Domaine PIGNIER - Chardonnay de la Reculée 2019
Domaine Pignier is located in the town of Montaigu, in the Jura department. The vineyard, which is the only one still in operation in the village, owes its origin to the Carthusian monks who were the first to cultivate vines on hillsides formed by the foothills of the Jura Revermont. In 1794, the estate was sold as “national property” and was acquired by the Pignier family. Today, the 7th generation shares the management of the estate since 1991. It has been exploited for centuries in organic farming and manual pickax but after the two world wars and the diseases, the activity is undermined, the family had to practice mixed farming and breeding until the 1970s, when they returned to the mono-culture of the vine. In 1990, the brothers and sisters decided to return to forgotten techniques by adopting the methods of Léandre, their grandfather, who had no other choice in his time but to come to terms with what nature offered him to experience. The meetings with geologist Yves Hérody, then with Pierre Masson, advisor trainer in biodynamics, lead them to consider organic culture then biodynamics as an ultimate goal to be reached. The results were encouraging, the vines resuscitated and the quality of the grapes produced excellent. Since 2002, the entire vineyard of 13 hectares of vines has been cultivated biodynamically and certified since 2003. The vines are increasingly co-planted with different grape varieties coming only with mass-selected plants from their private nursery.
The Chardonnay de la Reculée is made from a mass selection of Melon à Queue Rouge from the vineyard located in the remote valley of Vallière. After slow pressing, the wine is transferred into 228-litre oak barrels without settling or racking. The alcoholic and malolactic fermentations as well as the aging are carried out in the same room with regular stirring and topping up. The wine is bottled according to the lunar calendar on a flower day, and stoppered with natural cork marked with fire. The 2019 vintage experienced several climatic extremes: rather warm and dry autumn and winter, late frost in April and May, hailstorms in June and July and a heat wave in June and July. The harvest was of high quality due to the summer sunshine.
Grape variety: 100% Massal Selection Chardonnay “Melon à Queue Rouge”
