183 Fleurie AC 2008 La Madone
Gilbert Chanudet

Grape:100% Gamay (12% alc.)

La Madone, the most famous plot in Fleurie, and at 430m the highest of the appellation, offers a soil of pale pink decomposed granite, on a granite bedrock. Chanudet produces the most elegant expression possible: a gentle colour, violet note on the nose, a wonderfully supple texture, soft red and black fruits backed by a finely chiseled mineral impression on the finish. For drinking now to 2014.

Technical Information
Winemaker:	Jean-Claude Chanudet
Location:	Fleurie La Madone hillside
Size of domaine:	3½ hectares of which ½h for Fleurie
Grape:	60 year old gamay. 10,000 vines per hectare in fobelet formation. Selection massale on Vialla rootstock
Terroir:	Granite topsoil and base on south-east facing gentle slope. There is roughly 1m of topsoil over the mother rock. 250m above sea level.
Viticulture:	Largely follows organic practice but hates the organic movement (‘the new church’). Neither debudding or vendanges en verts are necessary. The soil is ploughed when necessary. Copper, citrothiol and soliplante (all permissible products under organic viticulture) against oidium and mildew. Manual harvest. Table de trie. Yield of 40hh.
Vinification:	Pre-fermentation macerated at 10°C for 20 to 25 days. Cement cuve and foudres for fermentation. Indigenous yeasts. No chaptalisation. Fermented at 19°C for 40 days under maceration carbonique. Uses a wooden vertical press. Aged for 8 to 10 months in 30% barrels and 70% cement cuves. Racked once. One bottling using their own equipment. 2,600 bts produced.
Press:

 

qty (bottles)

exc vat: £13.29