Tasted with Jean-Philippe Bret in Hurigny, 08 November October 2021.
Domaine de la Soufrandière
125 Rue aux Bourgeois
71680 Vinzelles
Tel: +33 3 85 35 67 72
www.bretbrothers.com
More reports on La Soufrandière
Jean-Philippe on 2020:
“Yes, the bulk prices are skyrocketing but I stay optimistic – the demand is strong and we have to hope that these prices will come back down – we need to keep selling wine at a decent price. 2020 was a good vintage – 2018 was harder in the cuverie but that wasn’t the case with the 2020s. 2020 was quite an easy year – we had already finished our work in the vines very early and were just left waiting for the harvest. The degrees are a little lower than in 2019 but these are wines with good maturity – I’d say that the 2019s are tasty and rich whilst the 2020s are more balanced.”
And on his approach to not sulfuring before the fermentation is done: “The thing about using sulfur during vinification is that you directly kill certain strains of yeast, so are artificially ‘selecting’ certain strains – for that reason, I don’t want to add sulfur before the fermentation is done.”
The wines…
Always a pleasure to taste the wines from this team – some wines worth your time searching too in 2020…
The three 2020s presented are bottled the rest will begin their bottling in January. Soufrandière is domaine, ‘Bret’ are their Maison wines – there are almost 12 hectares of vines in the domaine and they buy the equivalent of another 8 hectares for the ‘Bret’ label:
2020 Soufrandière, Mâcon-Vinzelles Clos de Grandpère
Vines between 50 and 100 years old. East-facing –
An easy and attractive width to this nose – not fully open but still with enough of an invitation. Bigger in the mouth than the nose had suggested – energetic – with clarity to its mineral structure. Almost juicy – that’s a beauty – almost a suggestion of something akin to ginger in the finish – yes!
North-facing vines. 80% tank, 20% barrel elevage.
Here is a more open and vibrant freshness of aroma – drink me it says! Big in the mouth – colder impression. Lots more volume, super energy again – very fine and pure citrus finishing, with a suggestion of florals too. Great!
Name started as a joke in Japan around 2005 after tasting a wine from de Moor. These vines in St-Veran La Bonnode – ‘so not a lower-class place’
A width of nicely vibrant, faintly spiced, ripe lemon. Mouth-filling, super intensity. Really juicy finishing flavour – always one of the classiest wines you will find from this cepage.
From Les Quarts, the oldest vines go into the cuvée Les Quarts.
A noble reduction – ooh! – that’s so good! Mouth-filling again – minerally mouth-watering – the accents are all citrus – the wines here are so good but with such a similar quality that it’s hard to choose between them – on the positive side – I could buy blind!
And for the road:
2016 Soufrandiere, Pouilly-Vinzelles Climat Les Quarts
South-east-facing, horse worked.
A narrower but super nose with the first wisps of maturity. Concentrated, there’s density too – but the wine itself is not dense, it’s giving, it’s generous, but it has beautiful clarity too. That’s really excellent and beautifully mouth-watering. Strong, impressively finishing.