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2020 Irancy
Benoît CantinYou might be caught off guard by how delicious this unassuming bottle of Irancy from the Auxerrois region of Burgundy is. The Cantin family is making some of the most surprising and gorgeous wines we’ve started to import recently, and I am completely hooked. This cuvée blends Pinot Noir from lieux-dits in and around the Irancy appellation, an amphitheater of vineyards growing on Kimmeridgian limestone soil—like its neighbor in Chablis. A vibrant rouge, it has notes of violet, fennel seed, and black pepper coiled together around a chalky core.
—Jane Augustine
Wine Type: | red |
Vintage: | 2020 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | Pinot Noir |
Appellation: | Irancy |
Country: | France |
Region: | Burgundy |
Producer: | Benoît Cantin |
Winemaker: | Benoît Cantin |
Vineyard: | 30-40 years, 16 ha total |
Soil: | Kimmeridgian limestone |
Aging: | Wines are aged in 228L oak barrels (15% new) for one year; The oak comes from the family’s own land and from the Les Bertranges forest. |
Farming: | Sustainable |
Alcohol: | 13% |
More from this Producer or Region
2019 Irancy “La Grande Côte”
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Brambly, vigorous, and gourmand with sour plum, fig and a touch of smoke.
2022 Givry 1er Cru Rouge “Clos Jus”
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This rouge will stop you in your tracks with its subtle kiss of oak, silky tannins that glide effortlessly across the palate, and notes of freshly crushed bing cherries.
2020 Pouilly-Fuissé “Les Reisses Vieilles Vignes”
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This wine has an impressive track record of aging, developing luscious notes of smoke, honey, butterscotch, and marzipan after ten to fifteen years in bottle.
2022 Chablis “Vieilles Vignes”
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Everything about this cuvée, from the delicately briny scent of slick oyster shells to the concentrated, pristinely focused sensation on the palate, is a demonstration of why this domaine has become one of Chablis’ very best.
2018 Irancy “La Grande Côte”
France | Burgundy
From a single-vineyard parcel on one of the family’s most primely positioned slopes, this bottling has more depth, concentration, and brambly tannic punch.
2020 Rully Blanc 1er Cru “Rabourcé”
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Rabourcé is considered one of the top premiers crus in Rully. Its old vines sit on a steep clay and limestone slope and yield a complex, powerful white Burgundy.
2020 Irancy “Palotte”
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Don’t miss this opportunity to experience beautiful, old-school, age-worthy red Burgundy from our newest domaine in the region!
2021 Irancy “Cuvée Emeline”
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Emeline is sourced from the domaine’s favorite bits of their favorite parcels and then long-aged in barrel for a deeper, darker Irancy.
2021 Auxey Duresses Rouge 1er Cru
France | Burgundy
A blend of two premier cru vineyards, Les Duresses and Les Grands Champs, this bottling has a gorgeous nose with cherry, earthiness, and a faint smokiness.
2020 Volnay 1er Cru “Les Caillerets”
Domaine Lucien Boillot et Fils
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This Caillerets features a stony, savory undercurrent, above which float gorgeous notes of strawberries and plums.
About The Producer
Benoît Cantin
There are less than fifty active viticulteurs in the relatively small northern Burgundy Appellation of Irancy, only twelve of which are situated in the commune of Irancy. Located just southwest of Chablis, Irancy is a picturesque canvas of vineyards planted on hillsides and amphitheaters, all favorably facing south for maximal sun exposure. While it shares the Kimmeridgian limestone soil also found in Chablis, the combes of vineyards here are planted exclusively to red grapes–mainly Pinot Noir–with instances of Gamay and César. Historically, the land was co-planted to vines, wheat, and cherry trees, and not unlike the reds of Sancerre, its wines were a favorite of Parisians due to its close proximity to Paris.
Benoît, with the continued support of his father, Bernard, runs the domaine, farming 16 hectares in Irancy across 10 different lieux-dits. Following in the footsteps of many Cantin generations before him, Benoît began working at the domaine in 1991, bottling his first solo vintage in 1994. His wines display a rustic elegance, an earthy, Burgundian soulfulness, and a structure and depth well above their price point. They are wines of character, with a strong sense of place and typicity, as well as great freshness thanks to the limestone soils in which they are grown.
About The Region
Burgundy
In eastern central France, Burgundy is nestled between the wine regions of Champagne to the north, the Jura to the east, the Loire to the west, and the Rhône to the south. This is the terroir par excellence for producing world-class Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
The southeast-facing hillside between Dijon in the north and Maranges in the south is known as the Côte d’Or or “golden slope.” The Côte d’Or comprises two main sections, both composed of limestone and clay soils: the Côte de Nuits in the northern sector, and the Côte de Beaune in the south. Both areas produce magnificent whites and reds, although the Côte de Beaune produces more white wine and the Côte de Nuits more red.
Chablis is Burgundy’s northern outpost, known for its flinty and age-worthy Chardonnays planted in Kimmeridgian limestone on an ancient seabed. Vézelay is a smaller area south of Chablis with similar qualities, although the limestone there is not Kimmeridgian.
To the south of the Côte de Beaune, the Côte Chalonnaise extends from Chagny on its northern end, down past Chalon-sur-Saône and encompasses the appellations of Bouzeron in the north, followed by Rully, Mercurey, Givry, and Montagny.
Directly south of the Chalonnaise begins the Côte Mâconnais, which extends south past Mâcon to the hamlets of Fuissé, Vinzelles, Chaintré, and Saint-Véran. The Mâconnais is prime Chardonnay country and contains an incredible diversity of soils.
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Kermit once said...
Kermit once said...
For the wines that I buy I insist that the winemaker leave them whole, intact. I go into the cellars now and select specific barrels or cuvées, and I request that they be bottled without stripping them with filters or other devices. This means that many of our wines will arrive with a smudge of sediment and will throw a more important deposit as time goes by, It also means the wine will taste better.