Philippe Pacalet Pommard 2017

Philippe Pacalet is a Burgundian wine producer known for his pure, elegant wines , he's also known as one of the first natural wine producers in France. He is the former student of Jules Chauvet and the nephew of Marcel Lapierre, the legendary Beaujolais wine grower.
Despite his family’s rich history in winemaking, he does not own any vineyards but rents select vineyards around the Cote de Beaune and Cote de Nuits from growers who work organically and sustainably. He does however own a spectacular 19th century winemaking facility in the heart of Beaune.
Despite the scale of his production, harvest is performed manually by his team and the grapes are sorted in the vineyard before being brought to the winemaking facility in Beaune where they are fermented, always 100% whole cluster. Being that terroir is of utmost importance to him, Philippe removes anything from the vinification process that can obscure the purity of the land, allowing each wine’s specific characteristics to shine through. Then he carries out a long maceration where the grapes are foot-treaded and the cap is punched down twice a day. The juice from this is then drained from the bottom of the vat and grapes moved to press. It is then added to the free run juice and both undergo malolactic fermentation in barrel using only native yeasts. He does not even destem his grapes; his thinking is that if the stems are not ripe, wine should not be made from those grapes at all.
His overall philosophy is "Authenticity, Non-Interventionism and Cultural Experience." Nature shall govern the production and not technology, which is pretty close to that of bio-dynamism, but he prefers not to follow fixed rules or to chase official certification. All of his care and attention to detail results in unrivaled top quality elegant and distinctive wines of stunning clarity.