Savigny-Lès-Beaune 2018 – Jean-Claude Boisset

The grapes to produce the Savigny-Lès-Beaune Jean-Claude Boisset were hand picked and sorted into perforated 20kg crates. The second manual sorting took place upon arrival to the winery. Grapes were 100% destemmed but not crushed, and transferred into vats using gravity. Total maceration lasted for 24 days including one week of cold maceration at 12°C. Fermentation took place using indigenous yeasts. The wine was aged for 15 months on its lees without racking, in 30% new barrels made from lightly-toasted French oak. The wine was lightly filtered but not fined before bottling.

Savigny-Lès-Beaune is a 180-hectare appellation located three kilometres north of Beaune. The south-facing vineyard is situated on predominantly loam soils. The wine was produced from old vines (over 40 years), meaning that the small bunches of grapes were thick-skinned and that the yields were low, leading to excellent concentration of fruit. Grégory Patriat deliberately chose vines treated with little or no fertiliser, cultivated organically where possible.

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.