2020 Philippe Pacalet Echezeaux Grand Cru

Soil & Climate: Clay and limestone; soil with a sandy and ferric quality. It is a sunny and airy microclimate, exposed to the southeast, close to “Clos St Denis”.

Grape Variety: Pinot noir, qualitative rootstock 161-49.

Average Age of the Vines: 45 years old

Plant Density: 10,000 vines/ha

Yield: 33 hl/ha

Viticulture: Environmentally friendly and sustainable.

Vinification: Whole grapes sorted without SO2 with twice-daily punching down for 3 weeks.  Alcoholic fermentation with indigenous yeasts without artificial thermoregulation.  Malolactic fermentation in barrel.

Aging: On lees, so-called “reduction” aging without racking, with riddling without SO2 for 17 months.

Tasting Notes: Like an iron fist with a velvet glove: this powerful and refined wine has energy! Its fruity (blackberry, raspberry) and flowery aromas (wild rose, iris), as well as notes of mignonette and sandalwood give it a deep complexity.

About the producer

Philippe Pacalet was born into a family of winemakers whose tradition in the craft dates back to 1780. He is an oenologist graduate who specialized in natural yeasts, majoring in organic viticulture and natural winemaking. Philippe had no shortage of role models starting out. He was mentored by Jules Chauvet, who is credited with building the basis of natural oenology and wine tasting. Furthermore, Philippe is the nephew of Marcel Lapierre, a legendary natural winemaker in Beaujolais. Following in both his mentor’s and his uncle’s footsteps, he has become one of the leading natural winemakers in Burgundy, producing wines with minimal intervention to ensure that the terroir is as transparent as possible in his selections.

Philippe began making his own wines in 2001 after 10 years of working for a distinguished estate in Côte de Nuits. He does not possess his own vineyards but is cautious to contract with growers who work organically and sustainably, following his own rigid set of beliefs. Philippe is an advocate for organic farming, as it allows for good fertility and high quality wild yeasts as well as the growth of microorganisms in the soil which helps to nourish the vines. He firmly feels that grape variety is also vital and having rootstock with good genetics that stem deeply in the soil makes a difference. Philippe produces wines from some of the most renowned appellations of Côte d’Or. Pommard, Gevrey-Chambertin, Meursault, ChambolleMusigny, Puligny-Montrachet, Vosne-Romanée and Nuits-Saint-Georges include some of the villages where he strategically chose vineyard parcels that parallel with the principles of his work.

Philippe personally supervises farming of these vineyards throughout each phase and ensures harvest is performed manually by his team. Being that terroir is of utmost importance to him, Philippe removes anything from the vinification process that can obscure the purity of the land, allowing each wine’s specific characteristics to shine through. His goal is to keep these factors as constant as possible so that the origin is expressed which he carries out by utilizing wild yeasts (of which one may find 30 different species in a vineyard creating diversity and consequently, complexity) to aid in fermentation and only using sulfur at bottling. All grapes are handpicked and undergo a strict selection while still in the vineyards before being transported to Philippe’s winery in Beaune where they are whole bunch fermented, undergo a lengthy maceration and the traditional foot stomping, which is known as pigeage in France. Aging always takes place on fine lees in used oak. Philippe’s overall philosophy is “Authenticity, Non-Interventionism and Cultural Experience.” All of his care and attention to detail results in unrivaled top quality wines of stunning clarity