Moissenet-Bonnard Bourgogne Rouge Cuvee de l'Oncle Paul 2021

At Domaine Moissenet-Bonnard, the future is now. The baton has passed to the new generation, Emmanuelle-Sophie, the daughter of Jean-Louis Moissenet-Bonnard. The estate is in very good hands, to continue the high quality here, and perhaps even improve upon it. Emmanuelle-Sophie officially took over the estate with the 2014 vintage after working alongside her father for many years and receiving degrees in agronomy, biology, viticulture (along with her work at the family estate, she teaches these subjects at the college level). 

Now that she is heading up the estate, Emmanuelle-Sophie continues her father’s dedication to working the vines as naturally as possible. They officially consider themselves lutte-raisonée, since one of their neighbors is organic and the other is not, so they can’t fully control what treatments may blow over onto their vines. But for the past 15 years they have used no chemicals in their own vineyards. The large amount of ladybugs and spiders, which are attracted to the geraniums that grow among the vines, help keep down the population of more harmful insects. And they are blessed with microclimates that don’t develop botrytis, so even ‘bordeaux mixture’ is unnecessary.

The domain is comprised of 5.5 ha across 20 plots, three of which are in the Pommard 1er crus of Les Charmots, Les Pezerolles, and a single hectare in the great Les Epenots. The Epenots vineyard contains vines that are as old as 90 years planted to the argilo-calcaire soils that produce the most elegant and powerful pinots. Their other gem of a terroir is the Pommard “Les Cras” which is just .4 ha of over 40 year old pinot vines planted to soils with aneven greater percentage of limestone. Amidst all these superb crus, the domain also produces two Bourgogne rouge cuvées that drink every bit as well as their higher flying companions. The cuvée ‘Oncle Paul’ comes from 50-60 year old pinot vines. And the cuvee ‘Maison Dieu’ comes from equally old vines that produce even lower yields than the ‘Oncle Paul’ due to vine stress. Basically the only difference between the terroirs that produces these wines and the AOC Pommard is a lower amount of limestone in the soil for the Bourgogne rouges.

In the cellar, Emmanuelle-Sophie combines her father’s traditions with more modern ideas. Fermentation is carried out with natural yeasts in concrete tanks, although Emmanuelle-Sophie plans on moving to stainless steel in the coming years. For the village and 1er cru wines élèvage takes place in 1-5 year old barrels. For the Bourgogne rouge, barrels of at least 6 years are used. At bottling, to reduce the usage of SO2, a small amount of nitrogen is added for stabilization. In the past few vintages, Emmanuelle's wines have been brilliant. Elegant, balanced, pure and terroir-driven.

This Bourgogne Rouge 'Oncle Paul' is made from .92 ha of 40+ year old vines from 3 separate plots southwest of the Pommard AOP with south east exposure in fine argile calcaire soil. Named in tribute to his great uncle, Paul Girardin, who strove to maintain the integrity of the domaine and Pommard designation.