Organic Apples from Burgundy
Region: Hautes Cotes, Burgundy, France
Vintage: 2022
Notes from the Importer: Meet Morgane Seuillot, a native Burgundian. Her father trained the horses that plough vineyards up and down Burgundy.
Meet Christian Knott, an Aussie from Bondi, Sydney, living in Burgundy since 2009. He’s the winemaker at Chandon de Briailles in Savigny.
Ironically, Morgane first heard of Christian over dinner one night in…Melbourne, Australia. He wasn’t there, but his name came up when Morgane expressed her interest to, upon her return home, find some vineyards, farm them organically, and make wine. A present pair of Aussie Burg importers knew Christian and told Morgane to look him up when she returned home – “He’s an Aussie winemaker in Burgundy working organically, and he tends the (only!) Espresso cart at the Saturday market in Beaune.”
Her parcels aren’t just vineyards, they’re diverse, living, holistic ecosystems, tended with the care of their mother.
In the cellar, she adds nothing (no sulphur, no nothing) and native ferments in concrete – the reds whole bunch and partial carbonic, and the whites partial whole bunch and hand destemmed. She presses in an old, wood-beam, vertical screw press, and ages the wines in neutral oak under their house, called the presbytère because it’s where the priest resided in the old days next to the church in their town, Mavilly-Mandelot.
They’re racked once at hand-bottling.
Her Pinot is typically as deep and rich as you expect from a Grand Cru with more beyond-fruit, savory, spice and herbal elements than just plain strawberries and raspberries (a reflection of her vineyard-garden, home to more than just plain vines).
Unfortunately, she makes too little of her Aligoté – planted in 1944 in and around bulging limestone mother rock; whose raw brawn pushes the parameters of this variety – to import regularly.
Christian has always wanted to make cider, and 2021 gave them the (im)perfect opportunity - a rough, wet growing season lead to early mildew, and very, very little fruit on the vines. After the grape harvest, the Dandelion cellar was nearly empty. So, they reached out to a handful of independent, non-commercial apple growers in Burgundy, and jumped into a second harvest. Same as their Pinot - no SO2 or added yeasts, and no pumps. Also, a rarity for all cider, no added enzymes at press. Fermented and aged just under a year in those would-be empty Dandelion barrels in the cellar.
