CHÂTEAU DE MERCEY
BOURGOGNE HAUTES-CÔTES DE BEAUNE CHARDONNAY 2017
Grape variety
Tasting notes
Nose : fresh, with pleasant notes of fresh fruit and almonds.
Palate : a mineral and fruity attack, a supple and generous wine.
Wine and food pairing
Serving temperature
Ageing potential
History
Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune parcels are lyre-shaped. This technique allows the sun to shine within the vine rows and ensures quick ripening and prevents diseases.
Vinification and maturing
Once at the winery, the grapes go in a bladder press: squeezed from the inside of the press, they receive an equal amount of pressure, ensuring the best quality of juice with a minimal exposure to oxygen. Then, the must is racked for 16 to 24 hours in a cold tank to be clarified before starting the fermentation process.
Once the alcoholic fermentation is achieved, the wine is casked for an 8-month ageing period in 228 Liters oak barrels on thin lees. Stirring is occasional (twice a month) until the malolactic fermentation. It prevents the wine from oxydation and helps developing complex aromas.
To complete the ageing process, we use a proportion of 20% new barrels to give more structure to the wine and bring fullness. The malolactic fermentation was completed at 100%.
Vintage : 2017
In 2017, Burgundy succeed at both quality and quantity levels. After many vintages impacted by the climatic variation, Antonin Rodet, recover with the 2017 vintage, a very satisfactory harvest. Not only because the volumes will allow to supply the markets but also because the wines already offer the desire to discover this very elegant vintage.
After spending the winter building up their strength, the vines profited fully from a very warm spring, with budburst in early April ensuring a head start in terms of the growth cycle that was maintained right up to the harvest. The plants progressed from stage to stage free from hindrance, and by mid-June, were flowering before rapid fruit set. An early vintage was confirmed.
During the summer, a few spells of heatwave alternated with more mixed weather. However, ripening continued at a good pace and by the end of August, the first grapes were being picked, two weeks ahead of average. Harvesting continued until mid-September as each plot reached peak maturity.
Harvest started on September the 6th in our vineyards and ended on September the 30th in the late parcels.
The grapes were in exceptional health and required virtually no sorting. Everyone was very enthusiastic about this fabulous fruit, its peak ripeness, and the volumes produced.
The Chardonnay grapes for the white wines were picked at peak ripeness, wine aging is on process and promises wines with a very nice balance.