Ten Savignys and a Grappling Hook: Andrew & Emma Nielsen's Le Grappin
In a medieval cellar in Beaune — and since 2022 among the 300-year-old beams of Meloisey in the Hautes-Côtes — an Australian former advertising man and his British wife vinify overlooked parcels of the Côte de Beaune by hand: whole-cluster reds of featherweight elegance, basket-pressed whites raised in old oak, concrete and glass, bottled by gravity without capsules. A micro-négoce that tells the story of Savigny-lès-Beaune one lieu-dit at a time.
Andrew Nielsen was an advertising man — publications like The Economist and The Week, posting after posting around the world. In Los Angeles in 2006, a bottle of Dujac's Clos de la Roche rewired his life: he worked that vintage with Kosta Browne in California, then Felton Road in Central Otago and Coldstream Hills in the Yarra Valley. It was at Coldstream Hills, through James Halliday, that he met Patrick Bize of Simon Bize in Savigny-lès-Beaune — and found himself in Burgundy.
Working the harvest at Simon Bize, the idea landed. «I saw all this amazing fruit come across the table, and thought: why don't we make ten different Savignys?» A domaine of 22 hectares could not make the economics work — but a micro-négoce could. In 2011, Andrew and his wife Emma founded Le Grappin in Fanny Sabre's old cuverie opposite the Beaune town hall, buying grapes from the same organically farmed parcels year after year. Meanwhile Andrew had paid his dues the long way: selling cheese at Neal's Yard Dairy in London while studying viticulture, running beer-wine-and-cider pairing nights — and befriending Evin O'Riordain of The Kernel Brewery, whose friends, he says, drink a goodly amount of Le Grappin's wine.
The Place — Savigny & the Hautes-Côtes
The wines come from the same organically farmed single parcels every year — small corners of larger vineyards in the Côte de Beaune and Hautes-Côtes de Beaune, with the Du Grappin line reaching south to Beaujolais, Mâconnais and Vézelay. Andrew works the vineyards with the growers: later hedging, less weeding, longer hang-time, sorting berry by berry.
Savigny-lès-Beaune
The heart of the project — the village Andrew set out to tell in ten wines. The red from 60-year-old vines in the lieu-dit above the village he calls «the wine that defines Le Grappin.»
Old Vines & Overlooked Sites
Bourgogne Aligoté from 90-year-old vines at Roche-Vineuse; Beaune premier crus like Boucherottes and Grèves; Santenay's Les Gravières; Saint-Aubin En l'Ebaupin; Montagny 1er Cru Truffière — sites the big houses pass by, farmed organically and picked by hand.
The Partnership Model
He pays above the odds for grapes and asks growers to forgo pesticides and herbicides. The reward shows in the soil: «All of a sudden there's worms back in the soil, you can see ladybug larvae — all of these things that just weren't there.»
Meloisey — The Forever Home
In 2022 Le Grappin moved from the Beaune cuverie to a new cellar site in Meloisey, in the Hautes-Côtes de Beaune — 300-year-old beams and a gravity-fed workflow among the forests and forgotten vineyards of the upper slope.
Cellar — Whole Clusters, Light Hands
The house signature is printed on the label: vin de grappes entières. The reds ferment whole-cluster in wood or concrete — extraction kept deliberately light — and age in large-format old oak for up to two years. The result is a Burgundy of unusual transparency: red fruit, spice from the stems, and a tension that destemmed fruit cannot give.
The whites take the opposite road to the same destination. Whole clusters are pressed gently in hydraulic basket presses — Savigny blanc is foot-crushed in the press — and the juice is allowed to oxidise before barrel, settling itself. Élevage happens in old oak barrels, concrete eggs, wooden foudres or glass, whichever the fruit asks for. A little sulfur at bottling, at most; indigenous yeasts only.
Nothing is rushed and nothing is forced. Bottling is done by hand with a gravity device designed by winemaker David Clark — slower, Andrew admits, but gentler: no bottle shock. «You shouldn't be afraid to embrace what the vintage gives you»: when a parcel of Les Gravières Chardonnay wanted to be big two years running, he stopped restraining it — «let's roll with it. And that's when I really saw the wine go from good to wow.»
The Wines — Two Labels, One Hand
Le Grappin is the flagship — Côte de Beaune and Hautes-Côtes wines of patience, élevage and place. Du Grappin is the relaxed sibling — vins de soif from Beaujolais, Mâconnais and Vézelay, sold in kegs, refillables and bagnums for the world's bistros.
Savigny-lès-Beaune Rouge
The definition — 60-year-old vines, whole clusterFrom a high lieu-dit next to Aloxe-Corton, picked a week later than the neighbours dare — «Hey Obelix, you are harvesting at last!» Fine, fresh, pure: red cherry and raspberry with lovely tension. Andrew's calling card.
Savigny-lès-Beaune Blanc & Saint-Aubin
The whites — basket-pressed, oxidised juice, old woodSavigny blanc foot-crushed in the press and raised in older, larger barrels; Saint-Aubin En l'Ebaupin bright with pear and citrus. Whites of density and poise that hold a decade.
Premier Crus & Aligoté
The range upward — Beaune, Santenay, Montagny, Roche-VineuseBeaune 1er Cru Boucherottes and Grèves blanc; Santenay 1er Cru Les Gravières; Montagny 1er Cru Truffière from vines organic since the 1980s; Bourgogne Aligoté from 90-year-old vines at Roche-Vineuse. Small lots, often gone before release.
Du Grappin — Beaujolais Line
The vins de soif — Villages, Côte de Brouilly, Saint-Amour, NouveauBeaujolais Villages and a 10% «breakfast» Nouveau; Côte de Brouilly from vines organic since 2012, élevage in 300-litre barrels; Saint-Amour, the cru whose reputation Le Grappin set out to rebuild — sold in kegs, refillable bottles and bagnums.
Barrels to Brewers
The side trade — lees left in, beer friends servedSince 2012 Andrew has sold his used barrels — lees included, «all these goodies» — to The Kernel, Thornbridge, Partizan, Cloudwater, Burning Sky and Wild Beer Co, whose Modus Operandi owes much of its acidity to Le Grappin casks. Over 400 barrels and counting.
Legacy — The Storyteller of Savigny
Le Grappin's first legacy is cartographic. Andrew set out to draw a map of Savigny-lès-Beaune in wine — a village most drinkers pass on the way to grander names — and succeeded: over a decade, the Savigny rouge became the reference for what a micro-négoce could do with a lieu-dit, old vines, and whole clusters. Fifteen natural wines now carry the label, from Bourgogne Aligoté to Santenay premier cru.
The second legacy is hospitality as an ecosystem. The Du Grappin bagnums fight packaging waste in the world's restaurants; the barrel trade feeds Britain's craft brewers; the Neal's Yard years fed the pairings. Emma kept her banking day job in London while working harvests in Beaune — the couple split their year between England and Burgundy, keeping Le Grappin small on purpose: 18 barrels in 2013, 26 in 2014, and never much more.
And the legacy now has roots. In 2022 the Nielsens moved Le Grappin to Meloisey, a Hautes-Côtes village among the trees, into a cellar with 300-year-old beams — a forever home. From an Australian's epiphany with a Dujac bottle to a Burgundian cellar built to last: «You shouldn't be afraid to embrace what the vintage gives you» — it turned out to be the philosophy of a lifetime.