SAINT VÉRAN

2019 La Fournaise Domaine Frantz Chagnoleau

IN STOCK
Grapes Chardonnay
Colour White
Origin France, Burgundy
Other Vegan, Vegetarian, Certified Organic
District Mâconnais
Village Saint Véran
ABV 13%
Vineyard La Fournaise

There's fatness but the overall impression is of a dancing lightness of touch and lean purity. A very white stone soil with lots of active limestone. It's all aged in 600l demi-muids - it's the third vintage in the same barrels. Drinking range: 2021 - 2026 L&S (Oct 2020)

*Case price discount: Mix any 12 bottles of wine (or 9 litre equivalent) or 6 bottles of Champagne, Spirits, Sweet Wine or Fortified (4.5 litres) to get the discounted 'case price' for each bottle.

From white soils over limestone not dissimilar to Chablis, the 2019 Saint-Véran La Fournaise, aged in demi-muids, has a beautifully defined bouquet with apple blossom, wet limestone and a light marine influence. The palate is very well balanced with a very discrete reduction. The 2019 has outstanding weight with a touch of apricot towards the finish. Excellent. Drinking range: 2022 - 2035 Rating: 93 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Nov 2021)

The 2019 Saint-Véran La Fournaise has a crisp, precise bouquet with lime, white peach and light orange blossom aromas. The palate is very well balanced with intense citrus fruit laced with orange zest and ginger. I would have liked a little more persistence but it deserves applause for its energy and focus. Very fine. Drinking range: 2022 - 2030 Rating: 91 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jan 2021)

Bright greenish straw. Notably broad and rich on the nose and then rather sumptuous fruit and the trademark acidity keeps it lively. Encouraging edginess. Drinking range: 2022 - 2026 Rating: 16 Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Jan 2021)

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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