The Rare and Beautiful "Cuvée 910" from Julien Guillot at the Clos des Vignes du Maynes!
With vineyards dating back to 910 AD that have been farmed organically since the 1950s, and three generations of experience vinifying without additives, Julien Guillot is producing some of the most unique and delicious natural wines of France. And he is doing so with a refreshing lack of pretension - "I want to make wines for sharing, wines that are convivial and flowing, and for this we try to make our wines in the most natural way possible. We take risks in our vinifications, but the wines must remain easily approachable...silky and velvety, (with) a saline aspect in the finish, that brings a crystalline minerality and a perfect accompaniment to fine cuisine."
The Cuvee 910 is back! This special cuvée is a commemoration of eleven hundred years of winemaking, the vineyards in the Clos des Vignes du Maynes having been planted around AD 900 and wine first produced for the Abbey of Cluny around 910. This "medieval" wine is a field blend of Chardonnay, Gamay and Pinot Noir, including the old varieties Gamay Petit Grain and Pinot Fin. The grapes were carefully hand-harvested then pressed by foot, vinified and aged without sulfur and bottled by hand in the spring. The palate is light but loaded with ripe, pure berry fruit backed by citrusy acids. Zippy, refreshing and very gulpable, with subtle notes of hibiscus tea, and tart berries, beautifully perfumed and low in alcohol - in the true style of Jules Chauvet. The 2020 is a gorgeous wine that should gain complexity with time, perhaps three to five years or more, but it's much too delicious right now.... Zero added SO2.
"We use the most natural methods possible to vinify our wines: using natural yeasts, no sulphur, no enzymes and no chemical additives. The wooden vats are cleaned thoroughly beforehand, and they are scrubbed with marc de Bourgogne to stimulate the yeasts. During the harvest, which is all done by hand and placed in small containers, we sort the grapes meticulously in order not to damage them during their journey to the winery. For our red wines, we carry out a semi-carbonic maceration, using a very precise method that we have perfected over three generations. The basic principle is to create a multi-layered ‘cake’ built up of alternate layers of whole clusters and destemmed grapes. The latter will produce the first juice, which will flow out, start fermenting, and thus activate the natural yeasts (with the sugars), which gives the body and smoothness that we are looking for in our wines. At the same time, because the vat is saturated with CO2, an intracellular fermentation also takes place, which brings the elegant floral aromas (rose and peony) that are typical of pinot noir. Then, after four or five days, we do a very light pumping over as well as a punching down of the cap to a depth of around twenty centimeters. The aim of this is to release the sugars and yeasts; that’s the starting signal for the fermentation, which we want to be long so that we can accompany it serenely."
-Eben Lillie
