NAME OF WINE: Crémant de Bourgogne Nature Brut
NAME OF ESTATE/DOMAINE: Céline et Laurent Tripoz
VINTAGE: 2014 (although there is nothing on the label(s) that indicates this fact)
ABV: 13%
NAME OF VIGNERON: Céline and Laurent Tripoz

LOCATION (village and region): Céline and Laurent live in, and farm some vines in, the village of Loché (in the Mâconnais zone - South Burgundy), but they farm a multitude of parcels throughout this region.

GRAPE/BLEND (with %): 100% Chardonnay (from vines aged 20-25 years old)

SUSTAINABLE/ORGANIC/BIODYNAMIC: BIODYNAMIC

CERTIFICATION: YES, this estate holds both a certificate for organic farming from Ecocert and a certificate for biodynamic farming from Demeter for all of their wines. Laurent Tripoz explains that in order to obtain the Demeter certificate one is obliged to be certified organic, Ecocert is recognized by the French government but Demeter is not).

SUITABLE FOR VEGETARIANS/VEGANS: YES, (this Crémant was not fined)
ALLERGENS (EGGS AND/OR MILK): NO
TASTING NOTE: The mouth is straight, tense, with a mature and dense matter with discreet effervescence.

SHORT HISTORY: neither Céline nor Laurent come from a family with a wine-making background. Laurent’s parents were share-cropping tenants. while Céline’s were artists who had returned to their family’s village to get back in touch with nature;- they produced goat’s cheese and grew some vines. Laurent had hoped to become a carpenter and cabinet-maker, but in fact found that the precision and craftsmanship that he longed for was achievable by carrying out the profession of vigneron they both grew up together as children in the village of Loché, and later, when young adults, realised that they were made for each other. Laurent attended a wine-making and viticulture course for adults at the agricultural Lycée of Mâcon Davayé for one year, and began growing his own vines in 1987, their first harvests took place in 1990. their estate consists of eleven hectares and is made up of 80% Chardonnay, 10% Pinot Noir 5% Aligoté, and 5% Gamay. they resisted the urge to sell their grapes to the local Cave Cooperative, as most Loché vignerons did and still do. They vinified their own wines from the very beginning. At the end of 2001 they decided to transform the whole of their eleven-hectare estate to biodynamics, a decision which they feel has proved to be the right one, in view of the strength and resistance to disease of their vines, and in view of the quality of the grapes that they produce.

TERROIR: (type of soil, exposition, altitude) The Chardonnay vines used to produce this particular cuvée are planted on a gentle slope below the village of Loché, facing East, at an altitude above sea level of approximately between 167 and 347 metres , the soil here is a deep-lying clay-limestone where silt ( = a very fine clay) is the prominent feature. Laurent comments that this type of terroir gives very supple wines without any harshness.

VITICULTURE: (training/trellising, vineyard activity) biodynamic, Laurent Tripoz uses the ‘Taille Mâconnais’ for his vines, which is a local variant on the Guyot cut, it involves bending the very long shoot over into an arc shape ( =arcure), he leaves 12 buds on the shoot.

YIELDS (hectolitre per hectare):55-60 Hecto-litres/Hectare

VINIFICATION:

•   Manual harvest a gentle pressing in a pneumatic press.

•   Settling of the juice.

•   one to two months of wild yeast fermentation in stainless steel vat of 50-70 Hecto-litres, with

  temperature control.

•   Malolactic fermentation.

•   12 months in bottle carrying out the secondary fermentation and producing the bubbles, however,

  interestingly enough, this secondary fermentation took place using selected biodynamic yeasts authorized by Demeter, that are produced by a biodynamic grower in the Champagne region, called Jean-Pierre Fleury. the reason for using selected yeasts for the fermentation is this: in Laurent and Céline’s experience (observed after several attempts), wild yeasts sometimes did not produce a complete secondary fermentation meaning that some residual sugar was left in the bottle, which is not a good thing in their mind, these selected yeasts, on the contrary, produce a very well-defined and successful secondary fermentation and a clearly-defined wine.

•   no filtration, and no fining, however while the actual fining procedure was not carried out on this wine, Bentonite WAS added to the selected biodynamic yeasts before these were added to the wine to produce its secondary fermentation in bottle, and the reason for this is: Bentonite agglomerates the lees together, resulting in a successful disgorgement when the time comes.

•   no dosage was added to this Crémant, so it is a Brut.

•   Absolutely no Sulphur was added at any stage.

TECHNICAL:
Free SO2: (the Lab. Analyses do not give a figure for Free Sulphur)
Total S02: less than 5mg/litre;
Acidity: (the Lab. Analyses do not give a figure for Total Acidity);
Residual Sugar: (the Lab. analyses do not give a figure for Residual Sugar)