One of Burgundy’s Best-Kept Secrets: Au Pied Mont Chauve!

 

AU PIED DU MONT CHAUVE

BURGUNDY, FRANCE
 

Why Buy: As you know, we're HUGE fans of family-run wineries that are built upon the virtues of continuity, terroir, and minimal intervention. Wineries like Au Pied Mont Chauve, a third-generation, biodynamic estate that does everything the right way and remains one of the best-kept secrets in all of Burgundy. They were generous enough to open their cellars to us, and we've tried to pay honor to them with this selection of wines that both speaks to their values and calls to our palates, delivering all the expressiveness, elegance, and character we have come to count on from this lovable lynchpin of Burgundy.

 

The Story: Founded in 1951 by Louis Félix Picard with two hectares in the small town of Chagny, today this winery, still in family hands, is spread out over 4 estates and 140 hectares from Côte Chalonnaise to Côte de Beaune. Credit for much of that transformation goes to the irrepressible Michel Picard, who left school at 15, returning home to help his father run the winery. By the early 1970s, he was calling the shots, and turning a small, charming venture into a dynamic estate, with holdings that express the full range and variation of the Burgundy region. Today, it's his daughter, Francine, who directs the show with a vigor and attention to detail that her father and grandfather would have admired, keeping alive a tradition that is a thousand years old. Respecting the delicate grapes of the terroir remains, as ever, the paramount objective. To that end, the entire operation is biodynamic, with natural grassing between the vines and only a single long cane and a single spur allowed per vine, to keep the fruit well-ventilated. Every grape is not just hand-picked, but also sorted by hand and de-stemmed by hand. The gentleness with which the fruit is treated speaks to the level of care and detail of the entire operation, as does the length of time the wines are given to age before bottling – 18 months on the lees, including 10 months in oak barrels, for the Chardonnays; 15 months in oak barrels for the Pinot Noirs.

 

The Terroir: The vineyard sits between 220 and 340 meters above ground, on clay-limestone soils. Most of the hillside soil can be traced to the Jurassic period (-201 million to -145 million years old), while the soils towards the plan are more recent, dating to the Quaternary era (2 million years ago).

 

Our Tasting Notes: To enumerate all the many qualities of these ten wines would take several emails, so suffice it to say that what stood out to us, time and again, in our tastings – and it did not matter whether it was a white wine or a red wine – was their earthy character, their soulfulness, their elegance and charm. These attributes are in marked contrast to the creeping industrialization we see in certain quarters of the industry, but we tend to find them, still, in family-run operations with continuity and a keen sense of tradition. These estates are to be saluted and supported, truly.

 

Fun Fact: In an interview with the Femmes & Vins de Bourgogne website, Francine Picard revealed that winemaking was never really in her plans: "Before I was 25, I really didn’t want to be a winegrower,” she said. “I thought I would never come back. As everybody knows, life is unpredictable."

Our Guarantee: We always buy and source directly from the estate, so you can be confident that your wines will arrive in your hands with pristine provenance. Don't hesitate to secure yours today!