Boisset × Wine Spectator · 2026
250 Years of France, America
& the Art of the Great Wine List.
01 · The Moment
In 2026, America turns 250. The anniversary belongs not just to a nation but to a relationship between France and the United States that runs through the vine, connected by revolution, by science, and by a shared belief that the good life is found in a glass of wine.
Boisset Collection operates historic estates at both ends of the France-America story: in France, where it all began, and in California, where it found its New World expression. With a family-owned portfolio spanning Burgundy, Beaujolais, the Rhône Valley, Napa Valley, Sonoma and the Russian River Valley, with sparkling houses in both republics, Boisset Collection represents more than 30 wineries in two countries. Independent, family-owned, farming since 1961.
And only Boisset can tell it.
The digital home of the 250-year France-America wine story at WineSpectator.com/boisset: brand chapters, historical narrative, and seasonal refreshes through December 31.
02 · The Story · Six Acts
1861 → 1961 · a century, exactly
A nineteen-year-old marquis, a fleet at Yorktown, a president in a Burgundy cellar.
Lafayette volunteered at nineteen. The French fleet secured Yorktown. And when Thomas Jefferson arrived in France, he travelled to Burgundy and walked the rows of Clos de Vougeot, then spent the rest of his life trying to make America's wines as great as France's. The republic and the vine were bound from the beginning.
“The good life, Jefferson believed, was found in a glass of wine.”
California's first premium winery is born in Sonoma, and its founder sails to Burgundy to measure the dream.
Agoston Haraszthy, the self-styled Count, founded Buena Vista Winery in 1857, California's first premium winery, on the conviction that great wine begins in the vineyard. In 1861 he stood inside the Château du Clos de Vougeot, determined that California would one day make wines as heralded as France's.
“The Count left Vougeot certain that California's day would come.”
When phylloxera came for France, the cure grew in American soil.
The phylloxera louse began destroying France's vineyards in 1863. The only cure was grafting French vines onto resistant American rootstock, the vines the Count's generation had planted. By 1900, two-thirds of all French vines grew on American roots. France had given America its freedom; America saved France's wine.
“Two-thirds of all French vines grew on American roots.”
One hundred years after the Count stood at Clos de Vougeot, a wine family is founded in that very village.
In 1961, a century to the year after Haraszthy's pilgrimage, Jean-Claude and Claudine Boisset founded their family winery in Burgundy. Eight years later, they gave birth to Jean-Charles, who was born in the village of Vougeot, within view of the château the Count had visited. Two dreams, a hundred years apart, in the same square mile of vines.
“1861, Vougeot. 1961, Vougeot. The story had chosen its village.”
In America's bicentennial year, California went to Paris and beat France at its own table.
On May 24, 1976, a British merchant staged a blind tasting in Paris with nine French judges. When the glasses were unmasked, California had taken first place in both flights, the reds and the whites. The result rewrote the map of wine and proved the New World belonged in the same conversation as the Old.
“Two centuries after the Revolution, the student had matched the master.”
An eleven-year-old from Vougeot visits Buena Vista and decides he will make wine in California.
Jean-Charles Boisset first saw Buena Vista in 1981, at age eleven, and dreamed that one day he would make wine in California. He returned for good in 1991, choosing historic estates for their stories: DeLoach (2003), Raymond (2009), Buena Vista (2011), Elizabeth Spencer (2021), and bringing Biodynamic farming to each. Today Buena Vista Winery itself is part of Boisset Collection: the Count's dream and the boy's, fulfilled in the same cellars.
“Today, Buena Vista Winery is part of the Boisset Collection.”
A nineteen-year-old marquis, a fleet at Yorktown, a president in a Burgundy cellar.
Lafayette volunteered at nineteen. The French fleet secured Yorktown. And when Thomas Jefferson arrived in France, he travelled to Burgundy and walked the rows of Clos de Vougeot, then spent the rest of his life trying to make America's wines as great as France's. The republic and the vine were bound from the beginning.
“The good life, Jefferson believed, was found in a glass of wine.”
California's first premium winery is born in Sonoma, and its founder sails to Burgundy to measure the dream.
Agoston Haraszthy, the self-styled Count, founded Buena Vista Winery in 1857, California's first premium winery, on the conviction that great wine begins in the vineyard. In 1861 he stood inside the Château du Clos de Vougeot, determined that California would one day make wines as heralded as France's.
“The Count left Vougeot certain that California's day would come.”
When phylloxera came for France, the cure grew in American soil.
The phylloxera louse began destroying France's vineyards in 1863. The only cure was grafting French vines onto resistant American rootstock, the vines the Count's generation had planted. By 1900, two-thirds of all French vines grew on American roots. France had given America its freedom; America saved France's wine.
“Two-thirds of all French vines grew on American roots.”
One hundred years after the Count stood at Clos de Vougeot, a wine family is founded in that very village.
In 1961, a century to the year after Haraszthy's pilgrimage, Jean-Claude and Claudine Boisset founded their family winery in Burgundy. Eight years later, they gave birth to Jean-Charles, who was born in the village of Vougeot, within view of the château the Count had visited. Two dreams, a hundred years apart, in the same square mile of vines.
“1861, Vougeot. 1961, Vougeot. The story had chosen its village.”
In America's bicentennial year, California went to Paris and beat France at its own table.
On May 24, 1976, a British merchant staged a blind tasting in Paris with nine French judges. When the glasses were unmasked, California had taken first place in both flights, the reds and the whites. The result rewrote the map of wine and proved the New World belonged in the same conversation as the Old.
“Two centuries after the Revolution, the student had matched the master.”
An eleven-year-old from Vougeot visits Buena Vista and decides he will make wine in California.
Jean-Charles Boisset first saw Buena Vista in 1981, at age eleven, and dreamed that one day he would make wine in California. He returned for good in 1991, choosing historic estates for their stories: DeLoach (2003), Raymond (2009), Buena Vista (2011), Elizabeth Spencer (2021), and bringing Biodynamic farming to each. Today Buena Vista Winery itself is part of Boisset Collection: the Count's dream and the boy's, fulfilled in the same cellars.
“Today, Buena Vista Winery is part of the Boisset Collection.”
Interlude · Summer 1976
Then, in America's bicentennial summer, the world tasted blind.
Vougeot → Napa03 · The Vintner
Born in Vougeot, within view of Château du Clos de Vougeot. He is not the spokesperson for the story. He is the story.
Jean-Charles Boisset grew up in Vougeot. Inspired by his first visit to California in 1981, he expanded the family winery to California, choosing historic estates for their stories: DeLoach (2003), Raymond (2009), Buena Vista (2011), Oakville Grocery (2019), Elizabeth Spencer (2021), and the Calistoga Depot Distillery (2021). Together with his wife Gina, he bought Flora Springs (2024). He pioneered Biodynamic farming in the Russian River Valley, created the JCB Collection, and partnered with John Legend on LVE – Legend Vineyard Exclusive. He opened the 1881 Napa Wine History Museum at the Oakville Grocery, and has appeared on Decanter's Power List every year since 2007.
“The greatest wines in history have always been made for the table. Boisset has been setting that table on two continents for over sixty years.”
04 · Both Sides of the Table
Boisset farms at both ends of the 250-year story: the Burgundian cradle where it began, and the California valleys where it was reborn. The same family, the same Biodynamic hand, on two continents.
2,200 acres of estate vineyards · A leader in organic & Biodynamic practices
05 · The Estates
The featured Boisset houses, oldest to youngest, from a Beaune négociant founded before American independence to the family domaine at Vougeot. Choose a door; every house has a story.
🇺🇸 Sonoma, California · Est. 1857
California's first premium winery.
Founded by the self-proclaimed 'Count' Agoston Haraszthy before there was a California wine world at all, the legend has been reborn under Jean-Charles Boisset.
🇫🇷 Beaune, France · Est. 1750
Burgundian tradition, excellence and mastery.
Founded in Beaune a quarter-century before American independence, with cellars in the 18th-century Hôtel du Conseiller du Roy: the history of Burgundy itself.
🇺🇸 Sonoma, California · Est. 1857
California's first premium winery.
Founded by the self-proclaimed 'Count' Agoston Haraszthy before there was a California wine world at all, the legend has been reborn under Jean-Charles Boisset.
🇫🇷 Nuits-St-Georges, France · Est. 1961
A new look at Burgundy.
Founded by a tenacious eighteen-year-old and housed in a former Ursulines convent, with native yeasts, discreet oak, and wines naturally expressive of their terroirs.
🇺🇸 Two Continents · Est. 1969
Inspire desire.
Style, held in a bottle: numbered wines of incomparable elegance uniting top vineyards on two continents, with Baccarat at the table.
🇺🇸 Napa Valley, California · Est. 1971
Undeniably captivating.
Five generations across 170 acres of organic and Biodynamic vineyards in Rutherford and St. Helena, home to the Crystal Cellar and the Theater of Nature.
🇺🇸 Russian River Valley · Est. 1975
The Russian River Valley original.
Creators of the Russian River Valley AVA, pioneers of Burgundian techniques and certified Biodynamic farming, and the first to plant Pinot Noir on the Olivet Bench.
🇺🇸 Rutherford, California · Est. 1998
Crafted for the table.
An 1872 brick Post Office hiding Rutherford's secret garden: small-lot wines led by women, made for food, connection and conversation.
🇫🇷 Vougeot, France · Est. 1999
The Boisset family domaine.
Six Monopoles, nine Grands Crus, 130 acres: Burgundy's most prestigious vineyards, farmed Biodynamically in the Cistercian tradition.
Swipe through the houses
06 · The Wines
Eight pours, alternating France and America: the 250-year conversation, poured side by side.
Domaine de la Vougeraie, Jean-Claude Boisset and Bouchard Aîné & Fils in the Côte d’Or. J. Moreau & Fils in Chablis. Raymond in Napa Valley, DeLoach in the Russian River Valley. One family philosophy, moving effortlessly across regions, styles and traditions.
0scores of 90+ points · past two years · across the collection
Featured pours · brand selections confirmed per flight with Boisset
From both continents to your door
Join the Boisset Collection Wine Club for curated seasonal shipments — or shop the California houses directly.
07 · Historical texture · 1976
Nine French judges. Twenty wines, poured blind. When the labels were revealed, the wine world had been turned upside down. No Boisset bottle was on that table — the tasting remains the chapter that still frames the France–America conversation this family now pours from both continents.
Date
May 24, 1976
Place
InterContinental · Paris
Convened by
Steven Spurrier
Witnessed by
George M. Taber · TIME
0
French judges
0
wines, tasted blind
0
flights, both to California
0
upset heard round the world
The Whites
Won by
🇺🇸 California
Chateau Montelena 1973
Napa Valley
Meursault Charmes, Roulot 1973
Burgundy
Chalone Vineyard 1974
California
Spring Mountain 1973
Napa Valley
Beaune Clos des Mouches, Drouhin 1973
Burgundy
Freemark Abbey 1972
Napa Valley
The Reds
Won by
🇺🇸 California
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973
Napa Valley
Château Mouton-Rothschild 1970
Bordeaux
Château Montrose 1970
Bordeaux
Château Haut-Brion 1970
Bordeaux
Ridge Monte Bello 1971
Santa Cruz Mtns
Château Léoville Las Cases 1971
Bordeaux
Fifty years on, in America's 250th year, that Paris tasting still echoes — while Boisset pours the living France–America story from both sides of the ocean.
08 · The Anniversary Series
Each drop tells one chapter of Boisset's history through the lens of America's 250th: a sponsored feature, a Sips & Tips newsletter, paid social, and native extension. The hub refreshes with every chapter, August through October.
Drop One
Where the France-America wine story begins: Lafayette, Jefferson, and the cellars that shaped a republic. The first chapter opens the anniversary series.
Read the chapter August 30Drop Two
The rescue that ran in the other direction: how American rootstock saved the vineyards of France, told through the estates that lived it.
Read the chapter SeptemberDrop Three
The series closes with Boisset today, one family farming two continents Biodynamically, and carries the story into the holiday table.
Read the chapter October
The Film · Supplied by Boisset
Vineyard stories, winemaker portraits, two centuries of the vine.
France gave America its freedom.
America saved France's vineyards.
Boisset planted roots on both sides.
Oceans separate us. Wine unites us.
In 2026, the table is set. Boisset is pouring.
