Tasted with Pauline Passot in Chiroubles, 19 February 2020
Domaine de la Grosse Pierre
Pauline Passot
409 Route de la Grosse Pierre
69115 Chiroubles
Tel: +33 4 74 69 12 17
www.domainedelagrossepierre.fr/
Here’s a domaine set on a hillside amongst the vines – there are not many neighbours – just beautiful views over the vines in the direction of Fleurie. Pauline Passot explains a little about the domaine:
“My grandfather, Georges, was a metayer here in the 1960s. My parents took on the domaine in the 1980s, and it’s been me since 2018. There are 9 hectares here, 7.7 in Chiroubles which produces 4 different cuvées. Then there’s 0.8 ha of Morgon and 0.5 ha of Fleurie. Export is developing, but my biggest home market is Lyon – there are exports to the US & UK though.
“The approach in the winery is semi-carbonic from whole clusters, with no added yeast and no added sulfur during vinification, only a little sulfur when racked and at bottling. It’s the same for all the cuvées so that the terroirs can hopefully express themselves. A little stainless-steel elevage for one wine but principally the wines here have elevage in cement.”
Pauline on the last two vintages:
“2019 was not too complicated, also no frost so it was relatively easy. 2018 was my first vintage and I had volume and quality! We’re starting conversion to Agriculture en Bio now. Some parts not easily mechanisable though so I’m using a treuil.”
The wines…
Pauline has some beautifully perfumed but properly structured wines in 2018 – wines to follow.
The first wine was bottled in June – all the rest were done at the start of August, the commercialisation got underway shortly afterwards:
2018 Chiroubles La Grosse Route
‘Our biggest cuvée – it’s the climat here at the domaine. Sandy granite – quite deep soil despite the name of the climate – it gets the early morning sun. Here is a little stainless elevage
Here’s a fine and fresh nose of floral red fruit. A narrow entry, fresh and slowly widening, a base with modestly grained tannin. Quite a structural style but no hard edges. Highly drinkable, mouth-watering and direct. Long on a mineral note
At 460 m – another lieu-dit – decomposing rock (granite) the roots really on the mother-rock, vines with an exposure to the south. About 1 ha of production represented here vs the 4 of the last.
Hmm, much more expressive and inviting – round fruit and more florals – that’s a super perfume. Bright, wide, mouth-filling. Lovely structure again – this time to wait for – but the material is fine and the nose is already to die for. Excellent, it could be great!
2018 Fleurie Bel Air
Half a hectare here.
A very different nose but it’s just the other side of the hill from here. Perfumed, cushioned red fruit with flowers – classically Feurie and quite different, despite my description, to the previous wines. Wide, mineral – this is so fresh and energetic. That’s a fine structure, also direct and to wait for – excellent, and again perhaps more.
Near to Fleurie – ‘a Morgon of finesse’
Hmm – different but similar – perfumed red fruit but fruit of more precision and a certain juicy redcurrant style. Juicy in the mouth too – this with just a little more sucrosity – so easier to assimilate at this age. The grain of tannin at the base is so tiny, the structure super again and here’s a finish that’s much more floral – a perfumed wine, already approachable despite a proper structure – bravo!