Clos Bateau
The "new wave" confirms!
A breath of fresh air at Mes Bourgognes in mid-April, when spring is just around the corner. We welcome two young winemakers, Sylvie and Thierry, from Beaujolais;
We love this fresh breeze from Beaujolais. Two years ago, we were delighted to introduce you to these two young winemakers, Sylvie and Thierry, Dutch by birth and former restaurateurs in Amsterdam. And it's with even greater pleasure that we present their 2023 vintage. Because yes, their 2023s gave us quite a slap in the face.
Already in love with natural wines and already passionate about vines, it was in 2019 that they decided to set up in Lantignié on a small 5.5-hectare estate (of which only 3.5 ha are productive at the moment). These nature lovers immediately went organic and began to bring their little paradise to life.
"We're creating a great ecosystem here. To increase biodiversity in our vineyards, we planted over 100 fruit and nut trees in 2019," explains Sylvie. "We harvest plants and herbs around the estate to make infusions that will help the vines grow stronger and healthier."
In the winery, they use only indigenous yeasts of course, with no filtration or fining. "We work with as little intervention as possible to create Living Wines," which is how they present their Clos Bateau: "Domaine viticole des vins vivants."
Yields have improved but are still quite low (around 15 hl/ha), but the result is constantly improving. All the Gamay cuvées are simply delicious, from the "petit" Joujou with its easy-going character to the impressive Sang de Terre (pinot!) or the fiery Sauvage from a major terroir that gives it an uncommon length.
As last year, we find the 2 whites (Bateau Blanc in direct press) and Aptemiz (10-month maceration); a beautiful stripe, Ousia, a magical combination of chardonnay and gamay; the 3 gamays Joujou (in 2022, the 23 are arriving shortly), Croix PEN(N)ET and the great return of the Sauvage cuvée. Finally, the second vintage for Sang de Terre, a superb pinot noir macerated for 10 months in buried amphora. A must-taste!
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Joujou 2022
Clos Bateau€21.00"Where it all started with our adventure, our baby Joujou, made from old gamay vines from next to our house where we let our sheep and pigs graze and work during the wintertime. Lots of manual labour from ourselfs during the rest of the year, but this turns out to some great grapes. Terroir is a mix of decomposed granite, quartz and clay. Yield it not that high (like the rest of our plots and gives us only around 18Hl/ha). After taking the grapes from the land it will undergo a semi carbonic in concrete and stainless steel with a bit direct press gamay. After pressing we put it together in one big fiberglass dome where the wine has still room to dance and finish the fermentation. Then aged for more than 10 months before bottling in the same dome. Crazy energetic wine with a great acidity."
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Ousia Rosé 2023
Clos Bateau€23.00"For quite a bit Ousia is part of the family range of Clos Bateau. One of the creative wines we decided to make. We like to brainstorm and come up with different ideas. Not only what the taste can be like but also the visual aspect. Then the idea of Ousia came to us, we had this idea of freshness and fruitiness of the direct press from the gamay and chardonnay, but we also wanted to have a little bit more structure to it. That’s when we decided to do a press direct of gamay and chardonnay and include whole bunch chardonnay in the tank to have a small maceration. It turned out to be a perfect marriage."
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Beaujolais-Lantignié "CROIX...
Clos Bateau€24.00"When we look from our house to the mountain direction Regnie-Durette, there is a parcel of almost a half hectare that belongs to us. It’s quite funny because half of it is Regnie and the other side is Lantignie. Both villages calls it Croix Pennet, but only Lantignié uses 2 times the n. The exposition is south facing and it’s full of big granite rocks. It’s a terroir specific and every year this parcellaire wine have this Croix Pen(n)et taste which is hard to explain. We do some longer macerations, and we age 70% on Burgundy barrels."
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Beaujolais Lantignié Bateau...
Clos Bateau€24.00"When following a path in our vineyard down to a small river which crosses our meadow, we come at this mystical plot of Chardonnay. A plot surrounded by a lot of very old oak trees, blackberries, blackthorn and more and with a terroir specifically with a lot of clay. This is great for biodiversity: say hello to deers, hares and more but also a great breeding area for flavescence doree (which has killed with their virus now almost 1/3 of our plot). Unfortunatly with less vines this year, we hope to have it under control in a couple of years and do some replantation on the empty spots. With a press direct, vinified in amphore and a small part on a used barrel it’s became this mystical wine, just like the plot itself."
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Aptemiz Blanc 2023
Clos Bateau€25.00"In 2020 we did a test with a 2 year maceration of chardonnay to see the flow of the wine with quit long maceration. This is something we do by feeling, curiosity and testing to see what will be the right amount of time. That’s why we decided the last 2 years to have a bit longer maceration for Aptemiz. For 23 it turned out the magical 10 months. The grapes where destemmed by hand on a wooden board and after vinified and aged on amphora." Production of just 670 bottles
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Sauvage 2023
Clos Bateau€26.00"Unfortunatly we didn’t launched our special cuvée sauvage last year. But we’re happy to announce that we can offer Sauvage ’23. It’s from our famous parcelle sauvage, which was abandoned for couple a of years before we arrive. This means special grapes but incredibly low yield: 6 HL/ha. Long aging of 10 months in fiberglass which expresses the terroir quit amazing."
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Sang de Terre 2023
Clos Bateau€27.00"Since we decided in 2022 to dig 2 Georgian Qvevri’s in our garden, we knew we had to do something special with it. After our experiments with different grapes and periods of maceration it was clear for us. We love the grape Pinot Noir and decide to do very long macerations with it and since vintage ’22 our cuvée Sang de Terre was born. After 10 months maceration we decided it was ready to press. With a small bucket we must take out all the grapes and we press it with our wooden press. After pressing the wine takes a nap of 1,5 month in barrel and it was time to bottle!" Production of just 760 bottles