Sarah Marsh Volnay 1er Cru En Chevret 2018
Charming and elegant, with engaging red fruit aromas and floral highlights. The inviting palate is smooth with plump, perfumed fruit, underscored by cool acidity through to a fine, stylish finish.
En Chevret is a Volnay 1er Cru, which lies beneath the slope of Les Cailllerets on a gentle incline at 200 to 250 metres. It sits beside En Caillerets, where the soil is reddish clay over a bedrock of Oxfordian and Argovian limestone. The upper section has plenty of small stones and a thinner top soil, reflected in the floral notes and refinement. The lower, flatter part has a deeper top soil, red clay over a band of mother rock, which imparts sweetness and roundness. The grapes are from a massale selection of 30 to 40- year old vines in the lower part of En Chevret from Nicolas Rossignol’s vineyard. His vineyard stands out for the high and healthy canopies. Nicolas has a pragmatic approach to viticulture and takes elements from biodynamic viticulture that work for him; the lunar calendar is followed for pruning. The vineyard management is a labour of love: his focus is firmly on the life and energy of the soils. The fruit is hand-harvested.
The fruit for En Chevret was 100% de-stemmed, vinified in a tank. The cap was moistened during the first few days with buckets of juice taken from the low tap. After six days it was ‘woken up’ with a pigeage to get the fermentation started. Three days later when temperature reached 25°C it had gentle pigeage. After this, it underwent either a gentle pigeage or remontage every day for a week with a final rack and return to finish off the sugar, totalling five remontages and three pigeages. It rested for three days to allow the tannins to condense and was pressed. Matured in French oak, of which there was no new oak, for two winters.
Having tasted thousands of wines over the past fifteen vintages in Burgundy, and having been captivated by the individual characters of the vineyards, each with its unique terroir, Sarah Marsh MW decided to embark on her own terroir-driven project. Following a concept of vinifying grapes from a lieu-dit or specific part of a vineyard which, for some reason, be it the soil or the vine age, could stand alone, Sarah works closely with domaines she knows well, where the vineyard has been meticulous cared for with healthy ‘living’ soils. Buying from domaines who do not usually sell their precious fruit is an unusual approach, but those winemakers have made an exception to support Sarah’s terroir project and the stunning results speak for themselves.
