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VARIETAL
Chardonnay is the grape variety for white Saint-Véran.
- 8,000 plants/hectare
- Pruning: Mâconnais "queue"
- Harvested by hand
- Yield: 55 hl/hectare
TASTING NOTES
Pale yellow colour with a light green tint.
Lively and elegant, the nose develops subtle fruit aromas (peach, pear) or acacia, honeysuckle and bracken, often over notes of fresh almond, hazelnut, cinnamon, butter, and sometimes honey. Exotic fruits and citrus notes are sometimes present.
In the mouth, this is a lively, fresh and vigorous wine, perfect for celebrations.
FOOD AND WINE PAIRING
Drink with oily fish, poached or simply fried, seafood, risottos containing sea-food or mushrooms and goat cheeses, French Comté and Beaufort cheeses.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS
Serve at a temperature of 12°C- 14°C. (54-57°F.).
AGEING POTENTIAL
This wine can be consumed now or laid down in a cellar for the next 3 to 8 years.
ORIGIN
This is a Macon appellation, a neighbour of the renowned Pouilly Fuissé. It is harvested in several villages from Prissé and Davayé lying to the north of the Rock of Solutré to Leynes, Chasselas, Chânes, part of Solutré-Pouilly and (of course) Saint-Vérand itself all lying to the south. The soils, ideally suited to the Chardonnay, produce only white wines.
VINIFICATION AND MATURING
After manual harvesting, the grapes are moderately pressed.
The juice is left to settle, and then temperature-controlled fermentation begins in stainless steel tanks.
During the maturing, the wine is racked to aerate it and to get rid of the deposit.
Vintage : 2022
This 2022 vintage promises to be one of great quality.
We had a rather rainy November, December and January, and February and March were rather cool, which slowed down the emergence of the buds and in turn prevented the frost problems that we had last year.
May was very, very hot providing great flowering conditions. June was then a little chaotic weather wise, as we had some warm mornings and then with violent storms after midday, sometimes with hail. However, at least nothing really bad in our Burgundy.
The harvests started in Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits around 29 August, which is still relatively early and we had to deal with diverse levels of ripening. Some parcels really stood up to the heat and have given wonderfully ripe grapes. Of course, everything was conditioned by how the vineyard was managed and the amount of exposure. But overall, we had wonderful wines from these parcels, from other parcels which experienced more dehydration. The very high temperatures meant a greater halt in ripening, giving grapes a little less ripe, so we had to wait to harvest them.
By the end of August, we already had fabulous colour extraction and the acidity was very well balanced. All this allowed to be very confident, heading for a great vintage.
In the Chablis area, some winegrowers started harvesting as August was ending, but most of them started harvesting in the first days of September.
The harvesters were relatively unaffected by the rains, which fell either in the late afternoon or at night. The foliage, which was still in good health, benefited from it. Thanks to the rain, juice concentration was limited and the bunches of grapes were able to provide a good balance between sugar content and acidity.
The harvest concluded the third week of September with a smile: neither the frost nor the drought prevented the vineyards from producing close to normal yields. However, the volumes harvested varied from one domain to another, with some estates easily reaching full production while others were below the appellation's yield.
Wines in the making are expressing notes of ripe fruit, pear and peach, while keeping their freshness. They are generous and have a good balance. Quality is definitely there as well.
After a year 2021 disturbed by a poor harvest, this 2022 vintage is a real breath of fresh air.
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