Fixin Blanc 2021 – Jean-Claude Boisset

To produce the Fixin Blanc Jean-Claude Boisset, upon arrival at the winery, the handpicked grapes were whole pressed for two and a half hours. The temperature of the must was brought down to 12°C and then it was immediately transferred to 450L barrels. Following a long fermentation with indigenous yeasts the wine spent 17 months in oak, with no lees-stirring, before bottling to produce a bright and concentrated wine with plenty of weight. Just 1500 bottles were produced.

The Fixin Blanc comes from a tiny plot within the very small Fixin appellation. Fixin is a village at the northern end of the Côte de Nuits. Apart from its neighbour, Marsannay, Fixin is the most northerly appellation in the Côte de Nuits, covering roughly 90 hectares. It is known principally for Pinot Noir. There are just 5 hectares planted to Chardonnay. Boisset’s Fixin Blanc comes from a small plot of 40 year old vines which are located beneath the famous 1er Cru ‘Clos du Chapitre’ on clay and limestone soils.

Jean-Claude Boisset is a family-owned wine company founded in 1961. Jean-Claude’s first parcel of land was located in Gevrey-Chambertin and today the company is based in Les Ursulines, a former convent in Nuits-Saint-Georges, and run by his children Jean-Charles and Nathalie. In 2018, they opened a new state-of-the-art winery, which reflects their modern, technical approach to winemaking. In 2002, Jean-Charles recruited Grégory Patriat, who had previously worked at the legendary Vosne-Romanée producer Domaine Leroy, to revitalise and reinvent the house. He transformed Boisset into a ‘viniculteur’, working closely with the growers, guiding the wines from vine to bottle to achieve the desired quality. In order to create concentrated, beautifully well-rounded wines which are naturally expressive of their individual appellation, Grégory practises minimal intervention winemaking. Each plot is picked separately and hand sorted to ensure optimal maturity. Sulphite levels are low and the wines are fermented exclusively by natural yeasts, with rarely more than 30% new oak used on a wine.