Philosophy
Our Domaine moved towards organic viticulture during the 2000s. To bring clarity to our techniques of viticulture and vinification, we engaged in the process of ECOCERT accreditation in 2009, becoming certified in 2012.
Being familiar with practices which respect organic life, we have tended our vines in the direction of more autonomy. We support them, and encourage them each year to reinforce their natural defences while preserving the environment. To make this happen, anticipation is everything. We get ourselves prepared to apply prophylactic measures in our plots, to diminish diseases of the vine wood and the impact of pests and fungal attacks. So we prune the vines as nearas possible to the budding time, respect the sap flow, plough the surface of the soil, remove excess buds, deleaf and tie the canopy up to permit air and light to circulate, and to limit entanglements in the vegetation.
We take into account lunar cycles when we make these interventions. In fact, believing in the influence of the moon on plants, we work on the vines or their environment depending on whether it is a fruit, flower, root or leaf day. Treatments are also controlled and managed with forethought. We only use sulphur and copper to fight against cryptogamic diseases such as oidium or mildew.
As the harvest approaches, we taste the grapes in our different plots regularly, to decide on picking dates. This permits us to judge their ripeness. When the moment comes, the pickers advance, secateurs in hand, to pick the fruit which has been nurtured and cherished throughout the year.
Red Winemaking
The directive in the winery is to make sure to tell the story of thesegrapes which have been picked when ripe. Like a biography, the wine speaks of the characteristics of Pinot Noir in relationship to its environment. This context includes : weather conditions, the place where the story develops, the soil and subsoil which have nourished the grapes and the various pressures to be faced throughout the season.
To manage this best, we exert ourselves to accompany the grapes, intervening as little as possible, towards their transformation into wine.
In tank after tank, the bunches of grapes are piled up carefully because we work with 100% whole bunches and without the addition of sulphur. The grapes we work with are healthy, wholesome and alive. We prepare a pied de cuve(1) made from each plot to start the alcoholic fermentation off rapidly.
Thus each tank is seeded with the natural yeasts which link each cuvée to its own soil.
During the alcoholic fermentation(2) we only rarely interact with the contents, preferring nature to take its course. The only thing, with a view to bringing oxygen to the yeasts, is to carry out a pumping over(3). Depending on the breaking down of the skins and the evolution of the stems, we may carry out a punching down, the objective being to break the berries up gently to liberate sugar so as to maintain the alcoholic fermentation.
Once the alcoholic fermentation is complete, the must has become wine. It is time to take it out of the tank. The free run juice is drawn off and the marc (grape skins) is pressed. The press wine will be blended back with the free run juice according to quality and tasting. The transformation is complete. The wine is ready to go to barrel to be seasoned over time. The malolactic fermentation(4) gets underway when spring arrives, when milder temperatures will allow bacterial activity.
We work closely with a local cooper for the fabrication of our Burgundian barrels. We take part in deciding on the level of barrel toast which brings its own aspect to the aromatics of the wine. The wine spends approximately 13 months in these 228 litre wooden containers. The wine undergoes a micro-oxygenation phenomenon, caused by air passing between the interior and the exterior of the barrel. This is even more true when the barrel is new. That is why the proportion of new barrel varies according to the appellation and especially to the structure of the wine.
Having filtered the wine, it is bottled, with respect to the cycle of the moon which even here has an influence on liquids. The idea being to induce a message of closing down or opening up as the wine is kept over a period of time.
(1) Starter coming from the grapes of the Domaine which permits the yeasts to multiply.
(2) Transformation of the sugars into alcohol through the yeasts.
(3) Drench the cap with the grape juice
(4) Natural deacidification of the wine
White Winemaking
In the same manner as our red wines, we put everything in place to reveal the white wine terroirs during the process of transforming the must into wine.
Depending on the cuvée, the Chardonnay or Pinot Blanc grapes are piled into the press as quickly as possible after they have been picked. The Chardonnay gives rise to such cuvées as Coteaux Bourguignons, Savigny-lès-Beaune and Morey-Saint-Denis La Bidaude.
While the Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Argillats is made from the Pinot blanc known as Pinot Gouges or albino Pinot noir. This grape came from a mutation of Pinot noir discovered in the 1930s by Henri Gouges in one of his plots.
Once the grapes have been pressed, the must is barrelled down after a brief passage in tank where it is cleaned of its impurities through the settling of the sediment. The alcoholic fermentation starts. It is carried out in 228 litre oak barrels, at low temperature to prioritise the fresh fruit expression. This fermentation activity happens across several months, lulled by the variations in autumn and winter temperatures. Then when the cellar warms up in the spring the alcoholic fermentation is completed and the malolactic gets under way. Thereafter all is calm in the barrels over the several more months in which the wine takes nourishment from its oaky cocoon, gaining spicy and toasted aromas.
A fining and a filtration complete the wine before bottling, which happens taking into account the lunar calendar.
