2020 Domaine Dandelion 'Hautes-Côtes Nature', Pinot Noir. Hautes Côtes-de-Beaune, Burgundy, FRANCE. 750ml.
In the lofty and peaceful village of Mavily-Mandelot, Morgane Seuillot and Christian Knott, recently joined by their gorgeous little daughter Rose, are crafting arrestingly beautiful wines of great class and elegance.
Morgane is a native to the village, though well travelled through the UK and Australia. She has totally absorbed her father’s passion for plants and artisanal farming ; he is a horse plough specialist who provides his services to some of the most famous Biodynamic Estates in the world (including Leflaive and Lafon). Over the past 5 years or so, she and Christian have begun learning the horse craft themselves, and will carry on the brilliant work.
Christian, an Australian, has been living in France for the past 10 years, working as the Chef de Cave at the highly esteemed Biodynamic Estate, Domaine Chandon de Brialles in Savigny-les-Beaune. Christian’s understanding of plants and how to encourage their vitality with Biodynamics is profound. And the wines this duo are thus able to produce, thanks to that intimate knowledge and understanding of plant and site, are a pure pleasure and lesson in easy elegance. Nothing austere here, just pure fruited, seductive, yet mineral and fine wines.
Domaine Dandelion consists of approximately 2.5 ha in AOC Hautes Cotes de Beaune, mostly planted to old vine Pinot Noir (1940s - 60s plantings). There is also a tiny amount of very old vine gamy (1901 plantings) and aligoté.
The already famous cuvée “Hautes Cotes Nature” is a most exceptional Pinot Noir.
The geology is a combination of 2 different types of sites. On some vineyards, it is the classic Cote d’Or setup of a layer of clay over limestone, and on others a very deep basin of Blue Marl full of fossils (the famous geology of the Jura). The vineyards are around 500m altitude, making them the highest and latest to be harvested in the Cote d’Or. This ultimately gives the wines a more etherial and elegant nature, no doubt a valuable asset for the future in this warming climate.
The vines are worked entirely biodynamically by hand and/or horse, and sometimes with a tiny ride-on crawler. They are using alternative disease treatments to remove all sulphur sprays from the vineyard, and copper is kept to a very bare minimum (usually less than 20% of the authorised maximum spray for Biodynamic certification, which is already very low).
Wine making is magic and deft. Perfect fruit is hand harvested and gently placed in concrete or wooden fermenters in whole bunches. A carbonic maceration is started, which may last up to 3 weeks, with no plunging or pump-over for at least the first 10 days. The juice is not removed, so a classic maceration on skins occurs at the bottom of the cuve. Once carbonic maceration has delivered the desired flavour profile and structure to the wine, it is lightly trodden, then pressed in a very small basket press and sent to old oak barrels for 6-12 months depending on the vintage. The wine has never seen a pump, has never been touched with additions or manipulations, and has gone through its entire life with no SO2 added at any stage.
