White Ladies' Cotillion 2020

Cotillon des Dames Blanc 2020,

Jean-Yves Péron

Côtillon des Dames 2020 is a very refined, fruity wine to be savored. It is a white wine of great aromatic complexity, elegant and fruity, with a superb length on the palate. The winemaker has done everything possible to preserve the aroma and character of the Jacquère grape variety, present in the majority here, and the length and maturity of the Altesse and Roussanne. This is one of Jean-Yves Péron's flagship cuvées. For this vintage, the wine is therefore made from 50 to 60% Jacquère, with Altesse and Roussanne as complementary grape varieties. All these vines grow on different terroirs: schist and limestone, limestone scree in Fréterie, mica schist in Albertville. The grapes are vinified separately and blended approximately two months before bottling. The idea is to be able to precisely control the evolution of the juice and balance the wine according to the behavior of each grape variety. The Jacquères are harvested very ripe and macerated for two to three months with punching down. The Altesses and Roussannes macerate for two to three weeks in carbonic fermentation with some punching down. Aging is one year in 300-liter barrels.

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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 staggered between 350m and 550m 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.