Grapes: Gamay (from Southern Beaujolais)
Region: Burgundy, France
Vintage: 2023
Viticulture: Organic + Biodynamic
Soils: Sandy
Yeasts: Native
Vinification: Whole cluster in open tank, eighteen days of maceration under naturally formed carbon dioxide ('semi-carbonique')
Aging: Used small barrels and tanks to ferment and rest for a year on the entire lees
Fining or Filtering: None
Sulfur: None
Notes from the Winemaker: "In general, as you know, 2021 was a wet and cool year for us, with low yields resulting from a strong frost in early April and high mildew pressure before flowering. That sounds like a nightmare, and it indeed was a tough growing season, but the resulting wines are super interesting, elegant and pure. For the first time since I started making wine, all of my malolactic fermentations went in the spring, instead of during cuvaison. That's a testament to the acidity and balance in the grapes.”
Notes from the Importer: Vin Noé is the micro-negociant project of Jonathan Purcell, a native Californian who has lived and worked in Burgundy since 2011. Jonathan has worked in the cellars of Philippe Pacalet, Domaine de Montille, and Domaine Matrot, finding time on nights and weekends to launch his own project. In 2016, Vin Noé debuted its first vintage, and as of 2021, is Jon’s full-time job.
Jon’s guiding principles are relatively straightforward: terroir-driven natural wines made without additives, fining, filtration, or mechanical pumps, from a set of small, organic parcels scattered across the Côte-de-Beaune, Côte Chalonnaise, and Beaujolais. In Saint-Aubin, Puligny, and Pommard, he leases a handful of parcels, and purchases grapes from growers further afield in Beaujolais and the Côte Chalonnaise. He takes an active role in farming all of the vines, and organic farming is non- negotiable.
These concepts might sound like that of thousands of other young vignerons working in France, but what separates Jon’s wines is the intentionality, work ethic, and self-reflection apparent in the final product. This is truly a one-man operation, and every decision is taken with the utmost care and thoughtfulness. Corners are never cut, and he has chosen a patient, if not painstaking approach to growing his production little by little each year. In 2021, Vin Noé moved from a 100-year-old cooperative cellar in Auxey-Duresses, to another historic cellar in the hamlet of Gamay, which is straddled by two of his newly leased Saint-Aubin parcels. Purcell continues to make wines of place that are just as joyful as they are cerebral.
