Château de Vaux - Septentrion Moselle 2022

Super aromatic and flavoursome white wine from the Moselle in Northern France, yet made in the traditional Burgundian style giving it surprising power and complexity.

Deliciously aromatic, with notes of white peaches, apricot, fresh butter, hazelnut, Christmas spices, and a touch of honey. Medium bodied and silky on the palate, balanced between crisp, refreshing acidity and a generous mouthful of fruit weight. Flavours of apricot, fresh butter, hazelnut, and fennel on the foreground, developing into yellow peach, liquorice, and fruity-spices, all harmoniously blending together. Long and smooth on the finish.

Great by itself or served with fish, white meat, or goats cheese!

NERD NOTES

Grape Varieties: 50% Auxerrois; 30% Pinot Gris; and 20% Müller-Thurgau

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

Made from carefully selected fruit from older vines across the estate.

The grapes are gently pressed before being fermented with indigenous yeasts in large oak barrels at low temperatures, are aged for 12 months, and undergo malolactic conversion (to completion) the following spring.

The wines are 100% fermented and aged in oak barrels, which range in age (30%), size, (400L, 600L). Battonage occasionally takes place during 12 months of aging.

The wine is vinified according to a more traditional Burgundian method, which emphases aging in oak barrels and malolactic fermentation.

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.