Jadot Beaune Chouacheux 2016 Domaine Gagey, Burgundy, France

The Gagey family owns vineyards in Beaune, Chambolle Musigny and other places, they have an arrangement with Maison Louis Jadot to make wines out of the grapes in those vineyards. The Gagey family has been managing the Jadot vineyards along with the Jadot family for decades. Les Chouacheux is among the smaller of Beaune’s premiers crus, a squarish, 12.5-acre vineyard situated near the south end of the commune on the slope just below Vignes Franches. The slightly deeper soils in the lower part of the slope produce plump, fruity wines offset by the delicacy characteristic of the southernmost vineyards. Red grapes are destemmed and crushed and allowed to macerate for up to a week with the skins to draw forth color and extract. Fermentation on the skins, again in casks used for the same wine vintage to vintage, takes place over twenty to thirty days at temperature several degrees above what most producers consider prudent, but which extracts an extra measure of color, depth and concentration in the wine. The must is “pigé,” or agitated, but not pumped over, twice daily; this retains a higher degree of oxygen to nourish the yeasts and lengthens the fermentation. In some vintages, malolactic fermentation is suspended for a period of a few months to fix the color and aromas. After a period of eighteen to twenty-two months’ aging in oak, again with never more than thirty percent new casks, the final blend is assembled and bottled. Red wines receive neither fining nor filtration.