Domaine Rois Mages

Village:
Rully
Appellation:
11ha
Rully
Rully 1er Cru
Bouzeron
Beaune 1er Cru
Growers:
Anne-Sophie Debavelaere
Felix Debavelaere
Website:
https://rois-mages.com/en/
Downloadable PDF

Anne-Sophie Debavelaere, of Burgundian roots, began her domaine in 1984 with one hectare of land. Over the years, the estate has expanded and now includes 11 hectares divided among seven “climats”. The parcels are mostly in Rully but include small plots in Bouzeron and Beaune. In Rully they have vineyards in four “climats”: the 1er Cru “Les Pierres” and the three lieux dits “Les Cailloux”, “Moulin A Vent” and “Chaponnière.”

In 2014, Anne-Sophie’s son, Felix joined her at the domain. Their vineyards are all worked with respect for the environment. No insecticides or herbacides are used, the ground is plowed but otherwise the use of a tractor is restricted. The winery or “cave de vinification” is a vaulted cellar which was dug from the Rully hillside in 1850. It was originally built by a local negociant who wanted to have a cellar for sparkling wine similar to those in Champagne. Today, it offers Anne-Sophie and Felix a wonderful environment in which to mature their wines.

Read Anne-Sophie’s comments in the Burgundy Vintage Reports

Rully “Les Cailloux” Blanc

Anne-Sophie and Felix farm 3 hectares in the “Les Cailloux” vineyard. 1.3 hectares are planted to Chardonnay and the remaining 1.6 hectares are planted to Pinot Noir. The plant density is 8,000 plants per hectare and the vines have an average age of over 50 years. Anne-Sophie and Felix further ensure quality fruit by severely limiting the yields of their plants with the Chardonnay yielding 40hl per hectare. The “Les Cailloux” vineyard descends from a plateau at one of the highest elevations in Rully and offers beautiful views of the Rully valleys below and the greater Côtes Challonnaise. As the vineyard name suggests, this “lieu dit” has a great many surface stones. They absorb the sun’s heat during the day and radiate it back to the plants after sunset. Wild herbs and grasses are encouraged to grow between the rows and in the summer, it gives their vineyard the look of an untamed garden. The grasses in combination with the rocky soils and dense planting produce an environment where the vines produce few bunches with grapes that are beautifully ripe, concentrated, and balanced. All harvesting is done by hand. After the juice is very gently pressed from the skins, the Rully “Les Cailloux” Blanc is put into stainless steel tanks at a low temperature to allow for a natural settling of the must. The juice is then transferred to barrels (10% new) where it ferments with indigenous yeasts. During the alcoholic and malo-lactic fermentations, the wine is stirred “battonage” every day. The wine then matures in barrels for a year without any stirring or racking. The wine is fined but not filtered before bottling. An average vintage produces 600 cases.

Rully “Les Cailloux” Rouge

Anne-Sophie and Felix farm 3 hectares in the “Les Cailloux” vineyard. 1.6 hectares are planted to Pinot Noir and the remaining 1.3 hectares are planted to Chardonnay. The plant density is 8,000 plants per hectare and the vines have an average age of over 50 years. Anne-Sophie and Felix further ensure quality fruit by severely limiting the yields of their plants with the Pinot Noir yielding between 30 and 35 hl/hectare. The “Les Cailloux” vineyard descends from a plateau at one of the highest elevations in Rully and offers beautiful views of the Rully valleys below and the greater Côtes Challonnaise. As the vineyard name suggests, this “lieu dit” has a great many surface stones. They absorb the sun’s heat during the day and radiate it back to the plants after sunset. Wild herbs and grasses are encouraged to grow between the rows and in the summer, it gives their vineyard the look of an untamed garden. The grasses in combination with the rocky soils and dense planting produce an environment where the vines produce few bunches with grapes that are beautifully ripe, concentrated, and balanced. All harvesting is done by hand. After a pre-fermentation "cold soak", the red wine is fermented in cement "cuves" with indigenous yeasts and with little heating of the tanks. This allows the fermentation to be slow and gentle. The maceration lasts about two weeks with the juice being pumped over the cap twice a day. Felix also does some foot pressing "pigeage" during this period. The juice is then drawn from the tanks and matured in barrel, 10% new, for at least a year. An average vintage produces 750 cases.

Bouzeron

The appellation of Bouzeron, in the Côte Chalonnaise, comprises only 56 hectares. It is an exceptional appellation in Burgundy in that Aligoté is its only authorized grape variety. Aligoté is a grape type with a long history in the Burgundy region. It was widely planted in the nineteenth century before the phylloxera crisis, but never had the same reputation as Chardonnay. A vigorous plant, producing a lot of grape bunches, Aligoté was grown more for quantity than quality. In the twentieth century it was best known as the proper wine with which to mix Crème de Cassis to make the drink called Kir. Today, little Aligoté is grown in Burgundy, perhaps only 500 hectares with Bouzeron accounting for one tenth of that. However, many small growers are taking a renewed interest in the grape and farming it for quality with the result that there are an increasing number of stunning Aligotés being produced. Just as with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, the Aligoté variety displays a wide range of expressions according to the terroir. The idyllic valley of Bouzeron provides a limestone terrain that serves to limit the plant’s natural vigor and a sun filled micro-climate that promotes ripe fruit. Anne-Sophie and Felix farm one hectare in Bouzeron on soils of clay/limestone that are rich in marine fossils. After the grapes are hand-harvested, they receive a very gentle pressing to protect the freshness of the wine. The alcoholic and malo-lactic fermentations are done in stainless steel tanks. The wine rests in the same tanks “sur lie” until bottling before the next harvest.

Beaune Premier Cru "Les Sceaux"

Anne-Sophie and Felix farm a bit more than half a hectare in the 1er Cru vineyard « Les Sceaux”. The vineyard is associated with the 1er Cru vineyard “Les Reversées” and is on gentle slope near the town of Beaune.The vines are between 30 and 50 years old. Harvesting is done by hand and a selection “tri” of grape bunches is made before vinification. After a pre-fermentation “cold soak”, the wine is fermented in cement “cuves” with indigenous yeasts and with little heating of the tanks. The maceration lasts about two weeks with the juice being pumped over the cap twice a day. Felix also does some foot pressing “pigeage” during this period. The wine is aged in barrel for a year before bottling.

News

Each year, for 25 years, at the festival Grands Jours de Bourgogne, the "Group of Young Wine Professionals" (GJVP) hosts a competitive exposition of wine from young winemakers the Salon des Jeunes Talents. In a blind tasting a winner is chosen from each of the 5 growing regions in Burgundy.

In this years expo, held at the Château de Garnerot in Mercurey, Thursday March 24th , 3 winemakers from Wine Traditions’ portfolio participated in the competition.

The results are announced : It’s a full sweep! All three of them are the 2015 trophy winners for their region!!!

We congratulate Cyril Gautheron winner for the Chablisien, Felix Debavalaere, Domaine Rois Mages winner for the Côte Chalonnaise and Romuald Petit winner for the Mâconnais.


Romuald PetitCyril Gautheron

Region: Bourgogne

The wine region of Burgundy extends from the town of Chatillon sur Seine in the north to Lyon in the south, though; I prefer to put the southern boundary at Macon, and in this way leave the Beaujolais region as a separate entity. Thus, Burgundy includes the wine regions of Côtes de Chatillon, Yonne, Côte d’Or, Côte Chalonnaise, Côtes du Couchey and Maconnais. The vast majority of Burgundy’s wines are produced from three grape varieties: Aligoté, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and they are produced without blending the different grape types. The result, therefore, is a mapping of these three grape types onto the whole range of Burgundy’s vineyards which consequently offers the wine lover a unique window through which to notice and appreciate the concept of terroir. The difference in taste between Chardonnay grown in Chablis and Chardonnay grown in Macon is something that will always delight me...

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The Burgundy vineyards have been intimately worked and studied for many centuries which has resulted in a complex and highly detailed system of nomenclature, one that beginning in the 1930’s the INAO has tried to formalize into a logical network of “appellations controlees”. The system of appellations is uniform in its general outline for Burgundy’s different wine regions, but much less uniform in its application. For example, each of the Premier Cru vineyards in the Côte D’Or and Côte Chalonnaise is associated with its village of origin and corresponds specifically to one plot of land within that village, whereas in the Yonne or Chablis to be exact, the Premier Cru vineyards never make reference to their villages of origin and moreover, the 79 Premier Cru vineyards typically use only 17 names. So, putting differences aside and embracing contradiction, one can say with confidence that the overall appellation structure is organized from the general to the specific. At the most general level, vineyards from any of the Burgundy wine regions can produce white, red, rosé or sparkling wines with the Bourgogne appellation. At the first level of specificity (and beginning of disparity among the regions), there are 24 regional appellations, each of which is comprised of a group of villages which share a common appellation name. Two examples, which illustrate the possible variation in size, are Côtes de Nuits Villages and Macon-Villages. Côtes de Nuits Villages includes nine villages whereas Macon-Villages includes 83 villages. At the next level of specificity, there are 44 local appellations, each of which corresponds to a specific village such as Gevrey-Chambertin and Chassagne-Montrachet. Within the local appellation structure, but higher up the hierarchal scale, there are 750 Premier Cru appellations which mark specific vineyard boundaries within a particular village. Examples are Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru “Petite Chapelle” and Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru“Les Chenevottes”. At the highest level of the paradigm, there are 33 Grand Cru appellations which similarly mark specific vineyard boundaries within a specific village (or spanning two!).

Examples of Grand Cru vineyards are Mazis-Chambertin and Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet. One of the lovely idiosyncrasies is evident from these examples; namely, why the grand cru vineyard “climat” names Chambertin and Montrachet are attached to their respective communes at all appellation levels.

If one is interested and persistent enough to comprehend the lay of the land in terms of its geography, geology and nomenclature, the picture quickly becomes much more complex when the land is divided between the many thousands of Burgundian wine-growers. The average land holding in Burgundy is two hectares (five acres) and in some of the most illustrious vineyards such as Batard-Montrachet a mere twelve hectares can be divided among 55 growers.

A deep knowledge of the wines produced in Burgundy, it is easy to see, would be best left up to those who have lots of free time. People that are teachers or NBA basketball players might have enough vacation time to tackle such a project, but only the NBA player would have the money to taste the wines. Happily, even without four months of vacation or enormous resources, the wines of Burgundy are there to give us all the taste of one of the vine’s favorite places on earth.

Burgundy wine growers certainly have no special claim to the concept of terroir, but they have embraced the notion of terroir in a way that brings it to our attention and gives us much to think about. If our attention is turned to the infinite variations of our mother earth and its ability to give these variations expression through the grape vine and its transformation into wine, then what a lovely reminder that we are from the earth, nourished by the earth and will return to it.