Grapes: Chardonnay
Region: Pouilly-Fuissé, Burgundy, France
Vintage: 2020
Viticulture: Organic
Soils: clay-limestone
Vinification: Manual harvesting in crates. The bunches are put in the cold for half a day before being pressed. The vinification is done without inputs, with the exception of a small dose of sulfur.
Aging: In old barrels
Fining or Filtering: None
Sulfur: Minimal
Notes from the Importer: Training and a mentorship with Jean-Francois Ganevat in Jura and with Jean-Marie Guffens-Heynen in Mâconais is a pretty big deal, and the Jura-esque saline-minerality that runs as a thread through all these brilliant new releases is likely no coincidence. Litaud's work spans a mere five hectares of organically farmed vines, and the production is minute, incredibly hands on and precise.
These are wines of individual expression from the often overlooked Pouilly Fuissé and Saint Veran area of Burgundy. Each cuvee comes with a sense of purity, finesse and lip-smacking satisfaction though fruit character dials up and down in volume depending on the plot of vines. Freshness is implicit and minerality is a strong word to be thrown at the wines. Burgundy so often can come with cumbersome winemaking edifice of big extraction, lavish oak seasoning and concentration of fruit... the opposite dimensions are found in Litaud's wines. These are stellar wines born of detailed, careful harvest (into 7kg boxes by hand!), a light touch in winemaking, a 10 month spell on lees in older oak barrels and a quiet rest in bottle. Stellar wines. And rare. And so, so good. These are treasures to be enjoyed now, and to stash away to proudly reveal in the future.
