DOMAINE COMBIER (Mâcon Solutré/Burgundy, France)
After 10yrs of making wine in Chablis and in New Zealand (a la Cloudy Bay), the happy, blue-eyed Arnaud Combier returned to his home region, where his grandfather was once the mayor presiding over the vines. With a wider eye to the wine industry, Arnaud decided that his wines would be made naturally, with patience and care, by organic means. This he knew, was tricky in Burgundy, where chemical farming can creep from a neighbor only meters away, but it was the natural wines he knew of Beaujolais and Loire that interested him the most. Working with his wife, he took over the vines of his grandfather and began the conversion to biodynamics. With only a few vintages under his belt, the young vigneron is already learning from his vineyards and can see the potential. Eager to prove himself early on, he took his first vintage to Marcel Lapierre for appraisal. Met with not exactly the message he had hoped (in fact, Marcel said he did not care for it), he has headed back to master the effort. Arnaud in insanely optimistic, with a boyish grin when he considers his vines. He mentions eagerly the expanded parcels he has found, including one that was co-op used that rests below the Abbey where his great-grandfather held court. Arnaud is of this place. He knows that there are natural rhythms hiding in each vine and he has the strategy to reveal it. He constructs his cuvees to reflect a singular voice of the parcels. He considers the assemblage while harvesting. He knows what he is after. With trial and error, a nice ’Äònew’Äô cellar (below a charming 1800s stone home), and a few extra barrels (to handle his theory on extended ageing), his toils to define the unified voice of his domaine will be close at hand. Welcome home Arnaud.
Pouilly-Fuisse 2008

100% Chardonnay from newly acquired parcel near Vergisson (.5ha protected from chemical laden vineyards by rocky outcropping). Hand picked in small baskets to Fˆªt barrels. Natural yeasts start slow fermentations with intentional oxidation (up to 2yrs). Some battonage applied. Additional bottle ageing and then racked before bottling. Unfiltered. Low SO2.