Alcohol: 13%
Grape(s): Pinot Noir
Localization: Burgundy, France
Tasting Notes: This lovely Pinot Noir is light in color, wonderfully aromatic, fruity and refreshing, year after year. We get red and dark berry fruits like currant, cranberry, and cherry, with earthy spice, lean acidity, and chalky tannins on the finish.
Food pairing: All the fruitiness will be highlighted on grilled meats, and classically on a cheese platter.
Notes: The Giraudon family has crafted a 100% pinot noir, 100% hand-harvested, 100% estate-grown and bottled red Burgundy from their vineyards in northern Burgundy and from the low-yielding, high-quality 2019 vintage.
It starts with vineyards planted in rare and excellent Kimmeridgian chalky limestone and clay marl soils at 600 to 1,100 feet of elevation overlooking the village of Chitry. Then the Giraudon’s add in low yields well below the regional norm, 100% hand-harvesting, and centuries of family experience making wine in Chitry. The sunshine of the warm 2019 vintage allowed the pinot noir grapes to ripen fully while cool night temperatures assured the fruit stayed fresh, vibrant, and aromatic. Winemaking and aging in vats, with zero oak, kept the aromas fresh, the flavors vibrant, and the texture silky.
The Domain: The Giraudon family has been farming and making wine in Chitry for centuries, and the current proprietor, Marcel Giraudon, follows very traditional methods in his work. Their vineyards are on hillsides of Kimmeridgian chalky marl as one finds in Grand Cru Chablis. Yields in the vineyard are kept modest and harvesting is done by hand. For the white wines, fermentation is carried out in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks and for the pinot noir mainly fiberglass vats are used with a “drapeau d’eau” for temperature control.
Chitry-Le-Fort, as the name suggests, was once a fortified town and in the Middle Ages the main road, La Grande Rue, formed the boundary between the lands of the Count of Tonnerre in Champagne and the Count of Auxerre in Burgundy. In the 19th-century wines of Chitry were sold under the name of Chablis and more recently in 1929 the wines were accorded the name of Bourgogne des Environs de Chablis. Today Chitry is one of four viticultural communes of the Auxerrois and wines are labeled as Bourgogne or Bourgogne Chitry.
