Producer profile: Delaunay Vins & Domaines

Regions: Burgundy and Languedoc
Founded: 1995 (as Badet Clément; rebranded to Delaunay Vins & Domaines in 2023)
Owner/President: Laurent Delaunay
Vineyard holdings: 155 hectares in the Languedoc
Winemaker: Catherine Delaunay
Annual production: 15 million bottles
Turnover: 60 million euros in 2024

Delaunay Vins & Domaines is a family-run wine group built around two complementary obsessions: craftsmanship and terroir. Founded by a fifth-generation Burgundian, Laurent Delaunay, the firm now encompasses a diverse portfolio of brands and estates across Burgundy and the Languedoc. These include historic Burgundy producer Edouard Delaunay, the varietal brand Les Jamelles, Languedoc label Abbotts & Delaunay, and estate holdings such as Domaine de la Métairie d'Alon and Domaine de la Lause. After creating Badet Clément with his wife Catherine in 1995 and launching Les Jamelles, the duo steadily expanded through the 2000s, judiciously acquiring high-quality parcels and superior estates. Today, there are few companies that pivot so effortlessly between small-batch production and larger-scale varietal winemaking, while keeping quality at the heart of every decision.

The secret? A combination of dedicated vineyard work and exceptional winemaking. Indeed, people are at the heart of the business - Catherine Delaunay is the group's chief blender and tasting authority. Heavily influenced by her Beaujolais family background and long apprenticeship with Edouard Delaunay, Catherine insists on varietal typicité and Burgundian restraint in every stage of the winemaking – particularly élevage. Finesse, terroir character and balance are the company's trademarks, underpinned by organic and low-intervention viticulture. Their daughter Jeanne represents the next generation; after experience in Burgundy and Australia she now leads Abbotts & Delaunay. An impressive talent in the ascendant!



Meanwhile, sustainability remains a top priority for the group. Advocating a STEP (Society, Team, Excellence, Planet) roadmap, Delaunay Vins & Domaines has made considerable strides in energy and water reduction, the partial electrification of vehicles, and eco-friendly packaging. These commitments are woven into both the large-scale operations and the estate-level organic conversions.

Today, the group is internationally distributed, with commercial support in London, Shanghai, Tokyo and Vietnam. For the trade, the firm's multifaceted offer is a seductive one - terroir wines alongside well-priced varietal ranges. Last year, the house won multiple IWC trophies, with Laurent taking IWC Red Winemaker of the Year. Representing a unique marriage between Burgundian craftsmanship and Languedoc ingenuity, the group is both a commercial success story and a benchmark for contemporary wine marketing.

Aller de l'avant!

Q&A: Laurent Delaunay, President, Delaunay Vins et Domaines



Your family has deep roots in Burgundy, but you've also embraced the Languedoc. How do you balance tradition with innovation across these very different regions?

We have the same philosophy in terms of winemaking: to create wines that draw on the unique strengths of each region and category in order to bring consumers wines that are both genuinely characteristic of their region and also deliver a lot of pleasure. It is true that we have much more flexibility and possibilities in the Languedoc: different terroirs, many more grapes and the flexibility of different categories (appellation wines, IGP wines, Vins de France), allowing us to create innovative wines that surprise consumers. In Burgundy, on the contrary, it is also a very exciting challenge for us, as winemakers, to try to produce the best possible wines, both representative of their terroirs, and bringing a lot of pleasure, with such tight rules, constraints, and such a high level of tradition. This is a very interesting stylistic exercise. If you can produce wines which still make a difference in quality in a region where there are so many rules and traditions, and so little place for personal innovation, then you are a very good winemaker.

In the Languedoc, meanwhile, you can pursue innovation and creativity. Yet in Burgundy, it is really attention to the finest details which make a difference. One of the traps in Burgundy can be to focus only on terroir expression, which is the essence of Burgundy, sometimes with an excessive level of austerity, whilst forgetting that it is absolutely key to also bring pleasure to consumers.

What was your vision when reclaiming the Edouard Delaunay name, and how has the journey evolved since then?

My vision was full of hopes, but also humble. Of course, my secret and personal hope was to re-establish Edouard Delaunay in the Burgundy top producers landscape but I was aware of how pretentious and how ambitious that was, knowing how high the Burgundy top level was. We were really a small challenger, doubting our own legitimacy. Eight years later, I believe we have reached that level and there is no doubt in Burgundy that Edouard Delaunay has returned as a respected, high-quality producer. The challenge is now to last, to maintain – and even improve – our level of quality.

What do you see as the biggest challenges and opportunities for French wine producers in today's global market?

In this more and more complex global market, with declining wine consumption and so many challenges, I think the biggest challenge for French wine producers is how to adapt to the consumers' expectations and evolutions in terms of tastes and wine styles, how to bring consumers exciting wines, whilst keeping our DNA, our French touch and our authenticity. This is a very delicate balancing act. I really believe that this is still possible, but it requires following and surveying the market with great nuance, and adapting our wines and winemaking with sensitivity. As far as we are concerned, that is exactly what we have tried to do for more than 20 years.