Chassagne-Montrachet Rouge Vieilles Vignes

HISTORY  The Bouard-Bonnefoy family farms sustainably, avoiding pesticides and herbicides (instead, plowing between rows) and using indigenous yeasts for fermentation. Harvest is always by hand.

 

Grapes are lightly crushed then pressed in the family’s upright wooden press (inherited from the Bonnefoy grandparents). Juice is placed in older French oak barrels to ferment naturally (for both alcoholic fermentation and malolactic conversion). The estate uses new oak sparingly; each cru sees approximately 20% new wood each vintage. Winemaker Fabrice Bouard uses a minimal dose of sulfur at bottling.

VINEYARDS & WINEMAKING   A jewel of a wine, selected from various estate parcels in the appellation that represent a perfect cross-section of Chassagne’s noble terroir. Ripe summer raspberries, poached cherries, baking spices; rubied fruit, suave tannins.