Domaine Michel Briday - Cuvée Axelle Bouzeron Aligoté 2020

Since its creation over 40 years ago, the Michel Briday estate has become a gold standard bearer for its village, Rully, and for its wine-growing region: the Côte Chalonnaise. In every vintage, Stéphane Briday and his wife Sandrine put their winemaking know-how, well-grounded common sense and intimate knowledge of their terroirs to good use. These are the keys to ensure unique Burgundy wines.

This domaine has had a zeal for quality from the very start: in 1977, the estate’s first real vintage when the Rully La Pucelle (a future premier cru) was awarded a gold medal at the Concours Général Agricole in Paris.

The goal remains to bottle all the subtleties and elegance of the great wines of Rully, Mercurey or Bouzeron. The estate’s approach has always been to use as few inputs as possible. As early as 1996, the decision was taken to stop using weed killers and to return to full soil cultivation.

The domaine has adhered since 2014 to the Terra Vitis charter, which aims to respect the soil, to manage the vineyard in a considered way, and have each step of production checked by an approved and independent body. The vine is treated only in cases of strictest necessity, after precise observations and scrupulous consideration. Rigorous traceability frames the process.

Once fully ripe, the grapes are harvested manually by a team of around thirty people. Pinot noir grapes (red wines) are harvested in drilled crates of 20 kg to prevent bunching of berries and oxidation of the juice. The grapes are sorted to keep only the healthiest and ripest clusters. White, aligoté and chardonnay grapes are quickly transported in harvest tipping trailers to be pressed immediately.

Vinification is also carried out respecting the terroirs, i.e., with a minimum of intervention. The wine is fermented with the wild yeasts present in the grapes. In maturation, the use of oak barrels is judicious in order to let the wine play the main role in all circumstances.