Bernard Jomain: In Vino Veritas in the heart of Beaujolais, between Brouilly and Chardonnay

Domaine Bernard Jomain is an independent 12-hectare wine estate located in Charentay, producing wines under the Brouilly, Côte de Brouilly and Beaujolais-Villages appellations. A winemaker since 1990 and HVE-certified, Bernard Jomain crafts his wines from start to finish on the estate and ships them directly through Avenue des Vins.

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What is the philosophy behind Domaine Bernard Jomain?

Consistency, commitment, sincerity three words that say it all

When asked to sum up the philosophy that guides his work, Bernard Jomain chooses three words. No long mission statement, no winemaking manifesto. Just three simple, direct words that carry the full weight of a career built far from passing trends.

“Consistency, commitment and sincerity.”

These three words paint the portrait of a winemaker who has never tried to please everyone. Based in Charentay since 1990, Bernard Jomain has built his estate plot by plot, through patience and hard work. He tends his vines on his own, full-time, with the support of seasonal workers at key moments pruning, canopy work and harvest. His wife Patricia is there too. And so are their daughters Hélène and Delphine, when needed.

A deliberately human-scale estate. Not to stay small, but to remain true in harmony with what the land can give when it receives full attention.

Why do Brouilly wines have such a distinctive character?

Volcanic blue stone  a subsoil found nowhere else

To understand what makes Bernard Jomain’s wines different, you have to look beneath the vines. The subsoil of Brouilly is no ordinary soil. It is a volcanic rock quartzites and metadiorites  of remarkable hardness and rare singularity in the French vineyard landscape. Locals call it blue stone, sometimes also green horn. It forces Gamay roots to dig deep for what they cannot find on the surface.

The Brouilly and Côte de Brouilly wines from Domaine Bernard Jomain are grown on a unique volcanic terroir: Brouilly’s blue stone, made up of quartzites and metadiorites, which gives the wines their characteristic minerality, tension and ageing potential.

On this demanding terrain, Bernard Jomain has made a strong choice since 2017: some plots are worked with horses. Less impact on soil structure, roots that can go deeper, a more self-sufficient vine. This is not a communication stunt; it is a practical conviction, fully consistent with the HVE certification obtained in 2019.

The grapes are then vinified on the estate, aged in the cellar depending on the cuvée oak vats, barrels or sandstone jars depending on what the wine requires  and finally bottled at the property. No négociant activity, no outside intervention. From vine to label, Bernard Jomain oversees every step.

What memory has marked the estate most deeply?

2009: planting Chardonnay where no one else was planting it

In 2009, Bernard Jomain made a surprising decision: he planted Chardonnay. In Beaujolais, white grape varieties are extremely rare  everyone grows Gamay, everyone makes red wine. He saw in his clay-silica terroirs an opportunity no one else had yet seized. That Chardonnay would become Les Trèfles.

“The planting of our first Chardonnay plot in 2009.”

Fifteen years later, Les Trèfles has become the estate’s signature cuvée. Gold medal at the 2021 Grands Vins du Beaujolais competition, silver medal at Chardonnay du Monde recognition that validates a bold, unconventional choice. It is the kind of memory that gives meaning to everything else.

The natural follow-up to this white wine was Trifolium  the same grape variety, but a radically different ageing method. A sandstone egg, an unusual vessel that gives the wine a very distinctive purity and minerality. A curiosity that became a cuvée in its own right, for those seeking originality in their glass.

Which wine does Bernard Jomain open among friends?

Les Trèfles white and Les Poètes red the two faces of the estate

When Bernard Jomain welcomes friends, he opens two bottles. First, Brouilly “Les Poètes”  his characterful red, made from Gamay grown on deep granite, with peppery and spicy aromas enhanced by ageing in large oak casks. Then Beaujolais-Villages Blanc “Les Trèfles” his fruity, complex white, perfectly at ease with fish, aged Comté, or simply as an apéritif.

These cuvée names say something about the man: Les Poètes, Les Demoiselles, Les Héritières, Les Artistes, Les Trèfles. Titles that evoke faces, moments and characters. Not plot numbers or technical descriptions. Wines that already have a story before they are even opened.

“In Vino Veritas.”

His motto. In wine, truth. The truth of a terroir, the truth of a season, the truth of a man who has never tried to do anything other than what he genuinely believes in.

What is the ambition of Domaine Bernard Jomain?

To make drinking Beaujolais feel obvious again

What drives Bernard Jomain every morning is the constant diversity of the profession — no two days are the same between the vines, the cellar and conversations with customers. And it is also the anticipation of those who order his bottles, that sense of sharing that wine makes possible between people who might otherwise never have gathered around the same table.

His ambition for the years ahead? To broaden his network and introduce his cuvées to a wider audience. But behind that lies a deeper conviction, expressed with the straightforward enthusiasm that defines him:

“That drinking Beaujolais becomes incredibly trendy!”

Behind the humor lies a serious message. Beaujolais has long suffered from a caricatured image that reduced it to the status of a café wine. What Bernard Jomain produces in Charentay reds from granite and blue stone, Chardonnay whites aged in sandstone, wines with depth and structure  has nothing to do with that cliché. In the end, the real trend is simply returning to the truth of wine. In Vino Veritas.

Buying Domaine Bernard Jomain wines on Avenue des Vins means supporting an independent HVE-certified winemaker who has been producing Brouilly, Côte de Brouilly and white Beaujolais-Villages wines since 1990 on a unique volcanic terroir, shipped directly from Charentay with no middleman.

Discover Domaine Bernard Jomain’s cuvées directly on their Avenue des Vins storefront Brouilly, Côte de Brouilly and Beaujolais-Villages wines shipped from Charentay through a short supply chain.