The Burgundy wine industry mourns Nicolas Potel

he Burgundy wine industry continues to reel from the profound shock caused by the passing of Nicolas Potel on Friday June 27. The 55-year-old Burgundy winegrower and negociant committed suicide. As the son of Françoise and Gérard Potel, he sold the family estate La Pousse d’Or in Volnay in 1997 on the premature passing of his father to joint owner Patrick Landanger, who himself passed in 2023, leaving the property to his son Benoît Landanger. Nicolas Potel went on to establish a trading company under his name in 1997 in Nuits-Saint-Georges, bought by Labouré-Roi in 2004. He left the company in 2009 after establishing a new vineyard in 2005 and a trading company in 2008 in Savigny-lès-Beaune. He was chairman of Domaine de Bellene – named after the mediaeval name for Beaune – and Maison de Bellene, both of which belonged to the Bellene group.

There were no prior warnings that Potel would take his own life: “He showed no signs at all”, concurs Thiébault Huber, chairman of the Burgundy federation of appellations and winegrowers CAVB. The Meursault winegrower is devastated by the loss of his fellow winegrower, “who had such a big heart”, and paid tribute to him.

Even in a wine region with a strong economy – although exports are currently levelling – human frailty is still a fact of life. “Two years ago, we launched an observatory to assess the morale of winegrowers and out of 700 responses, there were 400 burn-outs”, warned Huber, pointing to stress induced by climate events, lack of visibility for crop volumes and administrative pressures.

This tragic event, which has sparked emotional responses as well as speculation, is also a reminder that no suicide is caused by a single event but rather a combination of professional, personal and intimate factors.