Rene Bouvier Fixin Crais de Chêne 2019

The Crais de Chêne is a climat on the alluvial cone between the villages of Couchey and Fixin. The plot (1.7 hectares / 4.25 acres) is composed of limestone rockfall soils mixed with clay. The perfectly ripened grapes of these 55-year-old vines produce rounded tannins.

The Fixin Crais de Chêne is a wine with a generally sunny nature, structured by assertive tannins, with frank minerality, and a saline finish. Time allows the wine to mellow in texture, and the wild aromas of youth give way to a more complexexpression (fruity and floral). It has a lot of energy.

It is a balanced wine with good ageing potential, from 5 to 15 years. We recommend decanting just before serving.

Wine-growing processes
The estate has always used environmentally friendly wine-growing processes. Careful soil management has always been a priority.
The vines are carefully chosen by sélection massale (visual selection of the most robust vine plants). Disbudding helps to balance the vines; trellising allows air to circulate through the foliage; the vines may be lightly trimmed after flowering. This careful vineyard management naturally ensures low yields, so that a green harvest is rarely necessary. Sorting on the vine takes place two to three weeks before the harvest. Grapes are picked by hand throughout the estate.
Wine-making processes
Grapes are carefully sorted on two sorting tables, and then transferred by gravity into thermo-regulated tanks. Depending on the vintage, there will be around 50% of whole bunches.
Fermentation uses native yeasts. There is little mechanical intervention during vatting, where natural infusion is preferred. Only the first pressed juices are kept during pressing.
Wines are aged for 12 months in barrels (20% new barrels), and 6 months in stainless steel tanks. The amount of sulphur added is kept to a minimum. The wine is bottled in relation to the lunar calendar.