VIRÉ-CLESSÉ

2018 Les Raspillères Domaine Frantz Chagnoleau

Grapes Chardonnay
Colour White
Origin France, Burgundy
Other Practising Organic, Vegetarian, Vegan
District Mâconnais
Village Viré-Clessé
ABV 13%

These vines were planted in 2000. The 2018 was harvested on the 2nd September. Frantz uses a little bit of new wood - 10%. Élevage in Demi-muids. This is the most northerly plot he works and it is high (350m) - facing east and made up of mineral, stony soil. Just the way Franz likes it! Even in 2018 this wine is delightfully fresh and clean - some citrus spritz - but a good saline backdrop rules. Bright and fresh and yet nicely weighted too. Quite a serious feel. Sophisticated L&S (Nov 2019)


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The 2018 Viré-Clessé Les Raspillères offers up a lovely nose of orange oil, citrus blossom, freshly baked bread and beeswax. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and enveloping, it's one of the fleshier, more textural wines in Chagnoleau's cellar, while remaining bright and precise for the appellation. Drinking range: 2020 - 2030 Rating: 91 William Kelley, The Wine Advocate (Jun 2020)

The 2018 Viré-Clessé Les Raspillières displays cold stone and light flinty notes on the clean and focused nose. The palate is fresh and generous with orange peel and citrus lemon on the entry. Good weight and concentration here with impressive persistency. What a delicious Viré-Clessé...and a great value too. Drinking range: 2021 - 2026 Rating: 90 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jan 2020)

Domaine Frantz Chagnoleau

Frantz Chagnoleau and his wife Caroline Gon, who was until 2022 also the winemaker at the Comte Lafon Mâcon operation, are rising stars of the Mâconnais. Together they have a small domaine consisting of 3.5 hectares of Mâcon in a single block in Saint Albain, and several small plots in Viré Clessé, Saint Véran and Pouilly Fuissé, making up 6.8 hectares in total. All the vineyards are organically farmed (Ecocert certified).

Great care is taken at harvest to pick at the optimum moment for sugars, acidity and aromatic precursors, and they will stop the picking between parcels if they think that the ripening is not even across the whole domaine. Grapes are manually picked into 25kg cases, so as to get whole, undamaged grapes to the winery. After careful pressing, a very non-interventionist vinification takes place with natural yeasts in oak foudres.

The wines are kept on the lees to preserve freshness until the beginning of summer, when they are racked and lightly filtered, before bottling before the next harvest, except for some of the top wines which are aged for another six months in tank in order to develop fully. The wines are in a style which is bright and incisive, expressive and pure - and well worth seeking out.

Macon Villages Le Clos Saint Pancras : 3.55 ha
These vines were planted in 2000. Frantz uses a little bit of new wood - 10%. Élevage in demi-muids. This is the most northerly plot he works and it is high (350m) - facing east and made up of mineral, stony soil.
Viré Clessé Les Raspillères : 0.73 ha
Planted in 2005. A 30% slope and poor soil, thin at the top. Originally planted with Gamay, it was abandoned after phylloxera, then brought back from being scrubland by a forester who was passionate about wine and who realised it had once been a vineyard.
St Véran Prélude : 2.3 ha
Poor, calcareous soils. 15% new wood in demi-muids (500l barrels). 45 year old vines in several plots - the earliest ripening.
St Véran la Roche : 0.42 ha
70 year old vines at 200m in Chasselas, on marl, in mid-slope. Some is aged in demi-muids, but mostly it's in barrel with 10% new wood.
St Véran à La Côte : 0.25 ha
The highest vineyard of the domaine at 400m, on red earth, in Chasselas. Aged in demi-muids with no new wood.
St Véran La Fournaise : 0.21ha
All aged in demi-muids with no new wood. The whitest and most mineral soil they have.
Pouilly Fuissé Pastoral : 0.45 ha
Pouilly Fuissé Madrigal : 0.25 ha
From Vergisson, (mostly 'en Carmentrant') and all aged in barrel, but no new wood even if some are recent.

This wine isn't currently part of a mixed case, but you can always browse our full selection of mixed cases here.
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