100% Chardonnay.
Colour: A beautiful golden colour.
Nose: Very expressive, almost exuberant and very seductive, with woody notes and hints of vanilla. A trace of honey, white flowers and citrus notes.
Palate: Delicate and perfumed, well-balanced and round. Its meatiness and woodiness come from the time spent maturing in oak casks.
This wine pairs beautifully with steamed fish, crustaceans, and Burgundian classics like ham with parsley (jambon persillé) and snails. When fully matured, it complements delicacies such as salted goose liver (foie gras au sel) and French cheeses like Roquefort, Aisy cendré, mature Comté, and Chaource.
Ideally served at a temperature of around 12°C (54 °F).
This wine can be drunk now or laid down for around 3 to 5 years.
A regional appellation covering 20 communes in the Côte d'Or. Overlooking the coast from Gevrey-Chambertin to the Bois de Corton, the Hautes Côtes de Nuits are steeped in wild beauty. Discover the small villages nestling on the edge of the forests. Vines grow on all the well-exposed slopes, proudly guarding the secrets of their noble heritage, inherited from Vergy and the Abbey of Saint-Vivant. This vineyard is situated at an altitude of between 300 and 400 metres. The vines grow on the slopes of the valleys incising the Jurassic limestone plateaux to the west of ‘la côte’. The substratum is identical to that of the coast, but the surface formations are very thin, or even non-existent. The clay-limestone soils result from the alteration of the limestone and marl of the substratum.
Once the grapes had been sorted and destemmed, the must was extracted by pneumatic pressing, then cooled and left to settle for 24-48 hours. The juice was then brought down to 18°C to start the alcoholic fermentation (which lasted 3 weeks) in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats. Part (40%) of the cuvée was then placed in barrels (15% new) for 8 months' ageing before final blending. Light filtration before bottling.
2020 was notable for its mildness and low rainfall. After a winter with no serious frosts, we went straight into a spring dominated by sunny, dry weather, resulting in very early bud break. Infrequent outbreaks of rain in June and July were not enough to stave off water shortages.
Very high summer temperatures combined with intense sun exposure levels led to the vines gradually falling prey to hydric stress, causing delays to fruit ripening before harvest-time.
Once again, the vegetative cycle was shortened, being almost three weeks ahead of 2019’s. Thankfully, the harvest was saved by the relative cool of the nights. The harvest was of marvelous quality but there was very little juice in the red grapes (reduction of 30 to 50%), and reasonable potential alcohol, despite the heat.
The whites, on the other hand, coped very well with these extreme conditions and yields were very good.
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