Louise - 2018 - François de Nicolay

100% Pinot Noir from organically grown vines planted in 2015 on a plot of 0.61 hectare, young vines of Savigny Villages and Premier Cru "Aux Fournaux". Clay soils, full East exposure at the bottom of the hillside. Manual harvest. Total de-stemming, semi-carbonic maceration for five days, then six days of fermentation with pump-overs by gravity and on punch down at the end of fermentation. Soft pressing in a vertical press. One year of aging in casks that have seen five wines on average. Not fined or filtered, micro dose of sulfur.

François de Nicolay, child of the ‘70 vintage and head of Domaine Chandon de Briailles, today embodies the renewal of this historic estate, straddling the line between modernity and respect for tradition. A family property since 1834, located four kilometres north of Beaune, the estate extends over 13.7 hectares in the communes of Savigny-Lès-Beaune, Pernand-Vergelesses and Aloxe-Corton. After graduating from business school and several experiences in Europe, the United States and Hong Kong, François began a gradual return to the family business, by undertaking a winemaking internship in Oregon. He’d then open a wine shop in Paris, distributing the wines from his family’s estate and other great Burgundian names. He finally left the capital in 2001 in order to devote himself entirely to the Domaine, whose reputation was obviously already well established... Yet the arrival of François and his sister Claude at Chandon de Briailles has injected new life into the estate: since introducing biodynamic viticulture at the estate in 2005, a resolve to respect the grapes and embrace sulphur-free vinification are just a couple of the elements driving this complementary duo as they seek to reveal the particularity of each of their climats, vintage after vintage.