Originally from Melbourne, Jane Eyre was previously a hairdresser in one of the city’s top salons before she “fell in love” with Burgundy while doing work experience at Domaine Chevrot in 1998. She studied winemaking at Charles Sturt University in Australia and worked vintages at Cullen in the Margaret River, as well as Felton Road and Ata Rangi in New Zealand.
She returned to Europe in 2003. Following a three-month spell with Ernie Loosen in the Mosel, she subsequently made Burgundy her home, working first at Domaine des Comtes Lafon and then as assistant winemaker at Domaine Newman. She has gradually developed her own négociant business since 2011 and was delighted to move from the rented space she shared with Dominique Lafon into her own premises in Cissey just before the 2021 harvest.
Jane Eyre first made wines under her own, eponymous label in Australia in 2012, making three barrels of a Pinot Noir from the Mornington Peninsula. At that time, she was already making exceptional wines in Burgundy as a micro-negociant and now splits her year winemaking in both hemispheres. Australian journalist Nick Stock accurately describes Jane as “a thoughtful and determined winemaker, with clear ideas about the style of Pinot Noir she likes. She prizes fragrance and delicacy over artefact and ripeness.”
As in Burgundy, Jane buys the grapes for her Australian wines. The Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir hails from two vineyards in Merricks, with an average age of 30 years. The wine is vinified using 20 – 25% whole bunches in an open-topped wooden fermenter and spends three weeks on the skins, with several light punch downs. Jane then ages the wine for 10 months in used French oak barrels before bottling it without fining or filtration. The resulting expression is open and inviting, with lovely aromas of cherries and orange zest. In 2018, Jane secured some fruit from the ‘Thousand Candles’ farm in the Yarra Valley. The site, 65 kilometres northeast of Melbourne, is famed for the quality of the Pinot Noir which grows there. She uses 20% whole bunch and gentle extraction to produce a wine which is elegant and poised, defined by beautiful perfumes of red fruit and violets.
In the 2021 edition of Le Guide des Meilleurs Vins de France, Jane Eyre was awarded two stars, one of only 26 producers in the whole of France to be recognised at this level. She was also named ‘Négociant of the Year’ in the Revue des Vins de France 2021, the first woman to be awarded the title. Both accolades are a phenomenal achievement for a relative newcomer to Burgundy.
