Mâcon-Igé “Château London” 2022 – Jean-Claude Boisset

The grapes to produce the Mâcon-Igé “Château London” Jean-Claude Boisset were harvested manually into 20 kilogram crates, then whole bunch pressed for 2.5 hours, before the juice was transferred into barrels. Indigenous yeasts were used for a long fermentation without racking. The wine was then aged in 450 litre French oak barrels, 30% of which were new, for 10 months. The barrels used are toasted at low temperatures to impart a subtle, delicate flavour to the final wine.

This wine is from Igé, one of the Mâconnais’ top villages. Château London refers to the specific vineyard or ‘lieu-dit’. The average age of the vines is approximately 20 years and the yield is 7,000 vines per hectare. The vines are Guyot trained to a height of 1.3 metres, to ensure enough light exposure for photosynthesis. The soils are stony with some clay and a high proportion of chalk. The grape is a clone of Chardonnay, Chardonnay-Muscaté, which gives the typical structure, poise and freshness of Chardonnay together with the aromatic expression of Muscat.

Jean-Claude Boisset is a family-owned wine company founded in 1961. Jean-Claude’s first parcel of land was located in Gevrey-Chambertin and today the company is based in Les Ursulines, a former convent in Nuits-Saint-Georges, and run by his children Jean-Charles and Nathalie. In 2018, they opened a new state-of-the-art winery, which reflects their modern, technical approach to winemaking. In 2002, Jean-Charles recruited Grégory Patriat, who had previously worked at the legendary Vosne-Romanée producer Domaine Leroy, to revitalise and reinvent the house. He transformed Boisset into a ‘viniculteur’, working closely with the growers, guiding the wines from vine to bottle to achieve the desired quality. In order to create concentrated, beautifully well-rounded wines which are naturally expressive of their individual appellation, Grégory practises minimal intervention winemaking. Each plot is picked separately and hand sorted to ensure optimal maturity. Sulphite levels are low and the wines are fermented exclusively by natural yeasts, with rarely more than 30% new oak used on a wine.