Dom Houillon Chardonnay/Savagnin 1999

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Starting at: $43.72 USD

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Winery:

Emmanuel Houillon

Varietals:

Chardonnay , Savagnin

Region:

 

Type:

White Wine

Color:

Drink Dates:

Drink Now - 2011

UPC:

 

What to Expect

Chardonnay is America's most popular grape and with good reason. Made in styles that range from steely, mineral laced wines with crisp green apple fruit to wines that are buttery, rich, and laden with tropical fruits, there is a Chardonnay that will appeal to every palate. Chardonnay is most closely associated with France's Burgundy region and California's Northern valleys though it has proven successful around the globe.

Winemakers Notes

In the quiet village of Pupillin just north of Arbois is a sign beside the road that proudly announces: World Capital of Ploussard”. It was vigneron Pierre Overnoy who established the unyielding purist precept that wines should be made without the addition of sulphur. Pierre's father originally made zero-sulphur wine, but Pierre, who did his internship in Burgundy, experimented with it, until tasting the difference between his father's wines and his own convinced him that the zero-sulphur wine had a finer aroma. The vines and the cellar are now in the hands of Pierre Overnoy's read more...protégé, Emmanuel Houillon, who fully espouses the philosophy of his mentor. Without sulphur the quality of the grapes has to be exceptional; everything in the vineyard is done totally organically, yields are never more than 35hl/ha and Houillon turns the top six inches of soil, cutting the surface roots and thus depriving the plant's of the topsoil's potassium which otherwise combines with tartaric acid and lowers their acidity. In the cellars the selected grapes undergo a semi-carbonic maceration in a covered vessel, with CO2 added at the start before the fermentation supplies its own. To keep the bacteria from multiplying, the temperature is held to about 8C for about ten days of maceration. Then the temperature is allowed to rise and fermentation begins. The white grapes are immediately pressed and their juice is also protected with CO2. After the initial active phase some of the white wines continue to ferment a year or more, virtually all in old oak barrels of various sizes. Houillon is opposed to adding anything to the wine. No new oak barrels influence the taste - some of the barrels in use are a century old. Before bottling, the wines are neither filtered nor fined and they retain a lot of CO2, which has an antioxidant effect and helps to convey aroma.    (hide)

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