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In the short time since taking over her family’s estate, Pauline Passot has made a name for herself as the producer of high quality, balanced wine that are very expressive of their terroirs. Although she grew up in Fleurie, Pauline discovered wine in a bar in Ireland. She found she loved talking about it, and fell into a restaurant career as a sommelier, finally spending four years at the famous Lyon gastronomic temple Pierre Orsi. A vintage at the Seresin Estate in New Zealand in 2014 showed her that talking about wine was not enough: she wanted to make it. Winemaking studies in Beaune were followed by stints at several wineries, including Lafarge. She leased an organic vineyard in Chiroubles – the Grille Midi – and in 2018 assumed responsibility for her family’s six hectares.
One of her first steps was to begin conversion to organic methods. Her winemaking is traditional: fermentation is in a mixture of steel and 600-litre casks, there is little destemming, little extraction and a low fermentation temperature. It is the precise attention to detail that makes the wines shine.
This is an exciting time: after years of poor Beaujolais Nouveau, a new wave of growers is creating serious terroir-driven wines, and drinkers are rediscovering quite how good Gamay can be.
Winemakers like Pauline Passot are worth watching.
Pauline was lucky that her vines suffered from neither frost nor hail in 2021. There was strong pressure from mildew, but judicious treatments meant that her yields were about the same as in 2020. Around half the bunches were de-stemmed, as Pauline judged many stems not ripe enough to be added to the fermentation vats. Fermentation was cool – at the end the vats had to be warmed to coax out colours and tannins, quite a contrast to warmer years, where to avoid over-extraction, cooling can be required. The wines are fresh and fruity, bright-er than the previous vintage, with lower alcohol. What’s not to like?
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