don’t want to have a line of 50 or so wines with various appellations you have to explain and teach people how to pronounce, and then you have only one barrel of this or a half barrel of that. Our goal is to grow it solidly. So the Bourgogne blanc, the rouge and the Aligoté are the bread and butter wines, and we’ve tried to make them as good as possible. We use 600-liter puncheons and extended lees contact to add complexity. For the village wines, we want to take our time and find growers with whom we can establish long-term relationships, to help with continuity, instead of jumping every year back and forward with another appellation, and people ask “Why don’t you have that one I liked last year?” They want continuity.

MB: Early on, we were looking for some Meursault and I said to Erni that I know a guy from long ago who was one of the first to try a new method of making Chardonnay, in 600-liter barrels with lees contact but not batonnage [lees stirring]. I thought that guy would be ideal for us to work with. It took some long conversations, but we were able to convince him and now we are very pleased.

DM: What’s his name?

MB: Well, I don’t like to give away the keys to the car, you know?

DM: Well then, tell me about the name of your project, Perron de Mypont.

EL: A few years ago, I bought half of the Vieux Château de Puligny-Montrachet from a friend of mine, who owns the other half. I thought that would be a great name for a wine venture, but under French law, you can’t put château in the name if you are a negociant, and you can’t use the village name unless you have vineyards. So I was reading an old book from 1973 by an English gentleman about Puligny, and the book mentioned an aristocrat, Monsieur Perron de Mypont, who built the Vieux Château in the 15th century. So I called my trademark lawyer, and the the name was available. He was also a mayor of Beaune at one point.

MB: He also helped Chassagne-Montrachet gain some independence from the monks. So we thought it was a good tribute to put his name in front of the wine scene, because he was very much involved in changing rules of the game in this little area in this little part of the world.

DM: So what’s next for you, Erni?

EL: With every project I say this is the last, no more! But I do have something new about to launch. Since 2016 I have been making wine with Jim Barry wines in Australia, but not for export. Now we have a much larger project called Slate Hill Riesling that will launch in two months.

DM: Do you ever rest?

MB: Erni has a gift of ubiquity within the wine industry, apparently.

Following my conversation with Loosen and Bouchet, I was able to taste samples of the Maison Perron de Mypont Bourgogne Chardonnay 2022 and Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2022. These will be available in the U.S. for a suggested retail price of $32 and $33, respectively, which reflects a 10% tariff imposed by the Trump Administration, so obviously these could change. Six Edition-level wines will range in price from $95 for a Volnay to $440 for a Meursault Premier Cru Les Perrières. They will be imported by Loosen Bros USA, based in Oregon, and distributed nationally through various distributors.

Maison Perron de Mypont Bourgogne Chardonnay 2022 $32. 12.5% abv. This wine raised my eyebrows. It features expressive fruit and impressive depth, presumably from the extended lees contact. The wine continued to develop over two nights. Aged 9 months in used French barriques and 600-liter demi-muid barrels. Sourced from vineyards in the Côte de Beaune, Côte Chalonnaise and Chablis. 1,000 cases made.

Maison Perron de Mypont Bougogne Pinot Noir 2022 $33. 12.5% This wine, produced from vineyards in the Côte de Beaune and Côte Chalonnaise, with the fruit 100 percent de-stemmed, and the wine aged 10 months in used barrique and demi-muid barrels. Dark fruit flavors dominate, with a firm minerally core. My reaction was neutral at first (I was enamored of the Chardonnay), but on the second night this wine shone with brighter fruit flavors. It just needed to shake off its jet lag. 1,500 cases made.