Domaine Jean Touzot >
Burgundy >
France|
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| The three-generation Touzot family domaine is located in the northernmost part of the Mâcon region, just south of the Côte Chalonnaise. Their 11 hectares of vineyards overlooking the commune of Martaily les Brancion, near Tournus, are planted with 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir and Gamay (for Bourgogne Rouge, Mâcon Rouge and Crémant). The Chardonnay vines are planted on several perfectly exposed slopes with ideal clay-limestone soils at an average altitude of 200 meters. In 2005, the Touzots added the 3 hectare Les Parettes Chardonnay vineyard which they prepared and planted themselves. It has an ideal, due-south exposure and a thin layer of stony, heat-retaining soil over a bed of pure limestone. The Chardonnay vines now average 30 years of age, making for a more concentrated and complex Mâcon Villages.
Jean’s son Frédéric took over management of the family domaine in 2002, after graduating from the Lycée Viticole in Mâcon and completing a stage in South Africa. He dedicated himself to moving the domaine’s viticultural practice to sustainability. He ended systematic vineyard treatments, and now only carries out treatments when absolutely necessary. He discontinued the use of herbicides and now regularly plows the soil to ensure its healthy state and encourage the vines’ roots to go deep into the limestone subsoil. Frédéric Touzot believes careful pruning in the winter, leaf stripping, and bunch thinning in abundant years which makes for a naturally healthy ambiance and enhances the quality of his wine. He uses organic fertilizers only when deemed necessary by tests of the soils. Touzot observes that his grapes are now both healthier and riper at harvest time. Environmentally friendly practices are also used inside the winery, such as the recycling and purification of rinse water before it is drained away. “I try to be more observant and attentive to the needs of vineyard,” explains Frédéric, “rather than habitually using the same practices every year. By respecting nature, I better understand my profession.” |
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| Mâcon Villages - Vieilles Vignes |
The Chardonnay grapes are hand-harvested and then quickly and gently pressed in a state-of-the-art pneumatic press, in order to extract all the fruit and aromas while avoiding any bitterness. After 2 days of cold stabilization and a light clearing of the juice (débourbage), Touzot slowly ferments his Mâcon Villages in temperature-controlled, stainless-steel cuves for 10 to 15 days. The wine is aged on its lees in tanks and undergoes full malolactic fermentation in January. It is then bottled in April. The wine is a text book example of Mâcon Villages : a lively bouquet of green apples and flowers (acacia is notable) and crisp, persistent, juicy green apple and melon Chardonnay fruit.
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| Bourgogne Pinot Noir Rose |
The 2015 Bourgogne Pinot Noir Rosé is made from Pinot Noir grapes grown in a 1.5 HA sloping parcel with a limestone soil in the town of Mancey, in the Northern-most part of the Macon region. The fruit was picked at the start of the harvest period, early in the morning of September 3rd, under sunny and dry skies – one week before Touzot picked his Chardonnay fruit. The grapes were very lightly pressed, and only the juice from the first pressing was used to ensure freshness and purity. The must was cleared and there was no maceration on the skins; the color was obtained solely from the pressing. Fermentation finished on September 21st, and the Rosé developed on its lees until bottling in early February. The malolactic fermentation was blocked to retain freshness in this very ripe vintage. This rosé is a unique value, expressing the lightly minerally and vivid red berry and cherry essence of Burgundian Pinot Noir. It was bottled is the first week of February. 400 cases were made for the debut 2015 vintage.
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