2017 VIRÉ-CLESSÉ Les Raspillières Domaine Frantz Chagnoleau, Lea & Sandeman

VIRÉ-CLESSÉ

2022 Les Raspillères Domaine Frantz Chagnoleau

IN STOCK
Grapes Chardonnay
Colour White
Origin France, Burgundy
District Mâconnais
Village Viré-Clessé
ABV 13%

The 2022 Viré-Clessé Les Raspillères comes from east-facing vines high in altitude on active limestone soils picked at the harvest's end. This cuvée was more challenging to read, having been taken directly from foudres. The palate is more articulate, taut and fresh, much more mineral-driven than the Saint-Veran, linear and focused with a shimmering malic finish. The energy here is palpable. Superb. Drinking range: 2024 - 2038 Rating: 91-93 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jun 2023)

*Case price discount: Mix any 12 bottles of wine (or 9 litre equivalent) or 6 bottles of Champagne, Spirits, Sweet Wine or Fortified (4.5 litres) to get the discounted 'case price' for each bottle.

The vines here are Frantz's youngest at just 20 years old - but they are placed very high at 300m facing east on limestone, with very little soil. Except for one tiny plot in Vergisson this is the latest vineyard he picks - to allow full ripening in this cool zone. Real richness on the nose. Intense with lovely spicy seasoning from the barrel. Fresh and complex drive, but happily you can really feel the influence of the late harvest in the intensity of the fruit. more ripeness here with notes of melon - some white plum too. Charming but so focused, so alive - the Viré-Clessé is clean as a whistle - long and lovely. (No new wood, fermented and aged in old wood - for 9 months.) L&S (Nov 2023)

The 2022 Viré-Clessé Les Raspillères comes from more limestone soils for the appellation, aged in demi-muids (500-litres) for 12 months with a couple of months in vat. This has wonderful purity on the nose, yellow fruit, a touch of peach skin, but more white fruit emerge with time in the glass. The palate is very well balanced with sour lemon and orange rind on the entry, good extract and weight with another sapid finish that urges you back for more. Superb. Drinking range: 2024 - 2038 Rating: 92 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jun 2024)

The vineyard is in Viré, relatively high up at 360m, on a very limestone site which is the last to be picked. Young vines planted in 2005. Elevage is in demi-muids from Stockinger. Pale lemon and lime, racy, more Mâcon-Viré in style than Viré-Clessé. Extra intensity through the middle, just a little more generosity, a sweet musky note and a lovely finish. Bottled in August. Drinking range: 2025 - 2028 Rating: **** Jasper Morris - Inside Burgundy  (Mar 2024)

Domaine Frantz Chagnoleau

Frantz Chagnoleau and his wife Caroline Gon, who was until 2022 also the winemaker at the Comte Lafon Mâcon operation, are rising stars of the Mâconnais. Together they have a small domaine consisting of 3.5 hectares of Mâcon in a single block in Saint Albain, and several small plots in Viré Clessé, Saint Véran and Pouilly Fuissé, making up 6.8 hectares in total. All the vineyards are organically farmed (Ecocert certified).

Great care is taken at harvest to pick at the optimum moment for sugars, acidity and aromatic precursors, and they will stop the picking between parcels if they think that the ripening is not even across the whole domaine. Grapes are manually picked into 25kg cases, so as to get whole, undamaged grapes to the winery. After careful pressing, a very non-interventionist vinification takes place with natural yeasts in oak foudres.

The wines are kept on the lees to preserve freshness until the beginning of summer, when they are racked and lightly filtered, before bottling before the next harvest, except for some of the top wines which are aged for another six months in tank in order to develop fully. The wines are in a style which is bright and incisive, expressive and pure - and well worth seeking out.

Macon Villages Le Clos Saint Pancras : 3.55 ha
These vines were planted in 2000. Frantz uses a little bit of new wood - 10%. Élevage in demi-muids. This is the most northerly plot he works and it is high (350m) - facing east and made up of mineral, stony soil.
Viré Clessé Les Raspillères : 0.73 ha
Planted in 2005. A 30% slope and poor soil, thin at the top. Originally planted with Gamay, it was abandoned after phylloxera, then brought back from being scrubland by a forester who was passionate about wine and who realised it had once been a vineyard.
St Véran Prélude : 2.3 ha
Poor, calcareous soils. 15% new wood in demi-muids (500l barrels). 45 year old vines in several plots - the earliest ripening.
St Véran la Roche : 0.42 ha
70 year old vines at 200m in Chasselas, on marl, in mid-slope. Some is aged in demi-muids, but mostly it's in barrel with 10% new wood.
St Véran à La Côte : 0.25 ha
The highest vineyard of the domaine at 400m, on red earth, in Chasselas. Aged in demi-muids with no new wood.
St Véran La Fournaise : 0.21ha
All aged in demi-muids with no new wood. The whitest and most mineral soil they have.
Pouilly Fuissé Pastoral : 0.45 ha
Pouilly Fuissé Madrigal : 0.25 ha
From Vergisson, (mostly 'en Carmentrant') and all aged in barrel, but no new wood even if some are recent.

This wine isn't currently part of a mixed case, but you can always browse our full selection of mixed cases here.
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