Brut Nature, Sans Ajout de Soufre

The Brut Nature Sans Ajout de Soufre is made from pure Pinot Noir from the Côte des Bar and is disgorged without dosage and without added sulfur. Pale straw yellow in the glass, with a lively mousse. Open, round and juicy on the nose: ripe golden apples, pear and quince, followed by lanolin, apple skin, walnut and almond, a touch of smoke, an iodine-like trace, a hint of cherry and peach.

The house is based in Urville, in the Côte des Bar, the heartland of Pinot Noir: 70 percent of the 62 hectares are planted with this variety. The soils of upper Kimmeridgian limestone give the wines a mineral edge. Georges Collot, Michel Drappier's maternal grandfather, was the first to replant Pinot Noir here in the 1930s and soon became known as Père Pinot.

Only the cuvée from the first pressing was used, mechanically pressed at low pressure; the must flowed into the tanks by gravity. Fermentation took two weeks in stainless steel at low temperature, followed by complete malolactic fermentation. This was followed by roughly three years of aging on the lees, with no cold stabilization, no filtration and no sulfur addition.

Juicy and softly fruity, with aromatic richness around cellar apple and apple cake, subtle oxidative notes, a touch of wax and fine zesty lift. The texture is supple, the acidity precise and lively, the length good. The fresh, generous finish brings pepper and mandarin.

Here, Brut Nature means without dosage, and Michel Drappier, who has led the house since 1979, was one of the first to commit to it. Antoine Drappier ploughs the biodynamic plots with a draft horse, sheep graze between the vine rows, and the house achieved climate neutrality in 2016. The wine is aged in cellars built by the Cistercians of Clairvaux in 1152, which André Drappier bought back from the local council in 1950.