GEOLOGY
The grapes come from the vineyards from the village of Santenay in the Côte de Beaune, where Vincent Girardin is born. This is a historic wine and flag one from the Maison Vincent Girardin. Soil: Clay and mostly limestone. Gentle slope. Despite the fact the vineyards are in the south of the Côte de Beaune, we can easily compare them with the terroirs of Gevrey Chambertin in the Côte de Nuits because we have the same soil typology (Jurassic rock from the quaternary period). 100% pinot noir. Guyot pruning with different yearly works in the vineyard (pruning, trellising on wires/tying-in, thinning fruit-bunches).
VINIFICATION
Harvest-picking by hand. The grapes are sorted twice (when picking the grapes and on the sorting table) then partially de-stemmed. (when needed, depending on the quality of the berries a third sort is done with our optical machine), and put in stainless still thermo-regulated tanks. The alcoholic fermentation can begin with natural yeasts from the grape berries during around 3 weeks. Pumping-over (the must) very soft in order to be very careful about the substance and order to get the purest and most representative wine we can have. Soft pressing.
Aging
The wine is put into the cask further to a soft settling of the juice in French oak (15% for new oak). The malolactic fermentation can begin then with natural anaerobic bacterium from the juice. The aging lasts 14 months on fine lees. We follow the lunar calendar („fruit day”) for the bottling without fining and filtering.
TASTING NOTE
The Santenay is a well-built wine. Its bouquet is of strawberry where the old vintages are characterized by chestnut and dried plum.