Michel Sarrazin et Fils – 2013

Update 5.4.2015(1.4.2015)billn

DSC06234Tasted in Jambles with Guy Sarrazin, 24th February 2015.

Domaine Michel Sarrazin et Fils
26 rue de Charnailles
71640 Jambles
www.sarrazin-michel-et-fils.fr

The old house/domaine is in the small hamlet of Jambles which sits on the edge of the Givry appellation, but just 5 minutes through the vineyards of Givry and you end up at an impressive modern cuverie just a little nearer to Givry town. This is a very old family domain that can trace its roots back to 1671. Michel Sarrazin has been succeeded here by his sons Jean-Yves and Guy.

Grapes from 35 hectares of vines arrive here – 20 of Givry plus some Mercurey and Maranges and others. The domaine needs 15 days to harvest with a mix of manual and machine harvesting, depending on the parcels – about 30% of which are white grapes…

A mix of concrete and enamel closed-top fermentation tanks are used for the destemmed grapes. These are big tanks! Guy says that he’s really looking to touch the harvested grapes as little as possible. Elevage for both colours is in barrel – one year – the wines being racked before the next harvest. It’s 500 litre barrels for some whites, the Rully for instance.

The domaine has a big French clientele – about 60% is bought direct from the cave and only about 20% is exported.

Guy Sarrazin on 2013:
“It was a hard year with lots of rain early in the season, and with it came plenty of disease pressure, but the results are really lovely.”

The wines…

Very good wines here, and unusually the whites are every bit as good as the reds (it seems a hard thing in the Côte Chalonnaise) – no sweetly-flavoured, part-oaked chardonnay, rather wines of tension, minerality and engaging complexity.

2013 Bourgogne Rouge Vieilles Vignes
The only wine with tank elevage 75%. The rest in barrel.
Ripe red fruit, quite forward given the cold glass. Good intensity, plenty of weight too – forward but balanced acidity. Strong finishing intensity. Good finish with a faint bitter element in the finish. Good.

2013 Givry les Dracy
Relatively young vines, average 15 years.
A deep nose with a tight core of darker fruit. Lovely lift of very pretty fruit – very lovely, crunchy, tasty and easy to drink wine – but this has good concentration to back it up too. Lovely!

2013 Givry 1er Cru Vieilles Vignes
An assembly of various parcels.
Tighter but also a deeper red-fruited nose. Wider flavour perspective, with a little more weight and intensity. A similar style of fruit to the ‘Dracy’ if a little more reserved. Good finish. Again lovely…

2013 Givry 1er Le Bois Gauthier
A very tight nose – almost nothing to start with. More supple, a little more dimension and complexity to the flavours – still a very nice red fruit. Lovely fresh finish of impressive persistence. Fine.

2013 Givry 1er Grands Pretants
A tight width of aroma, but quite deep with a faint spice above. Wide and concentrated, lovely weight of flavour here – and lovely fruit flavour too. Executive Givry, and with a very lovely floral finish too. Yum.

2013 Mercurey La Perriere
Deep and faintly toasty. Fresh, lithe a little less fat and flattering than the last Givry but the flavour is long and sweet – tasty wine.

Les blancs…
Guy says We’re always looking for gras and roundness, but not at the expense of energy – so I do very little batonnage, maybe only once or twice…

2014 Aligote
From 40 year-old south-facing vines, some of the elevage in 500 litre barrels. Assembled ready to bottle.
Deep, a little richness to the nose but with good fruit – a sweet-smelling wine, not savoury. Weight, again some richness but perfect acidity and fine intensity. This is really lovely!

2013 Givry Les Grognots
The nose is a little tight and perhaps a little salted. Wide, quite mineral, faintly salted, and with a little balanced richness. Not a ‘chardonnay’ wine, rather a Givry wine – and all the better for it!

2013 Givry 1er Les Pieces d’Henry
Also a tight nose but with a little more sweetness on show, nice line, just a little more sweetness versus the villages, but also a wine that is more mineral than ‘everyday chardonnay’. The faintest suggestion of oak in the finish – bravo, lovely!

2013 Givry 1er Champs Lalot
Fresher, higher tones – almost Puligny-esque! Again mineral with a touch of richness, fine balance. good energy too. Nice mid-palate intensity and a slowly decaying length. Lovely stuff – really!

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