Jean Manciat maintains a small 5.5 hectare domaine in the Southern area of Macon quite close to Pouilly Fuisse. His father sold to the local co-op, but Jean began bottling his own wine because of the quailty of grapes coming from his fields. Unlike the typical Mâconnais way of vine training, known as “arcure” which is too productive, Jean trains his vines the same way they do in the Cote d’Or. The shorter Guyot pruning severly reduces yields, giving superior fruit. His yields are less than half of most of his neighbours. He also replanted is vines to less productive rootsocks and reoriented his vine rows to maximize ripeness and limit the impact of disease.
Jean is a great believer in the power of nature to acheive its own balance and so he takes care to minimize any interventions in the fields. He grows grasses between the rows to encourage beneficial insects and protect the soil from erosion and this has meant that diseases and parasites have been drastically reduced, virtually eliminating the need to apply treatments. In the cellar, too, everything is natural and traditional, using indigenous yeasts, eschewing must adjustments and only adding a bit of sulphur to ensure cleanliness and stability. The wines are a pure joy to drink!
100% Chardonnay. Named for the high concentration of chalk in the soils, “Les Crays” comes from a stony, west-facing parcel of vines planted in 1998 and 2000. Whole clusters are harvested by hand, pressed directly and fermented with natural yeasts in barrel. The wine is aged in barrel, a small percentage of which is new, on the fine lees for about 9 months with regular bâtonnage. It is bottled with a light, non-sterile filtration and aged further before release. The wine has a fruit-driven nose of ripe peach, yellow apple, lemon curd and fairly prominent sandalwood and warm spices. The palate is rich and ripe, with similar orchard fruit and spiciness. There is a real creaminess supported by a fine flinty minerality. Drinking beautifully now, but could benefit from another year or two in bottle to allow the wood and fruit to integrate further.
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