SANTENAY VIEILLES VIGNES 2018 (Marc COLIN)

The SANTENAY VIEILLES VIGNES wine comes from century-old vines planted in 1910 on the Les Champs-Claude place.

TERROIR

During the Secondary period (-251 to -65 My), a thick marine series, essentially carbonate, was deposited. This sedimentation took place under a generally low water level. The thickness of this marine series suggests a subsidence whose intensity was unequal overtime.
The sedimentation rate was also reduced or nil for long periods as attested by the deposits of ferruginous oolite.
The marine transgression is accentuated in the Rhetian (Upper Triassic -203 to -199 My) and the sea covers the region during the Jurassic (-199 to -145 My), then withdraws before coming back during the Cretaceous (-145 to -65 My).

At the end of the Oligocene (-33 to -23 Ma), an important tectonic episode occurs causing the formation of the Bressan Graben, whose filling is carried out by the collapse of coarse materials which are then covered by finer sediments resulting from the erosion of the soils since the Tertiary. The filling of the Bressan Graben will continue during the Quaternary (-2 My to our days).

The place called Les Champs-Claude is located in the commune of Rémigny, just below the Premiers Crus. Its soil dates from the Quaternary and is composed of pebbles and limestone gravels carried by the Dheune river and whose upper part is covered with scree.

This terroir gives wines that have the elegance of the best Premiers Crus climats but with less aromatic persistence.

WINEGROWING & WINEMAKING

The vines are cultivated according to the principles of the sustainable agriculture. The use of chemical weed killers is avoided thanks to an important work of the soils and the recourse to phytosanitary products takes place only in case of strict necessity.

The grapes are harvested manually. They are completely destemmed and then put in thermo-regulated vats for a maceration of several weeks with regular pumping over. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentations start spontaneously, then the must is pressed, and the juice is racked into oak barrels where it ages for 15 months.

When the ageing phase is over, the must is racked and bottled without fining or filtration.