Alcohol: 13%
Grape(s): 100% Chardonnay
Localization: Maconnais, Burgundy, France
Tasting Notes: Delicate floral notes are layered with citrus and ripe yellow fruits lead to a palate combining an elegant and mineral structure with lively, lemony notes.
Notes: Their excellent un-oaked Saint-Véran comes from the slopes to the east of Vergisson between 150 and 250m on limestone soils with lots of fossilized seashells adding minerality. Fermented in stainless steel and aged for a further 8 months.
The Domain: Since 1981, Thierry Drouin, and now his son Charles, have been making wines in Vergisson, only three miles from Pierreclos in southern Burgundy overlooking the Rocks of Solutré and Vergisson. Charles and Paul studied wine production together from 2012 to 2015, and like most of the wine produced in the Mâconnais region, they primarily produce Chardonnay, which expresses itself superbly well, on the clay and limestone soils. The vineyards are situated on a prehistoric lagoon that explains the massive 160-million-year-old rocks of fossilized coral.
The estate now covers about 10 hectares, planted at 8,000 vines per hectare, 7 of which are in Pouilly-Fuissé, along with 3 hectares of Mâcon (white and red) and 0.6 of Saint-Véran.
The vineyards are mostly ploughed, rather than sprayed, allowing for a better aeration of the soil and microbial life. Vines are trained with Guyot pruning in a dual arch fashion (typical of the Mâconnais), using a single cane with 8 to 10 buds and two spurs. This allows good sap circulation in the vine and guarantees the durability of the vineyard.
Extra buds are removed in the spring to control yields, resulting in more concentrated, higher-quality grapes. Sulphur and copper treatments are only used if the health condition of the vines makes them unavoidable, and no insecticides are used.
Charles and Thierry's most distinguished wines are from the Pouilly-Fuissé Cru. Vines from Pouilly-Fuissé vineyards are exclusively hand-harvested, and the grapes are delicately pressed in the winery. The must is then decanted in tanks for 16 to 18 hours and gravity-fed into oak barrels for fermentation. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentations are carried out in barrels, and the wine aged on fine lees for 8 to 18 months before bottling at the estate.
