Tasted with Maurice Delorme and his daughter Véronique Delys in St.Amour, 13 July 2017.

Domaine du Paradis
Sathonat
71570 Saint Amour Bellevue
Tel: +33 3 85 37 12 35
www.domaineduparadis-saintamour.fr

Here is an old family domaine of about 20 hectares which also includes vines in the Mâconnais – just the other side of the road from the domaine the vines are classed as Beaujolais Villages or St.Véran – the parents of Maurice (87) came from Solutre.

Maurice planted 1.5 hectares of vines next to house in 1955 – both in the climat of Paradis. They have another parcel that was planted in 1939. Maurice explains that ‘it’s a rose granite here, but quite sandy.’ In total the domaine has 7 hectares in St.Amour, another 7 hectares in St.Véran – with the cave cooperative – and 3 hectares of Pouilly-Fuissé plus one hectare of Mâcon Blanc. The St.Véran is with a metayeur.

The harvested fruit is collected in small bins, by hand – the whole clusters are triaged at the vines – before a mix of concrete and stainless-steel tanks for fermentation – but mainly they prefer the stainless-steel because it’s easier to regulate the temperature – and of-course to clean. Véronique explains that they prefer to have a low temperature fermentation to preserve the aromas in their wines. They press after the fermentation until the taste of the the stems starts to come through and then they stop. Normally, bottling is in March/April. The domaine has been a supplier to Dubeouf for 40 years – ‘Sell in both bulk to Dubeouf and bottle ourselves. It’s the same wine, though maybe the wine waits longer in bulk at Duboeuf…‘

There are no barrels used here – except for the Pouilly-Fuissé. It’s a nice cuverie, before all the stainless-steel tanks were installed, all was done in a mix of foudres and barrels.

The domaine’s main market is France, selling to restaurants and individuals – that which they commercialise themselves works out about 25% of the bulk production.

The wines…

Lovely people and very tasty wines indeed. Worthy of your attention…

2015 St.Amour
Less aromatic width and less aromatic energy but there is such a depth of aroma here. Supple, waves of flavour, a little saline, excellent length. Nice…