france: burgundy
Château de Lavernette, Leynes (formerly Domaine de Boissieu)
If the Loire is pastoral, Alsace majestic, and Languedoc rugged, then the Mâconnais and Haut Beaujolais are enchanting. This is Hobbit Land, full of hills and dales and little stone villages, and a skyline dominated by the twin cliffs of Vergisson and Solutré.
The commune of Leynes and its old four-story Château de Lavernette are right at the crossroads of Beaujolais and the Mâconnais, just over the hill from the deep bowl where the village of Fuissé holds court. Down across the road from the château, to the east, grows a small Chardonnay vineyard in limestone soil for its crémant and Beaujolais Blanc. Up on the broad slope just southwest of the château grows Gamay in granite soil for its two red Beaujolais. Across a tiny creek to the north of the Chardonnay vineyard is the southern boundary of the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation. A hill goes steeply up from that creek to the village of Chaintré, and on this flank the château farms four small parcels to make two Pouilly-Fuissé cuvées. A third cuvée is made from a parcel that grows near the top of the hill west of the château, the same hill that nosedives northward into the Fuissé bowl. The geography here is nothing if not compact.
The château has been passed down through the Lavernette family since 1596, when Philibert Bernard de Lavernette bought the property from the monks of Tournus. It was a Seigneurie, or lordship, and as such a seat of power that administered justice in the area. (Those decisions, along with tax records, land deeds and the like, are recorded in ledgers in the Lavernette library, and regularly studied by historians.) Documents from 1684 inventory two wine presses and four large vats on the property, but no doubt vineyards and wine making were part of Lavernette's makeup long before this. Early in the twentieth century, René de Boissieu married Gabriëlle Bernard de Lavernette, the heiress of Lavernette, and the property passed to the de Boissieu family. Today the twin shields on the Lavernette labels represent the coat of arms of the two families.
René was the grandfather of Bertrand de Boissieu, the current director of Lavernette with his wife, Anke (she's Dutch). Bertrand and Anke were the first in the Beaujolais region to farm according to the ecological principles of lutte raisonnée, or reasoned fight, a pragmatic approach to organic farming that was, in their younger days, a radical thing. Beginning in 2006, their son Xavier, with his wife Kerrie (she's American), is taking this one step further by converting the château's 28 acres of vineyards to biodynamic farming. Certification is expected in 2010.
Xavier did an internship in New Zealand, followed by one at the Saintsbury winery in California. There he met an enologist, Kerrie O'Brien. They were married at Lavernette in 2006, and these two are now making their mark on the wines from Lavernette.
The Wines
- Crémant de Bourgogne: This comes from the Vigne de la Roche vineyard, where Lavernette has 7.5 acres of Chardonnay divided into seven parcels. It's worth noting that the first row of vines grows some fifty feet from the Pouilly-Fuissé border.
- Beaujolais Blanc "Vigne de la Roche": Coming from the same vineyard as the crémant, this is a fresh, appley tank-raised Chardonnay—a wine that drinks "on the fruit" as the de Boissieus would say. This wine is distinct from most Beaujolais Blanc, which grows in lower vineyards nearer the Sâone River in the southern end of the Beaujolais AOC, and is often cut with Aligoté.
- Pouilly-Fuissé "Maison du Villard": Lavernette has four old-vine parcels in this climat, which spans the southern flank below the hilltop village of Chaintré. The parcels total four acres, planted in 1959, 1964, 1970, and 1971. This wine drinks "on the stone."
- Pouilly-Fuissé Cuvée Jean-Jacques de Boissieu: Jean-Jacques, born 1736, became a finance counselor to the king, but became better known as an engraver whose work can be seen in museums around the world. The stamp used on this label comes from an engraving entitled "The Little Coopers" that he made in 1770. The wine comes from the 1971 parcel of Maison du Villard. It is made in barrel and has more weight and heft than its sibling.
- Pouilly-Fuissé "Vers Châne": This two-acre parcel grows near the crest of the hill that forms one side of the bowl of Fuissé. The vines average 31 years of age. This is very much of a wine that drinks on the stone, full of underpinning minerality.
- Beaujolais-Villages: The château has nearly 15 acres of Gamay and these vines grow in Beaujolais' granite-based soils. Lavernette's soil, however, has more clay than sand. This makes for atypically powerful wines with body and depth (think Pommard as opposed to Volnay). In a 1894 reference book on the region's wines, Leynes' red wine was reputed to be highly esteemed, with good color and structure, and a 15 to 20-year life span!
- Beaujolais-Leynes 'Le Clos': This comes from the château's best parcels of Gamay, 4.2 acres that were planted in 1957, 1961 and 1967, and grow in a walled vineyard. Leynes is one of twenty-seven villages entitled to use its name within the Beaujolais-Villages appellation. This wine is traditionally made in older barrels, racked only at bottling, and never fined.
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