2018 Chateau de Davenay Rully 1er Cru Rabource Blanc

France / Burgundy / Cote Chalonnaise / Rully Premier Cru Blanc

Buttery and complex Chardonnay: Château de Davenay Rully 1er Cru Les Rabourcés Blanc (owned by Domaines Famille Picard).

Emblematic terroir Rully Premiers Crus, located just above the Cloux. The plot is located at the bottom of the cru and was planted in the early 1960s. The soils are mainly made of white clay. The strong reverberation promotes the maturation process.

The vines are grown organically. Mechanical labour of the soil. Pruned in simple guyot with long sticks and disbudded every other eye, so the bunches end up beautiful and airy. 
Grapes harvested by hand in crates, sorted on a sorting table if necessary and conveyed directly to the pneumatic press. Pressing of whole grapes for two and a half hour. The juice from stainless steel vats settles at 12 degrees overnight. Then the must is directly transferred to barrels to achieve alcoholic fermentation (traditional Burgundy vinification).
Aged for 12 month in oak barrel, 20% in new oak.

(En) Rabourcé is one of 23 Premier Cru vineyards within the commune of Rully, in the Côte Chalonnaise subregion of Burgundy. It contains around 7.5ha of Chardonnay, and just 0.5ha of Pinot Noir. The property is one of Rully's highest Premier Crus. It is also regarded as one of the best sites in the commune.

The Château de Davenay's vineyard was the first to fall back into the Famille Picard's hands in 1986. Perched above the medieval village of Buxy and tucked more than 300 metres up, it overhangs part of its vineyard. Nestled snugly in a small, picture-perfect hamlet, the estate's vineyard extends over more than 11ha of the Montagny Premier Cru appellation, across three climats. Some planting operations date back to the beginning of the 20th century. This era of highly varied planting has conferred a real richness and diversity on the terroir as well as a stable, solid structure, essential qualities in this turbulent time of climate change. The Château de Davenay's 15ha are managed in line with organic viticulture and worked at block level all the way through to bottling. The nectars we obtain are sound, as a direct result of the subsoil they come from.
A journey through layers of fruits and feels.