Auxey-Duresses
1er Cru Climat du Val 2016
Often presented as the little brothers of the Cortons, the Aloxe-Cortons enjoy a stronger reputation than the
neighboring village appellations…
Origin
Nestled between the two famed villages of Volnay and Meursault, Auxey-Duresses has only 150 ha of vines, which has always meant that this appellation has remained out of the limelight. Today, however, it offers some of the Côte’s best value for the money.
The plot 'Climat du Val', neighbor of the famous 1er Cru “Les Duresses”, enjoys a South exposure. As its name indicates, the landscape is very hilly.This is the only lieu-dit in Burgundy beginning with the word Climat! In the past, Climat evoked a particular plot, and designated a place whose position, exposure, soil, altitude and neihbouring gave individual features for Pinot and Chardonnay to ''acclimatize'' harmoniously and produce specific premium wines.
Viticulture
Grape variety: pinot noir
Soils: limestone.
Orientation: South
Average age of the vines: 30 years old.
Vinification
Harvest date: 28 September 2016.
The grapes were handpicked. They were sorted a first time in the vineyard and again on the sorting table when they arrived at the winery.
At the winery: the grapes are 100% destemmed but not crushed (therefore whole) and placed in vats by gravity. Total maceration of 24 days including 1 week cold (12 ° C): No œnological product of the yeast, enzyme or tannin variety is added, so as not to detract from such a precious terroir. Infrequent punching of the cap.
Ageing
Maturation: aged on the lees for 18 months with no racking using a proportion of 35% new French oak barrels.
Barrels: French oak barrels that had been toasted at low temperatures for a long time for very delicate oaking.
Bottling
Bottling: The wine was not fined but was very gently filtered before being bottled using gravity in March 2018.
Number of bottles: 2,080.
Vintage
2016 , small is beautiful!
Small volumes, but lovely fruit overall. This is expected to be a great vintage, confirmed by the first tastings in spring. Vintage 2016 offers fine surprises with wines of potentially high quality. White wines have fine fruit aromas, with good body and will be ready to drink while young whereas the red wines are powerful, tender, concentrated and will be ideal for ageing. The harvest was one-third down on average because of the frost that struck the region on 28 April, causing a lot of irreversible damage. This was all the more frustrating as the summer was very hot and sunny, resulting in very dense berries with thick skins, promising concentration and intense wines, but with low yields.
Ageing potential: from 4 to 7 years.
Tasting notes
The color is a beautiful deep red with ruby reflections. The nose exhales intense aromas of red fruits, black cherries and some toasted and spicy notes. The palate which combines roundness and gluttony, is marked with a final on freshness.
