The Barrieux Blanc 2020

Les Barrieux Blanc 2020,

Jean-Yves Péron

Attention, new winemaking! Delicious, delicious, rich, full-bodied, powerful: this Barrieux vintage is different from previous ones. Until recently, it was harvested slightly overripe with long macerations, but in 2020, Jean-Yves Péron sought a more precise and classic maturity, to rediscover the delicious side of the wonderful Roussanne grape variety by eliminating the austerity of the tannins. The wine is therefore less tannic and less oxidative than before. Beyond these nuances, it remains Barrieux through and through, a generous macerated white wine with extraordinary notes of leather, smoke, and candied quince, followed by a complex floral and citrus bouquet and a long, aromatic finish. A rare and exceptional cuvée, this is a wine without equal, made entirely from Roussanne for this vintage. The vines grow on schist soil and are harvested by hand. This is followed by two weeks of carbonic maceration. Aging is one year in small 12-hectoliter tuns. Les Barrieux has not undergone any filtration, fining, or the addition of sulfites. It is a gourmet all-terrain wine that stands the test of time.

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Jean-Yves Péron embodies the natural renaissance of the beautiful Savoyard vineyard, which has long suffered from a somewhat flimsy image, not taken seriously enough. Yet, what treasures are produced by its varied soils and its many ancient grape varieties! Near Conflans, in Albertville (Savoie), Jean-Yves Péron skillfully combines committed viticulture and merchant winemaking, both under the banner of nature and high-altitude organic vines. Initially destined for a career in biochemistry, he quickly became drawn to the vine and trained as an oenologist in Bordeaux. He learned his trade as a winemaker with Thierry Allemand in Cornas, then with Bruno Schueller in Alsace, before spending some time in New Zealand and the United States. Jean-Yves' current vineyard, one and a half hectares of biodynamic farming from the start, is divided between Conflans, near Albertville, and Fréterive, a little further downstream in the Isère valley. Composed of micro-plots of vines, it is spread out between 350 m and 550 m above sea level and is entirely worked by hand. His trading activity, which began in 2011, allows him to buy the harvest from organic winegrowers close to his home (such as Raphaël Marin and Adrien Dacquin). Also, the construction of a new winery in 2017 allows him to increase production and collaborate with winegrowers from Northern Italy: Paolo Angelino in Casale Monferrato (Turin), Giorgio Barbero in Asti. This is a new dimension given to his work as a winemaker, allowing him to diversify the terroirs and deepen his experiences in winemaking and aging.
Jean-Yves Péron's winemaking follows the principles of minimal intervention. On narrow and steep surfaces, his mountain vines receive no synthetic products, Jean-Yves preferring horsetail and nettle manure. The surrounding vegetation is very rich: it protects the vines and helps to strengthen them. The soils are grassed, mown and reworked with a pickaxe and winch. The harvest is entirely manual. Once vatted in whole bunches, the grapes, both red and white, undergo a semi-carbonic maceration which allows the extraction of fresh fruit aromas. This maceration time varies between five days and nine weeks depending on the vintage. The day before or two days before pressing, Jean-Yves performs foot-treading directly in the vat. After this fermentation, the musts are sent to barrels for aging on lees for twelve months in five hundred liter barrels of two or three wines (to limit the woody sensation), followed by blending and resting in vats. No sulfites are added, or as little as possible, and the wines are not fined or filtered.