Winemaker: Tino Kuban
Where: Meursault, Burgundy, France
Size: 1,4 ha (estate – Les Jardins Vivants), approx.
Main Varieties: Aligoté, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Gamay
Viticulture: Biodynamic principles
Quick note: Domaine Bernard van Berg handed over the winery to Tino in 2018. Tino transitioned the name of the domaine to Les Jardins Vivants and added the label ‘Maison Glandien’ for negotiant fruit. In 2022 he further added L’Origine as a label to signify wines that were a blend of declassified domaine and negotiant fruit.
This text is the same for all Tino’s labels, Les Jardins Vivants, Maison Glandien & L’Origine, as they’re all linked by person, work ethic, and of course cellar.
An excellently singular character - Tino Kuban has single-mindedly created a life that inextricably entwines himself with his vineyards and his wines.
Born in Berlin, Tino was always passionate and intrigued with smell and taste, starting education as a chef, before getting a nose for wine - which quickly caught his focus and interest. Thereafter he studied oenology and swiftly worked his first internship in South Africa. Moving onto Domaine de L’Horizon, Dard et Ribo, Tournelle, Overnoy and Philip Bornard, he has not been short of influential teachers, and before too long, he was introduced to the already well-established Bernard van Berg, and soon took over the estate operation in Meursault and accompanying 1,4 hectares old vines of Aligoté, Chardonnay, Gamay & Pinot Noir.
In the vineyards Tino’s focus is producing fruit with concentration balanced by freshness. Every single step is meticulously thought through, during many sleepless nights! Around half the vineyards are trained Échalat, with the aim to lower the yield and create smaller clusters with more concentrated juice, the other half is guyot pruned, with sap flow in mind. Selection of buds are between 4-6 per cane. Soil treatments vary depending on the vintage, but always with biodiverse cover crops, low-impact sprays, and not too much turning of the soils. His harvest is among the last in Burgundy, obviously done by hand, only by him and his most trusted workers. His aim for hectoliters per hectare is usually between 4-8 for the Les Jardins Vivants estate wines. If it's above that, or quality is not top, he declassifies the grapes to his L’Origine range.
Pressing is done with a small old basket press. Moved by gravity directly into new Stockinger barrels, together with a bit of tail from the press, to keep the reduction and tension. Every piece of wood for the barrels Tino selects himself. Rather than going for the toasty and structured barrels, he prefers the slightly thicker and more subtle and fruit-forwarding barrels from Stockinger made from Austrian wood. The wines are left on full lees between 6-24 months, without any bâtonnage. The reds are bottled during the rising moon, and whites at the descending moon. Followed by further elevage in bottle until Tino finds them ready to drink.
