THURISSEY 2018 (Jean-Marie CHALAND)

TERROIR

The Thurissey wine has the name of its terroir : plots of its vines are located in the village of Thurissey ; the terrain with multiple faults has varied soils whose genesis mainly occurred during the Jurassic geological period (-201 million to - 145 million years), when the sea invaded a large part of Europe and favored a large accumulation of shell and coral fragments.

The mainly limestone soils are rich in fossils and date from the Kimmeridgian, a geological stage of the Upper Jurassic which formed between -161 and -145 million years under a tropical and well oxygenated sea, populated by many vertebrate and invertebrates organisms ; the climate was hot and humid. Faults are responsible for older soils outcrop, consisting of a thick layer of marl dating from the Bathonian, a geological stage formed 165 millions years ago, which marks a sedimentation deepening concomitant with a sea level increase.

Intermediate limestone layers are exposed here and there, they date from the Oxfordian (between -160 and -155 millions years) and consist of oolithic limestones. This Oxfordian stage is a period of transition to the Kimmeridgian limestones, it is marked by a significant sea level drop with a probable water cooling and a depletion of oxygen.

It is on this terroir close to the Sancerrois terroir that the almost century-old vines of Chardonnay of the estate are planted : they find in the marly subsoil the water reserve they need and in the pebbles and limestone surface the heat necessary for the clusters maturation.

WINEGROWING & WINEMAKING

The grapes, cultivated according to the principles of Organic Agriculture since 2003, are harvested manually, sorted and then fermented with the native yeasts. Thurissey offers a special feature : 35% of the must is vinified separately in clay amphora for a few months, the rest is traditionally vinified in oak barrels, 10% of which are new, with an ageing in barrels for 10 months and in tanks for 6 extra-months. The wine is neither fined nor filtered.