Mercurey L'Automne 2018 - Domaine Levert-Barault

About the vintage : The 2018 vintage was full of richness, marked by the great maturity of the grapes with great ageing potential. Thanks to the rain at the end of August, the vines gave both abundant and very good quality yield. The white grapes were ripe, rich and powerful. Tasted a few months after the bottling, the wines tend to settle down, keeping the richness of the fruit, and developing a slight toasted and mineral reduction notes, typical of great Chardonnays. The Pinots Noirs were very ripe, with a dark ruby color and a strong tannic structure: on some vintages they sometimes take on southern accents !

Terroir : This is a blend of two areas in Mercurey, whose characteristics are quite different. The grapes for the Automne cuvée mainly come from esVaux plot, whose vines are quite old and with perfect exposure. The grapes obtained are dense and fleshy, to obtain a deep and gourmet cuvée. The blend is made with a small portion from the plot Les Montelons which is located on the Mercurey plateau, opposite Rully. Rather high altitude, cool temperatures, clay soils. Crisp, fresher grapes. The Le Printemps cuvée is in reverse proportion.

Viticultural Practices : The vines are grown organically. Mechanical labour of the soil. They are pruned in simple guyot with long sticks and disbudded every other eye, so the bunches end up beautiful and airy.

Vinification : Grapes harvested by hand in crates, sorted on a sorting table and 100% destemmed, the whole berries are conveyed directly into the vat so as not to crush the raw material. Traditional Burgundy vinification, in open thermoregulated vats.

Ageing : Aged 10 months in oak barrels