Caves Bailly-Lapierre Saint-Bris 2024

The Saint-Bris from the Bailly Lapierre cellars comes from the Auxerrois, in northern Burgundy, around Saint-Bris-le-Vineux, near Auxerre and the Yonne valley. It is the only Burgundy appellation devoted to Sauvignon Blanc. The limestone subsoil, inherited from a Jurassic lagoon and dating from the Kimmeridgian, gives the wines fine minerality. The semi-continental climate, at the northern limit of the vine, imposes slow ripening that preserves the grape's freshness and aromatic expression.

The grapes, grown by the winegrowing families who make up Bailly Lapierre, are harvested by hand and then brought to the cellars in crates. After pressing and static settling, the must is vinified in stainless-steel tanks at a constant temperature. Following rigorous tank tasting, malolactic fermentation may be blocked depending on the vintage, to preserve the freshness and typicity of the Sauvignon. The wine is then bottled young to keep all its aromatic brightness.

This wine reveals notes of lemon, grapefruit, passion fruit, pineapple, green apple, pear, cut grass and blackcurrant bud. The pale gold colour heralds a nose of citrus and exotic fruit, lifted by a clear herbaceous touch. The palate, lively and tangy, is frank and energetic, carried by white fruit, before a fresh finish of blackcurrant bud.

The cradle of wine culture in Western Europe, France owes its first vines to the Greeks of Phocaea, who settled around Marseille some twenty-six centuries ago, before the Romans spread viticulture along the Rhône and the Garonne and as far as Champagne. In the Middle Ages, Cistercian and Benedictine monks cleared the slopes of Burgundy and patiently mapped out the climats, laying the foundations of the notion of terroir. The 19th century brought the glory of the classifications, then the disaster of phylloxera, which wiped out the vineyards before they were rebuilt on American rootstocks; the creation of the appellations d'origine contrôlée in the 1930s then set the rules that would inspire the whole world. Today, France vies every year with Italy and Spain for first place in world production by volume and remains the ultimate benchmark of the Old World, as much for its age-worthy wines as for its winemaking models. Vineyards cover almost the entire country, from the cool north of Champagne and Alsace to the Mediterranean shores of Languedoc and Provence, by way of the oceanic climates of Bordeaux, the Loire and the South-West, continental Burgundy, the steep slopes of the northern Rhône and the high-altitude valleys of Savoie and the Jura. This mosaic of soils – limestone, schist, gravel or rounded pebbles – explains the extraordinary diversity of styles. As for grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot dominate Bordeaux and produce structured reds, Pinot Noir is the signature of Burgundian finesse, Syrah of the depth of the Rhône, while Grenache, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Mourvèdre cover every register, from easy-drinking wines to wines for long ageing. Among the whites, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin, Riesling and Viognier offer expressions ranging from lively and mineral to unctuous, all the way to great sweet wines. A land of benchmarks and constant discoveries, France remains the compass for wine lovers the world over.