In the past half-century, the term "négociant" has encompassed at least three distinct meanings. Before savvy Burgundy drinkers’ attention bolted toward grower-producers in the early ‘00s, drinkers tended to associate négociants—the large houses that typically buy grapes from other producers, rather than grow them themselves—with predictability and consistency. (Or at least this was the case for the best of the négociants.) "Predictability" may reach our ears today as qualified praise at best, but Burgundy has always been a region with more quality and bottle variability than most, and the reliability that the larger houses offered was, and remains, significant. 

In particular, the négociant houses of Drouhin and Jadot were considered among the top tier of Burgundy producers. Drouhin’s iconic Beaune "Clos des Mouches" (both colors), for example, presents a widely available and affordable glimpse into the house’s ultra-elegant style. Jadot’s more concentrated and ageworthy wines were equally accessible, given that the producer offered many of Burgundy’s most iconic grands crus for well below $100.  Those same wines today have followed Burgundy’s general price hikes, yet remain relative bargains. A recent vintage of Jadot’s terrific Gevrey-Chambertin "Clos St. Jacques" can still be had for around $200, roughly a quarter of what the vineyard’s most celebrated grower-producers tend to go for.     

But the rise of such grower-producers in the early 21st century has led to slackening interest in Burgundy’s large houses, which continues to this day. Their effective demonizing marked a second stage in the evolution of négociants generally. By the mid-2000s, there was a sense that small-production Burgundies represented the highest expression of artisanal wine production and made the easy predictability of larger houses seem generic and unexciting. Beginning 10 years ago, the grower/négociant distinction felt unshakably permanent. But recent history has seen precisely such shaking.

Enter the era of the micro-négociant, which, in certain influential wine circles, is now Burgundy’s most attention-grabbing category. For the uninitiated: above all, a micro-négociant means, well, small, though a more precise definition of scale does not exist. New producers routinely begin with just a few barrels from one or two appellations, though established names like Frédéric Cossard produce decent quantities from two dozen appellations or more. Aside from that, and the familiar négociant behavior of buying fruit rather than growing it, other key attributes are broadly shared by the new wave of Burgundy’s micro-négociants.  

For starters, off-the-beaten-track appellations—think Hautes-Côtes and lesser Côte-d’Or villages, such as Fixin or Maranges—and a certain spontaneous and intuitive approach to vinification spring to mind. Less required, but routine enough to warrant mention, is a conscious attempt to prioritize pleasure-in-drinking above "seriousness." Which means that the vast majority of these wines drink well early.

The explosion of interest in Burgundy this century mainstreamed the prime importance of any wine’s individuality and distinctiveness in our assessment of any particular wine. We now search for, and appreciate, quirks in white and red Burgundy, and tie particularity to personality. For many Burgundy lovers, some blemishes—for example, a nip of volatile acidity, or strong reduction—are not just tolerated, but even sought after.

Itemizing the region’s many notable micro-négoces is an unwieldy task. But consider these the five producers whose wines you should first seek out. 

Chanterêves 

Tomoko Kuriyama’s micro-négociant dates back all of 14 years to 2010, which both makes her a micro-négoce OG and a good index of the newness of the category. Aside from her pioneer status, Tomoko can add the distinction of producing many of the category’s best wines. Her reds consistently stand out in their intensely whole-cluster, open-textured character. The whites are looser, and most often trade on flavory mid-palates and early accessibility.

What I love about the reds is how persuasively they converge stylistic vision with vineyard expression. There’s a family resemblance across the range, but her efforts in Nuits-Saint-Georges and Savigny-lès-Beaune nevertheless strongly speak of their individual identities. Top marks go to the always superb Nuits "Damodes," a high-slope cuvée that hides its fruit behind the stones even in warmer vintages. The Hautes-Côtes de Beaune Rouge "Paris l’Hopital" issues from a richly granitic plot near Maranges, and reliably provides an impressive width of spice alongside its cherry tones.

Many micro-négoces place priority on either the aestheticizing effects of winemaking or a commitment to the centering of place in their wines. The enduring appeal of Chanterêves comes in Kuriyama's intuitive ability to synthesize human and environmental inputs beautifully.

Maison Skyaasen

Norwegian-born Joachim Skyaasen and his American wife Olivia produce a tidy range of roughly a half-dozen wines from their charming Meursault cuverie. The reds in particular are superb. The complexity so routinely achieved in these reds must stem from some sort of viticultural wizardry. 

The wines always show a wide spectrum of red through black fruits, which gives them all a sense of fruit-derived complexity more substantial than mere winemaking artifice. Whole-cluster character lends vivid green peppercorn and cardamom-like notes that season, rather than distract from, the fruit.  

No famous appellations here, but that doesn’t slow things down at all. In particular, the Savigny "Les Bas Liards" can be stunningly aromatic, which in certain vintages border on hallucinogenic. Pick a spice, savory or sweet. You’ll likely find it here.

Theirs are reds of depth and soul and vision. There’s something here that leads me back to them more often than their peers.

Maison Harbour

This is perhaps my favorite micro-négociant in all of Burgundy. Harbour produces between five and seven cuvées per year, four of which come from Gevrey. Stems figure less prominently than most producers in this stem-obsessed category. But the purity of Pinot fruit can be sublime, with 2017 and 2019 standing out among recent vintages.  

There is a glossy veneer that recalls Louis-Michel Liger-Belair's reds and, at times, a level of purity that underscores that comparison. In most years the Gevrey "Combe Au Moines" stands apart. Its first impression is always that of a jewel-like purity, though there’s real structural sophistication underneath. Hedonists will find plenty to enjoy young, though experience has taught me to expect real upside if cellared, a quality it shares with Harbour’s other reds.

Also gorgeous: a Savigny "La Dominode" that outdrinks its modest price by a full standard deviation. Compared to the Gevrey, its texture reads as creamier and its fruit smokier, more noir. With such richness you might expect the tannins to sting the finish, but the wine lovingly leaves us with soft folds rather than sharp edges.  

Petit-Roy

Japanese expat Seiichi Saito studied winemaking in Beaune in the mid-2000s, and established his own micro-négociant in 2016. Formative stints at Mugnier and Rousseau fueled his creative and entrepreneurial energies, but Saito cites his time at Savigny-lès-Beaune's Domaine Simon Bize as his deepest revelation. Even today, Bize's intensely whole-cluster style remains a living model; Saito's time at the vineyard led him to pursue the whole-cluster style in his own production which has made his reputation. Among this group of wines, Petit-Roy’s reds are the wildest and, at times, the most volatile. They have a more natural sheen and a go-your-own-way feel that makes for wonderfully distinctive drinking. Lovers of fringey styles tend to find these to be essential pleasures.  

Given the stylized nature of Saito's wines, choosing one carefully is less critical. I find the Hautes-Côtes cuvées (both Nuits & Beaune) to be especially willing vehicles for his whole-cluster expression. Both wines show dramatic, potpourri-like aromatic profiles that are worth the price of admission even before you taste a drop. The Pernand "Les Fichots" brings the fruit more in line with the stems, with a most delicious blackberry note running through the middle vintage after vintage.

Les Horées

Catharina Sadde started her career in kitchens before finding her truer calling in the open air of vineyards. She founded her micro-négociant in 2019. Since then her star has risen with astonishing velocity, even by Burgundy’s own frenzied standards. Today, her wines disappear from the market upon release, and resellers now fetch north of $500 for her top cuvées. 

There’s an extra bit of density and fruit weight to her reds. This is not to say they aim at "seriousness," but never are they fleeting pleasures. As a group they live in the sparsely populated buttoned-up sector of Burgundy’s natural wine milieu—they are clean and precise. 

How Catharina manages to make such a sprightly red from Beaune "Les Prévolles" is a mystery, considering that site’s flattish bottom-slope location. But its fruit is always red, clear, and alert.

The whites are often delicious, and certainly improving. Textures have tightened in the past few years, and are closing ground on their better known red cellarmates. They are always soft and gracious, and her surprising take on Aligoté—an intriguingly saline and lime-scented example—is something of a specialty.

How to Find Them

Current vintages of Petit-Roy Bourgogne are widely available for around $40. Its Hautes-Côtes (both Nuits and Beaune) will run you a bit more. Chanterêves Bourgogne Rouge, as well as their excellent Hautes-Côtes "Paris l’Hopital," can be found for around $50. Keep in mind that house styles imprint strongly for both of these producers, so even the "entry level" wines offer stylistically representative experiences.

Maisons Skyaasen and Harbour require more careful searching, though you can expect similarly sane prices once you find them. The 2020 Savigny rouge from each is currently around $80. And the pair make a fascinating side-by-side comparison.

Surging popularity for Les Horées means tasting requires some splurging, unless you can count yourselves among the very few who can get ahold of Catharina's wines before they hit the secondary market. Expect to spend around $300 for the Bourgogne Rouge, and more than twice that for the Gevrey-Chambertin "En Reniard," her most coveted bottling.