Maranges
1er Cru La Fuissière 2016
The Maranges area, forms a link between the Côte-d’Or and the Saône-et-Loire.
Origin
Neighboring the Santenay appellation, the Maranges appellation is located on the southern tip of the Côte de Beaune. Mostly planted in Pinot Noir, the hills forming this vineyard has a south/south-east exposure, with an altitude oscillating between 240 and 400 meters.
"La Fussière", which extends over almost 35 hectares with a beautiful exposure to the south, has a mainly marly soil (gray and blue marls covered with calcareous scree).
The name "Fussière" is derived from the ancient French "Faisse" or "Faissa" which means "land strip". This refers to the terraced winegrowing we find on this steeply slope.
Viticulture
Grape variety: pinot noir
Soils: gray and blue marls covered with calcareous scree.
Orientation: South
Surface area under vine: 0,95 ha
Pruning: Guyot & Cordon de Royat systems
Yield: 40 hL/ha
Average age of the vines: 40 years old.
Vinification
Harvest date: 25 September 2016.
The grapes were sorted a first time in the vineyard and a second time on the sorting table when they arrived at the winery.
At the winery: the grapes were completely destemmed but not crushed (they were left whole) and were gravity-fed into tanks. Maceration lasted a total of 25 days including one week of cold maceration (12°C). Fermentation used indigenous yeasts only (no additives such as enzymes or tannins were used). Infrequent punching of the cap (8 maximum).
Ageing
Maturation: aged on the lees for 18 months with no racking using a proportion of 40% new French oak barrels.
Barrels: French oak barrels that had been toasted at low temperatures for a long time for very delicate oaking.
Bottling
Bottling: in end of March 2018, the wine was very gently filtered before being bottled using gravity.
Number of bottles: 4,700.
Vintage
2016 , small is beautiful!
Small volumes, but lovely fruit overall. This is expected to be a great vintage, confirmed by the first tastings in spring. Vintage 2016 offers fine surprises with wines of potentially high quality. White wines have fine fruit aromas, with good body and will be ready to drink while young whereas the red wines are powerful, tender, concentrated and will be ideal for ageing. The harvest was one-third down on average because of the frost that struck the region on 28 April, causing a lot of irreversible damage. This was all the more frustrating as the summer was very hot and sunny, resulting in very dense berries with thick skins, promising concentration and intense wines, but with low yields.
Ageing potential: from 5 to 8 years.
Tasting notes
With a beautiful brilliant purple color. The nose exhales a bouquet of black fruits and blackberries, as well as some notes of "pencil lead" and slightly toasted. On the palate, this wine turns out to be greedy and silky with a beautiful chiseled frame.
