Domaine Alain Jeanniard Morey-Saint-Denis Vieilles Vignes 2009

The Jeanniard family has been in Burgundy since 1755 but it was not until 1999 that Alain Jeanniard left his job in business to take over the family's half a hectare of vines with the intent to build his own domaine based in Morey St Denis. Today he has a total of 4 hectares spread from Fixin to Pommard and the Hautes-Cotes. Herbicides are never used and the soils are regularly ploughed. Minimal use of sulphur. Elevage is in oak, 20% new. Approx 1800 cases (or less given the vintage) produced per year. Interestingly, from 2000 to 2006 Jeanniard was responsible for the viticulture on behalf of the Hospices de Beaune for their Mazis and the Clos de la Roche. He is somewhat unique in the Cote de Nuits in that he employs Cordon Royat training for his vines (as opposed to Guyot). This greatly reduces yields but makes for berries with thicker, riper skins and lower pH. In some years, because of susceptibility to poor flowering for this method he has almost no crop. Secondly, he employs almost 100% whole cluster (grappe entiere) vinification (like Romanee-Conti and Lambrays). He can do this because of the Cordon Royat training system he uses in the vines: low yield, ripe tannins.