2009 Domaine de Chassorney Saint-Romain Combe Bazin
Frédéric Cossard formed his domaine in the lovely village of Saint-Romain in 1996. He actually has two separate ranges of wines….the higher end stuff gets bottled under his own name and the second range….which are still fantastic wines, are bottled under the Domaine de Chassorney label.
The Domaine de Chassorney rented vineyards weigh in at around 7ha and are farmed completely organically with no chemical treatments. Frédéric doesn’t come from a wine background….his family was in the local dairy industry and after some time working in the family business he worked for a wine dealer and eventually found his way into wine-making.
The wine-making is very natural at Domaine de Chassorney with almost no sulphur additions at all. The red’s routinely see 5-6 weeks of maceration with hold clusters in tronconic vats and the white ferments….all utilising indigenous yeasts, have been known to tick along for up to 6 months in cask with no stirring of the lees.
There is even no sulphur used to clean the casks….Fred uses ozone from a negative oxygen generator…..and he gives the whites are fair bit of exposure to oxygen early in their life…this protects them from any oxidation issues in the future….like a form of immunization if you like.
It goes without saying that the wines are bottled without fining or filtration and there does tend to be a little CO2 present in the finished wines which is of no great concern as it dissipates quickly. These are stylish, refined wines that show great purity of fruit and drive with intense flavours and subtle nuance. Fairly hard to find down here in the antipodes but well worth seeking out.
Pale straw gold in the glass with quite an expressive nose showing citrus, honeydew melon and stone-fruits of the nectarine/peach persuasion. There’s hints of praline, spice, nougat, marzipan and grilled nuts with a waft of vanilla bean.
Snappy and energetic in the mouth….. a focused line with a minerally zing to the acidity. The fruit flavours are pure and stone-fruity……ripe nectarines and juicy peach, with some linear, malic green apple crunch and citrus focus. The mid-palate shows a captivating gossamer sheen of minerals that crackles through the wine along with hints of stone, spice, marzipan, nougat and curd.
The wine 2009 “Combe Bazin” finishes with a lemon sherbet-like intensity and a precise line….in fact the wine shows laser-like precision throughout its journey across the palate, and the finish lingers nicely with memories of stonefruits, mineral and a lovely oatmeal nuance.
Price: $75 – Closure: Cork – Alcohol: 12.5% – Source: Cellar – Importer: Andrew Guard Fine Wines
Great drive and clean lines
