Description
Pascaline says: “Claire is a person that I’ve been lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time with. She is truly an incredible woman; it’s amazingly powerful when you’re able to exchange ideas with this kind of soul. I admire her thoughtfulness and how she is quite discreet. When she took over the domaine, it was an incredibly male dominated era. Yet she powered through, demonstrating a fantastic capability to make stunning wines from underrated terroirs. Slowly but surely, she has built a remarkable range of low intervention wines. I first tasted her Pinot Gouges, Galanthus Nivalis, with the 2016 vintage and was blown away by the density and contrasting freshness. It further steps up with 2017, truly showing the possibilities that both the variety and terroir have. Pinot Gouges is hardly the royalty of Burgundy, yet this is so layered and complex. If you like the wines of Chassagne-Montrachet or Meursault, it’s impossible not to like this. It has phenomenal texture and incredible length. I truly love this wine.”
Claire Naudin’s family has been working the vineyards in Burgundy since the 1500s, with Claire herself leading the domaine since 1994. Claire’s approach & style to her winemaking very much resembles herself: transparent and open. She believes in healthy vineyards, having incorporated a number of biodynamic principles into the vineyards with a minimal intervention approach in the cellars. Galanthus nivalis (scientific name for the ‘snowdrop’ plant) is a recent addition to her ‘flower’ series of wines, which avoid the use of sulphur when possible. It comes from a tiny plot of 50 year old Pinot Blanc Gouges vines, which is a white mutation of Pinot Noir. The wine sees similar élevage to what you would expect from Chardonnay, being fermented and aged in older barrels. It is a tiny production, with only around 1800 bottles produced each year with 2016 being the first vintage.
