Château de Vaux - Les Clos Pinot Noir 2020

A refined yet powerful and complex Pinot Noir from the Moselle in Northern France.

Delightfully aromatic on the nose, with black fruits, cocoa, sweet spices, cinnamon. Elegant and structured on the palate, with silky tannins and a deliciously dense mouthfeel. Full of black fruit flavours - wild blackberry, black cherry, blackcurrant - liquorice, vanilla, cloves, and a touch of wood. The finish is smooth, dominated by black fruit and liquorice.

Delicious on its own while pairing beautifully with game meats (venison, rabbit), rich beef or mushroom based dishes, and mature cheese.

NERD NOTES

The estate's vineyards are managed with biodynamic farming practices.

Grapes are harvest from specific terroirs (that reserved for aging) at the peak of their phenolic maturity - as opposed to super ripeness - requiring an incredibly tender pressing.

The wine is aged for 16 months completely in new oak barrels, allowing for its tannins to become silky and take on the spiced character from the barrels.

Bottled without fining or filtration.

ABOUT CHÂTEAU DE VAUX / MOLOZAY

Norbert and Marie-Geneviève Molozay took over Château de Vaux in 1999 and set about replanting vines and extending the vineyard with biodynamic farming practices. Now sprawling 14.5 hectares of diverse soils, the vineyards reside among the hills of Vaux, Jussy, Lessy, and Vic-sur-Seille in the complex Moselle region of Northeast France - with the vineyards covering an area larger than that used to make wine for the entire region in 1986.

Norbert spent many years working in vineyard around the globe, both across France and in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.Marie-Geneviéve is from the fifth-generation of a family of wine merchants from Metz, and has studied oenology in Dijon before training as a sommelier.

The couple has applied their scientific knowledge and hands-on experience to the estate, unlocking the exceptional potential of its terroirs, grape varieties, and regional heritage, producing an array of wines that capture the essence of the region - distinct from neighbouring Alsace.

THE REGION

The Moselle AOC is located in North-eastern France near the border of Luxembourg on the Mosel River (known locally as Moselle). At a latitude of 49°N, this is one of France’s northernmost wine producing areas and one of the smallest at only 70ha. The climate is cool, and soils are dominated by limestone with some areas of marl.

Once a prominent wine region, Moselle was reduced to a mere 10 hectares of vines by 1985 due to affects of phylloxera and the First World War, and with it was the loss of the region's traditional viticultural practices that had developed to suit its complex terroir. Contemporary winemakers, like the Molozay's, have leaned towards the experimental, crafting an exceptional, unique expression of terroir and the varietals they produce.

Given the small but growing size of the appellation, its wines are rarely seen on the export market. The Château de Vaux/Molozay's have been major figures in the region's revival, restoring old plots, clearing hillsides abandoned for 40 years, and replanting noble grape varieties.