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JL Denois St Marie Chardonnay

JL Denois St Marie Chardonnay

$45.99

Nestled in the foothills of the Pyrenees in Southwest France is the coolest climate and highest elevation appellation in the Languedoc: Limoux. There, outside the lofty Medieval village of Roquetaillade, lives Limoux's most famous vigneron, Jean-Louis Denois, the gentleman responsible for bringing Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to this ideal terroir in the 80’s. His eponymous domaine, founded after he sold his first Limoux project Domaine de l’Aigle to Gerard Bertrand twenty years back, includes 15 hectares of vines at 400-500 meters above sea level on limestone and clay soils. Denois quickly rose to prominence in France for offering incredible bubbles at incredible prices. His crémants used the finest techniques and clones of Champagne without the same price tag, earning the regard of leading Champagne experts like Jancis Robinson who deemed the wines “a little fruitier, more opulent, and less obviously lees-aged than the best champagnes but infinitely better than cheap champagne” by the turn of the millennium. The wines have only continued on their path to terroir singularity and deliciousness over these last twenty years. 

 

 

750 ml
Region:France > Languedoc-Roussillon
Vintage:2023
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This old-vine Chardonnay hails from the Sainte Marie vineyard in Roquetaillade, less than one hectare in size and one of the highest in the Aude, situated over 400m above sea level. This is a rich, robust, and silky Chard with a manifold citrus profile and a fine-grained acid structure typical of the long hang time before harvest the altitude of this plot affords. Lightly oaked and beautifully poised, this wine is drinking right now with tertiary touches of toasted hazelnut already appearing. For the patient, all signs point to this wine developing gorgeously over three to five years in the cellar.