Clos Bateau ‘Croix Pen(n)et’ Beaujolais Rouge 2021
Location: France, Beaujolais
Winemaker: Thierry & Sylvie Klok-de Visser
Grapes: Gamay
Soil: Granite rose
Winemaking: Fermented spontaneously. 11 days of semi carbonic maceration.60% aged in used Burgundy barrels for 8 months, 40% stainless steel. No filtration and no fining.
‘Croix Pen(n)et' is a South facing parcel on the border of Lantignié and Regnié. Lieu-dit: Croix Pe(n)net (0.44HA). 11 days of semi carbonic maceration. 60% aged in used Burgundy barrels for 8 months, 40% stainless steel. Dense but fresh with dark fruits and plenty of lift.
From us at M&L: From our friends in Beaujolais-Lantignié, Sylvie and Thierry Klok-de-Visser, come seven tiny bottlings from their scant 6 hectares. They focus on individual, vineyard expressions, often from within the miniscule, legendary commune of Lantigné (one of the most prized of the Villages level Beaujolais - think of it as the 11th Cru), and produce wines from a specific, terroir-based personal point of view. These holdings are on either blueish granite (lux, volcanic wines with tons of blue fruit and a savory reduction) or pink granite (more quartz and feldspar yielding precise, crunchy red fruited wines).
They raise sheep and have replanted hundreds of trees around their vines. Roughly 2 of their 6 hectares are of previously abandoned vines. Sylvie says “we felt we should give this wild vineyard a go to save those old vines, it didn’t feel right to take them out just because they are free souls. But this will mean a lot of effort and low yields (ergo the tiny amount of each cuvée).”
From the Importer Selection Massale: "Our—Sylvie & Thierry—adventure started in 2019 when we moved to our domaine in Lantignié, Beaujolais after working in restaurants in Amsterdam. It's a small, 5.5ha, nature-friendly domaine. With almost all the vineyards and land (total 8ha) around our domain we are creating a great ecosystem here. To increase biodiversity in our vineyards we planted over 100 fruit & nut trees in 2019. We want to work with nature, not against. To stay in this mindset, in the vineyard we work with a homeopathic touch, where we collect plants and herbs around the estate to make plant based tea infusions that will help the vines to become stronger and healthier. We also work by the moon, this results in our choices; when to bottle/press how long we will do the maceration and so on. On a meadow at the end of our vineyards we have our sheep (who are a part of our team and going to help us eat the herbs in the vineyard during wintertime and give the soil food in return).
From the 8 hectares in total we have 5.5 hectares of vineyards (Gamay noir á jus blanc & Chardonnay) based in Lantignié (North of Beaujolais). The 5.5 hectares includes: 3.5ha of productive vineyard and 1.7ha of abandoned vineyards. We felt we should give this wild vineyard a go to save those vines, it didn't feel right to take them out just because they are free souls. But this will mean a lot of effort and low yield (+/- 5 hectoliters per hectare), but also some really special grapes. In the winery, we only use indigenous yeasts (so the wine is fermented spontaneously), no filtration and no fining agents for our wines. We work with the least amount of intervention as possible, creating Vins Vivants! Since the start of our adventure, we are i-ha organic conversion (ECOcert).”