Description
“The red Beaune Boucherottes, from mature vines just below Clos des Mouches, is quiet with apple-bloossom high tones, roasted spice and pretty cherry fruit.”
Jon Bonné in The New French Wine
Vineyard
From two contiguous parcels, one a 44-year-old selection massale planting, the other a 26- year-old selection clonale, at the southern end of the Beaune Premier Cru slope below the famous vineyard of “Clos des Mouches” and next to Pommard’s grand climat “Les Epenots”. This is an iron-rich white soil, rocky at the top, transitioning to more of a marl at the bottom. Having more limestone than neighbouring Pommard, the wines have a fleshy mid-palate paired with suave, silky tannins.
Vinification
Hand-harvested, chilled overnight to ensure the cluster’s turgidity, 5% was destemmed and placed at the bottom of the wooden vat, the rest of the clusters were put on top for a no SO2, native fermentation. The fruit was untouched, save for a daily sparging with CO2, with one pigèage each of the last two days of fermentation. Pressed on the 14th day, the wine finished to dryness in tank before a year in oak barrels of varying ages and sizes along with the finest of lies. Bottled under DIAM 10 without fining or filtration.
“My vision for Le Grappin is to seek out special sites in the over-looked, under-appreciated reaches of Burgundy, that tell a story. I search out viticulteurs as maniacal as me, who tend their vines throughout the year, who know their sites and how best to make the site shine. My job is to ensure the wine reaches it’s true potential, working by hand, with small lots, giving each wine as much care and attention as my viticulteurs have paid to the vines. I believe one finds a sense of detail, purity, and focus in my wines as a result. I hope you enjoy the stories my wines have to tell.” – Andrew Nielsen, Le Grappin
About Le Grappin
Le Grappin make authentic wines from under-appreciated parcels in Burgundy and Beaujolais. They source fruit from the same single parcels of organically farmed vines each year. From their winery, in the Hautes Côtes de Beaune, they combine modern winemaking with traditional methods, eschewing additives and interventions.
The Nielsen’s started Le Grappin in 2011 following Andrew’s five-year journey working for some of the world’s great Pinot Noir and Chardonnay artisans in California, Central Otago, Burgundy, and the Yarra Valley and studying wine science. Emma joined in 2015 bringing her experience of marketing, events, and project management.
Their fruit is from vineyards farmed organically, working with the same growers each year, with some partnerships now lasting for more than 10 years. Fermentation is done with no additions, using strict sorting and hygiene to combat wine defaults, and serious vineyard work to avoid the need for sugar, acid or nutrient additions.
Whites are whole bunch pressed in hydraulic basket presses and fermented in a range of formats depending on the fruit – old oak barrels, concrete egg, wooden foudres and glass. Reds are fermented whole cluster in wood or concrete large tanks with ageing taking place in large-format old oak barrels, for up to two years depending on the vintage and the wine’s development.
Their Le Grappin labels showcase fine wines from the Côte de Beaune and Hautes-Côtes de Beaune, and Du Grappin, the more relaxed and restaurant-focused wines from Beaujolais, Mâconnais and Vézelay.
