Beaune Clos des Renardes Blanc comes from a 2-ha Clos with a mixture of soils, situated above ‘les Avaux’. Mostly planted with Pinot Noir, Sabre has replanted some Chardonnay and a small plot of Pinot Blanc. The forest is all around, with its own ecosystem including wild peonies – ‘I love this place’ says Fanny who bought the Clos at considerable personal cost. The wine is pure, bright ripe but fresh citrus with clementine. Oak (500l barrels) is super-subtle and more in roundness than flavour. Generous and mouth-filling, it has depth and a lovely creamy texture. Complete and long, elegant, lightly spiced.
FANNY SABRE, Pommard Organic
Fanny Sabre took over her family estate in 2006 following the passing of her father. She hadn’t planned to be a winemaker as she was studying law.
Fanny soon realised she really enjoyed working in the vineyard and making wine. She received help from Philippe Pacalet, a well-known natural wine producer, she got familiar with organic farming and light-handed, natural approach in the cellar.
When Pacalet moved on to his own projects, Fanny, then in her mid-20s, was left to manage the estate on her own. Now she still does most of the work herself.
The 4.5 ha vineyard is farmed organically, meticulous care is given to each parcel to produce the healthiest grapes from which Fanny crafts expressive, alluring micro-cuvées.
The approach in the cellar is as gentle as it gets, with no additives and only tiny doses of SO2 at bottling.
The whites are lightly crushed in a pneumatic press and transferred in old oak barrels where they ferment and age on their lees, only one batonnage and no racking.
The reds grapes are placed in wooden and cement vats, whole bunch and after semi-carbonic maceration and pigeage, they are transferred to old oak barrels to ferment (with native yeasts) and left to age for a year without racking.
After a year, both reds and whites are transferred to stainless steel vats for 4 months and are bottled manually, using gravity, unfined, with only a very light filtration.