"89-91 Points - Allen Meadows, Burghound.com
A deft application of wood surrounds the notably ripe aromas of dark pinot fruit, cassis and cherry liqueur. The sleek, delicious and intense medium-bodied flavors possess very good volume as well as fine depth and persistence on the sneaky long, firm and balanced finish. This youthfully austere effort is also going to need at least a few years of patience first."
Allen Meadows, Burghound.com
Brothers Marc and Alex Bachelet have taken the area under production from 6 ha in 2005 to an impressive 22 ha today. This is spread over approximately 20 appellations that produce around 100,000 bottles annually evenly split between red and white. With respect to 2020, Alex noted that "the main trick, if the success of a vintage can be isolated to only one factor, was to figure out the right date to begin picking. You couldn't start too soon or the fruit, especially the pinot, wasn't ripe but if you picked too late, it was over ripe with too much potential alcohol and not enough acidity. Ultimately, we pulled the trigger on the 18th of August and happily the fruit was spotless, which enabled us to pick quickly. Even so, the rigidity of the skins in the afternoon was clearly not what it was in the mornings, so we rented a refrigerated truck in which to store the fruit we picked later in the day. Yields were very good and in both colors as the reds came in between 35 and 40 hl/ha while the whites were a comfortable 45 to 50 hl/ha. In the same vein, potential alcohols were good without being high at between 13 and 13.5% with a high of 13.8%. For the reds, we did a relatively soft vinification using between 30 and 40% whole clusters but then again, we always do a gentle fermentation. Overall, 2020 is a really good vintage and in both colors because the wines possess excellent verve, terroir transparency and perhaps best of all, they're refreshing!"
