About the Wine
Deep, heady, skin-contact Chardonnay - rich in savoury complexity, with neat tannins sitting alongside notes of warm citrus, earth and spice. Put aside what you may know about Burgundian Chardonnay, Jérôme Guichard produces wines with a type of texture and perfume that is rarely associated with the region. Jérôme’s approach is unhurried, thoughtful and precise. With vineyards that brim with life and energy, Jérôme trusts his land, grapes and time.
Made with Chardonnay from a parcel of 40-year-old vines planted over heavy clay in Montbellet, in the north of Mâconnais. The grapes were macerated on the skins as whole bunches for a fortnight, before being pressed into old barrels for eighteen months of elévage. 2020 was a warm, dry growing season, the resulting wines show wonderful depth and complexity, with warming spices and surprises around every corner.
Jérôme Guichard, a modest, humble, hard-working vigneron who spends most of his time out in the vines. After several years working alongside Guy Blanchard, in 2011 Jérôme took over just under three hectares of old Chardonnay in the commune of Montbellet in the Mâconnais - vines which had been in the Blanchard family for generations. Surrounded by forest, planted over classic Burgundian mix of clay and limestone, the vineyards are rich in biodiversity and teeming with life. Grass, herbs, and flowers grow freely.
Jérôme also tends a little over a hectare of Gamay where the Mâconnais meets Beaujolais in Leynes. Planted in 1946 over black volcanic soils, the vines produce deeply savoury expressions of the grape. He keeps a further hectare of Gamay planted over limestone in Uchizy, which produces vibrant, luminous wines.
In both plots, Jérôme continues the work of his mentor. Vine health is maintained through the use of herbal plants and organic teas. In the cellar the wines rest in old barrels. The work is unhurried and thoughtful, the wines are always given the time they need to develop - with nothing in added at any stage. The resulting wines are deep and heady, and push against stylistic Burgundian tropes - sometimes challenging for the faint of heart! They offer a rare energy, texture and perfume that is not often associated with this part of the world.
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