THE DOMAIN
The Domaine des Chaffangeons, located in the commune of Fleurie, in the Beaujolais Crus, has existed since 1955. This estate was created by Mr. Depardon, my grandfather, with 7ha of Fleurie. The domain was then taken over by my mother, until the 3rd generation arrived.
Since my installation, we have evolved on the surface, because we work 17ha today, but also in appellation. Our production is mainly Fleurie (with different Fleurie cuvées), but we also produce the Morgon appellation, Moulin à Vent, Beaujolais Blanc, Crémant de Bourgogne. A sparkling rosé “La Bulle en Rose” and a sweet white wine “L'antidote” are listed in Vin de France.
We have a fairly substantial choice in order to satisfy all our current and future customers.
All our red wines are produced from Gamay (red with white juice), and our white wines from Chardonnay. 80% of our harvest is manual, harvested between the end August/early September depending on the year.
We work on destemmed grapes to avoid herbaceous tastes. When the grapes are in vats, the start of fermentation takes place and we leave for ten days of monitoring the vats before pressing. The temperature of the juice reaches around 30 degrees to extract maximum color. Gamay is a very hard grape variety to extract in color, depending on the vintage. When all the fermentations of red wines are finished, the wines rest in our concrete vats until racking (separation of the clear part from the cloudy part) to finish in the bottle in April of the year following the harvest.
White wines are worked differently. We press the grapes as soon as they arrive in the vat room, then the juices go into fermentation for 20 days (a little less for the sweet white wine). This will be bottled in January following the harvest.
THE WINES, LET'S TALK ABOUT (A FEW)!!
Beaujolais Blanc, a little-known appellation, is booming. Produced from Chardonnay, and worked on clay-limestone soils, we produce fresh wines with a touch of liveliness, a citrus grapefruit note, with a 2-3 year aging potential. It will go very well with an aperitif, a salad, fish such as cod, seafood.
L'Antidote, an atypical wine from our region. But everything is tempting, especially to satisfy non-fans of red or dry white wines. We produce a small quantity of this wine (about 500 bottles per year). We produced a wine keeping the freshness and liveliness of Chardonnay, and maintaining a hint of natural sweetness. This wine is very pleasant as an aperitif.
Our Fleurie La Madone. La Madone is the highest point in our village, 400m above sea level, overlooking the vineyard. We have 2 ha planted on these steep hillsides, with exceptional terroirs thanks to its South-East exposure, optimum sunshine and regular ventilation. Thanks to its sandy soil and pink granite, we produce fruity, supple, easy-to-drink wines. This wine, which is for us a friendly wine, goes very well with a snack, a barbecue, a grilled chicken, or even simply an aperitif.
And finally, our Fleurie Vielles Vignes, a cuvée that is not very typical for the red wines of our region. We work with grapes from vines between 70 and 100 years old. Why so old? Because the vine produces smaller, more concentrated grapes. We push the fermentation to 12-14 days. Then the tank is put in oak barrels to bring fat and roundness to the wine, and not a taste of oak barrels.
