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Domaine de L’Abbaye de Santenay, Santenay “Vieilles Vignes”

Burgundy, France 2017 (750mL)
$39.00
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Domaine de L’Abbaye de Santenay, Santenay “Vieilles Vignes”

Today’s wine is a flat-out stunner: a modest “village wine” that drinks like a superstar. The vieilles vignes (“old vines”) designation is your first tipoff, as are the little symbols denoting its organic and biodynamic certifications. As with so many of the Burgundy wines we offer on SommSelect, this wine, and winery, disrupts the hierarchy, punches above its weight...whatever phrase keeps you from passing it by based on its lesser-known appellation.


Domaine de l’Abbaye de Santenay is a fast-rising star in Burgundy whose proprietor, Ludovic Pierrot, has truly embraced the “vineyard-first” approach that characterizes the most dynamic estates in the region. Blessed with a choice assortment of old-vine parcels throughout Santenay, he is squeezing the absolute most from them, as this phenomenal ’17 illustrates. Traditionally, Santenay reds were thought of as pretty, relatively lightweight alternatives to some of the bigger-name reds of the Côte de Beaune (Volnay; Pommard), but this wine forces you to reconsider everything you thought you knew about the village and its vineyards. That’s what great wines do, and when you taste this one you’ll be hard-pressed to understand how it comes in at less than $40. This level of complexity and depth usually costs much, much more, so if Premier Cru quality at a village-level price sounds good to you, have at it!


Santenay doesn’t have rockstar producers or world-famous vineyards, but that’s not a bad thing. The lack of recognition has helped keep the prices low, while the quality of winemaking has been rising steadily. Santenay is at the southern tip of the Cote d’Or, or Golden Slope, Burgundy’s most revered section of land. It lies just below the more famous village of Chassagne-Montrachet and a 20 minute drive south from the region’s town center of Beaune. Soils here are unique, containing strata of Bajocian limestone of the type found in Côte de Nuits, known for Burgundy’s biggest powerhouse reds. This limestone has eroded to fill many of the vineyards throughout the appellation injecting the Pinot Noir grown here with a healthy dose of Côte de Nuits heft. Today’s wine exemplifies Santenay’s hybrid spirit—Chassagne elegance with Nuits-Saint-Georges power.



The owner of Domaine de l’Abbaye de Santenay, Michel Clair, has been at the forefront of high quality wine production in the region for the last 35 years. Today the domaine boasts 14 hectares of vineyards, with predominantly old vine plantings, almost all of them in Santenay. Ludovic Pierrot, Michel’s son-in-law, has implemented biodynamic growing principles, becoming Demeter certified in 2018 after working organically for many years. The Santenay Vieilles Vignes is a blend of the domaine’s oldest vineyard parcels, all directly below Premier Cru real estate. In the winery, the wine ferments (with 20% whole clusters included) and matures in French oak barrels, 10% new, for one year. The end result provides a magnificent sense of place. 



There is immediate primal pleasure that hits you when first smelling this wine with the ripe and supple notes of the 2017 vintage profile bursting out. There are layers of aromas swirling with Satsuma plum, black cherry, raspberry confit, and kirsch that give way to floral notes of hibiscus and girding them all is the hint of secondary development with mossy, forest floor. The color in the glass is dark ruby, running to pink and garnet at the rim. The palate is a master class in balanced concentration, with rich medium bodied fruit weight, but a palate cleansing acidity in the finish to remind you that this is Côte de Beaune. To get the full impact of this wine, decant for 45 minutes before serving at 60 degrees in large Burgundy stems alongside a seared duck breast. Best of all, this should age at least 10 years without seeing any decrease in quality, entering its prime after its fifth birthday. Santé!
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Country
France
Region
Burgundy
Sub-Region
FranceSantenay
Soil
Limestone & Clay
Farming
Certified Organic & Biodynamic
Blend
Pinot Noir 100%
Alcohol
13.5
OAK
10% New French
TEMP.
60-65
Glassware
Burgundy Stems
Drinking
Now-2030
Decanting
45 Minutes
Pairing
Pan-Seared Duck Breast

France

Bourgogne

Beaujolais

Enjoying the greatest wines of Beaujolais starts, as it usually does, with the lay of the land. In Beaujolais, 10 localities have been given their own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) designation. They are: Saint Amour; Juliénas; Chénas; Moulin-à Vent; Fleurie; Chiroubles; Morgon; Régnié; Côte de Brouilly; and Brouilly.

Southwestern France

Bordeaux

Bordeaux surrounds two rivers, the Dordogne and Garonne, which intersect north of the city of Bordeaux to form the Gironde Estuary, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is at the 45th parallel (California’s Napa Valley is at the38th), with a mild, Atlantic-influenced climate enabling the maturation of late-ripening varieties.

Central France

Loire Valley

The Loire is France’s longest river (634 miles), originating in the southerly Cévennes Mountains, flowing north towards Paris, then curving westward and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes. The Loire and its tributaries cover a huge swath of central France, with most of the wine appellations on an east-west stretch at47 degrees north (the same latitude as Burgundy).

Northeastern France

Alsace

Alsace, in Northeastern France, is one of the most geologically diverse wine regions in the world, with vineyards running from the foothills of theVosges Mountains down to the Rhine River Valley below.

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