Bermudians aren’t exactly known for producing wine — David Butterfield is one of the exceptions.

He and his wife Juliette started Butterfield Wine in Beaune, Burgundy back in 2005.

They’ve since suffered the highs and lows of making Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in what many consider the centre of the wine universe.

“People from Burgundy didn’t really express surprise that someone from Bermuda was making wine,” said Mr Butterfield. “It was mainly other outsiders in the region who were surprised. The Americans and Canadians would say things like, ‘What? You can’t make wine, you’re from Bermuda’. They had very low expectations and I would love it when they were surprised by the quality of my wine and say, ‘Wait this is really good!’”

Mr Butterfield sells his wine to Japan, Canada, Holland, France, Czech Republic and Bermuda, of course.

He started a retail store here, Discovery Wines, at the same time he started Butterfield Wine in France. He returns to the Island every few months to check on his business.

“When I first moved to France, several years ago, I was working in the travel industry,” he said. “Then I was looking for a career change. I said, well, you are at the centre of making wine. Winemaking suited me because it requires not only artistry, but also maths and sciences.”

Now no two days are alike for him.

“One of the nice things about being a winemaker is that the daily tasks are very diversified,” he said. “You have a lot of different things to do. It is like running any small business.

“You have to take care of the sales and marketing aspects of your business but there is also the technical aspect of taking care of things in the vineyards. I could be out in the vineyards looking to see what is happening, or I could be in my winery, or I could be topping up my barrels.”

He said one of his most unusual tasks involves washing down the equipment — no small task.

“For example, I have to clean out an old-fashioned grape press,” he said. “First, I have to make sure that it is turned off because that could be very dangerous. Then I have to get under it and right into it and spray out all the grape skins. It is a very tight space. Often harvest time is in September and October and it can be cold in Burgundy. I used to absolutely freeze in there. Now, I have installed hot water so it is like having a bath.”

To learn winemaking he took a two-year programme offered by the French Ministry of Agriculture, which he completed in 2003. He started up Butterfield Wine two years later.

He doesn’t own any vineyards himself, but buys the grapes from growers in the area, always from the same parcels of land to keep the taste of his wine as uniform as possible.

“It is a family business,” he said. “My wife, Juliette, has a tradition of winemaking in her family. Her father worked for the famous winemaker Louis Jadot.”

Butterfield Wine makes several different wines including Meursault 1er Cru Les Charmes 2008, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatieres 2008 and Corton Rouge Grand Cru.

“I have contracts with different growers from the area,” he said. “I have specific parcels of land that I buy grapes from. After we pick the grapes we have a long period of ageing, 18 months, kept mostly in proportions of old oak and new oak barrels in the cellars. We will be bottling our 2013 wines in March and in May of this year. Then they tend to sit for another six months or so before we release them. They are always two-and-a-half years behind. Our 2015 wines will start to sell in late 2017 or 2018.”

He said they had consistently good vintages last year.

“I started my operation in 2005 which was a good year in Burgundy,” he said. “In certain parts of the world you have standardised weather, but that’s not the way it is here. The climate can vary significantly from year to year which can have a significant impact on the wines.”

He said that while the quality of wines has been good in recent years, the grape yield has been lower than normal. “This can put pressure on the price of wine,” he said.

One of the highlights of his career came in 2012. Butterfield Wine’s Meursault 1er Cru Les Charmes 2008 was included in the prestigious French wine directory Le Guide Bettane & Desseauve Des Vins de France that year. It also got good reviews in Le Guide Hachette Des Vins 2010 and 2011.

Michel Betanne and Theirry Desseauves, who produce Le Guide Bettane, are considered some of France’s top wine critics.

“I have a good presence on the French market which is an important market,” Mr Butterfield said. “The French press has been good to me. Bettane & Desseauve hold an annual event where people in the book are brought together to showcase their wines. In that environment you have all the famous wineries. I spent a day with Michel Bettane tasting all the wines from the villages of Pommard and Meursault.”

His goal right now is to continue to further establish himself in France.

“Bermuda is great to sell in but it is a small market,” he said. “With Butterfield Wine, it’s not so much a style that I’m looking for.

“Instead, I try to capture the essence of this particular place. Burgundy wines can be understood through the climate. In the case of Meursault, the grape variety is Chardonnay, but for me this wine is above all a Meursault. It is important that the energy of the lieux-dits [the small geographical area] comes through in the wine, otherwise there is no point.”

He and his wife have three children Margaux, ten, Georges, seven and Ellie, four. For more information see www.butterfieldwine.com or www.discoverywines.bm.