Michel Sarrazin, Givry

Just outside the charmingly named village of Jambles is the hamlet of Charnailles with a strange château and the home of the Sarrazin family who have lived here since 1671. Now it is brothers Guy and Jean-Yves who run the 30 hectare estate which produces around 12,500 cases each year. We have been regular visitors to the estate since the late nineties and are pleased - at last - to be importing the wines.

The new generation, as in other regions, has looked far and wide to improve the quality of the wines. The emphasis is on preserving the freshness and purity of the fruit while maintaining the sense of terroir. To this end, Guy and Jean-Yves prune and green harvest. The red wines are destemmed and macerated for 10-15 days and later aged in barrels, 50% new; the rest one- and two-year-old barrels. The wines are racked only before bottling and are not fined or filtered. The wines are well-extracted with plenty of Pinot character but avoiding over extraction which, elsewhere, detracts from the delicacy of the variety.

For the white wines, the brotehrs use a gentle pneumatic press. Half the wine is fermented in temperature controlled tanks, and half in new barrels. They are blended before bottling and are lightly filtered.

The wines of this estate are fresh and clean with great aromatics and pure fruit flavours on the palate. The tannins are soft and round and the finishes crisp and clean. The Sarrazins are producing some of the best and most consistent wines in this appellation.

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