Merchant and vineyard owner with
117 hectares,
one of the largest in Burgundy, Faiveley, a family business,
directed by François Faiveley is a rarity.
When we taste at some Burgundian wine merchants we get the inescapable
feeling that for them, good management consists in buying poor wine
from growers as cheaply as possible and spending a fortune proclaiming
"We're the best" !.
At Faiveley, it's rather the other way round. "We don't buy wine,
but grapes, and our domaine supplies most of our best wine", says
the oenologist Régis Surrel. "
My work starts by limiting the
yield".
At Faiveley, it's rather the other way round. "
We don't buy wine,
but grapes, and our domaine supplies most of our best wine",
says the oenologist Régis Surrel. "My work starts by limiting the
yield"
And to do this, they don't play at it:- they thin out the bunches
in July, "
almost every year", and at the end of August; they
hand pick off the immature bunches on young shoots; they always
sort the harvest - done by hand, of course. "we have 20 people in
our Mercurey winery, and as many on the Cote d'Or, stationed along
a 30ft conveyor belt." Another principle here, one label, one wine.
"In our Clos de Maréchale at Prémeaux, we vinify 200 barrels, which
gives us 60,000 bottles of one and the same wine whether you drink
it in Tokyo or Dijon.
They decided in 1985 never again to filter their best wines. "
The
grands crus and some of the first growths are hand bottled after
fining."
Grand cru of world-wide fame, and the only Burgundy Clos never to
have been divided since it was first planted in 1142, the prestigious
Clos de Tart is the flagship of Mommessin burgundies and an illustration
of the excellence of the Pinot Noir. Under the impetus of Didier
Mommessin, the Mommessin estate maintains the family tradition in
cultivating Burgundian Art, and does so with the kind of passion
which gives birth to great works of art.
The site "french wines"
has chosen the following
selection of Faiveley wines for you.