The culture of vine and wine is a tradition handed down from generation to generation in our family. With passion and patience, forbearers passed to each successive generation their knowledge and love for the earth and the natural world. This inheritance today can be traced back to the 15 th century.
Vines have been cultivated in the Auxerre area since the 2nd century. In the Middle Ages, the area was almost exclusively farmland. By the 1950’s, however we counted 40,000 hectares (100,000 acres) of vines in the Auxerrois vineyards, making it the most important wine production area of France. After the ravages of the phylloxera in the 1880s, Henri Sorin, our great-great grandfather quickly reconstituted his vineyard. He was one of the first winegrowers in Saint-Bris to plant vines of Aligoté with grafted grapevines. Later, at the beginning of the 20th century, the first Sauvignon vines were also planted in Saint-Bris.
In turn, Gaston Sorin and later André Sorin, increased their wine production by improving the techniques of wine-making. In addition. they developed the sale of wine in the Paris region, first in barrels and then in bottles. With Patrick and Jean-Marc by his side, " André Sorin and Sons " became “Domaine des Remparts” in 1982. Together they enlarged the vineyard and improved the winery, building new accommodations for the vinification and aging the wines. They invested in wine-making equipment and in particular in a grape harvester in 1986, marking the end of the manual grape harvests.
While viticulture was formerly just a complement to cereal crops and to the production of cherries in the region, it is the main activity of our domain. Thomas Sorin, who represents the 19th generation of winemakers in our family, joined Patrick (his father) and Jean-Marc on the estate in the 2000’s. He brought new energy to wine-making and a second infusion of modernity into the Domaine des Remparts by constructing a new winery and introducing new vinification methods for our wines.
© 2021 | Domaine des Remparts