Chantrêves - 'Matsuri Pétnat' - Gamay, Aligoté - Burgundy, FR - 2023

It is a blend of our Gamay situated in Fussey and an early harvest of Aligoté from 4 parcels in the Hautes Côtes.

In order to have good concentration in our single vineyard Aligotés, we pick riper bunches 2 weeks prior to the main picking date, press them immediately and keep them cool for a few days until we pick our Gamay. We put the whole bunch Gamay in a wooden fermentation vat, then pour in the Aligoté juice. They ferment together with indigenous yeasts for a week, we press the Gamay, and afterwards the fermentation continues in the juice. This technique is called « Flottaison » and was put into practice by Daniel Sage in Ardèche.

We bottled when the residual sugar measured 9.5g/ liter. The pink color comes
from the Flottaison of Gamay in the Aligoté juice. We only produced 3 barrels this year, but we are very happy with the result, so will try to make a little more in 2023.

The Pet Nat is not disgorged, it retains the yeast from the fermentation
and so is a little cloudy. With 11.5 alcohol, it’s very quaffable! The flottaison
maceration of Gamay makes a very fruity and enjoyable wine. Please serve chilled.

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2020 marked an exciting pivot for Tomoko and Guillaume, as they acquired several plots with incredible potential, mostly in the Hautes Côtes de Beaune. They farm these vineyards organically, using phytotherapy approaches researched and recommended by Eric Petiot, a pioneering plant scientist based in Lausanne.
For the Aligoté and Pinot Noir, minimal copper is used against downy mildew and low fat milk against powdery mildew. Skim milk is actually is the most effective because the fat in whole milk clogs the nozzles of the sprayer. With Chardonnay, they must spray with a mix of sulfur rather than with milk, but they are able to minimize the sulfur dose by mixing in potassium bicarbonate.
In the Hautes Côtes, where the row width is 2.5m, they limit plowing to only around the vines with a lightweight caterpillar tractor. They, thus, leave 1.5m of permanent natural cover crop in the middle of the rows. The other vineyards are plowed by horse by Gilbert Simond, who is a master in his field. He is the most coveted horse plower of the Côte, hired by everyone from Domaine de Montille to Domaine Des Comtes Lafon. The soils are tilled from mid-April to mid-July only, with no tilling for the other 8 months of the year. In mid-July, after the last tilling, they manually sow a mix of 13 different perennial and annual plant species to de-compact the soil and build organic mass for better water retention, increased biodiversity and healthier soil composition. These seeds are all certified organic.

• Location: Savigny-lès-Beaune, Côte de Beaune, Burgundy
• Varieties: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Aligoté
• Viticulture: Their own vineyards are farmed organically, with biodynamic methods (not certified) and phytotherapy (see below). Purchased grapes may be sustainable, organic or biodynamic.
• Vinification (whites): Grapes are crushed, long (6-hour) press cycle, ambient yeast fermentation with a pied de cuve, aged 12 months in 228L and 600L barrels (very little new oak), no fining, occasional light filtration, minimal SO2 addition only if needed during aging and before bottling.
• Vinification (reds): 100% whole-cluster since 2014, ambient yeast fermentation in wooden vats with a pied de cuve, daily pump-overs with buckets, limited foot punch-downs at the end of cuvasion. Fermentation finished in stainless steel tanks. Malolactic fermentation during the cuvaison or immediately after pressing. Aged 12 months in used oak barrels, racked and aged on the lees another 12 months in stainless steel tanks. No fining, no filtration, minimal SO2 addition at harvest (15-20 ppm), then only if needed during aging and before bottling.