2022 Pierre-Olivier Garcia, Les Valozières, Aloxe-Corton Premier Cru

About this wine

The 2022 Pierre-Olivier Garcia Aloxe-Corton Premier Cru Les Valozières is a single bottle from one of the most watched new names of the Côte de Nuits. Garcia founded his domaine in Nuits-Saint-Georges in 2016 around 0.4 hectare of his own vines and the grapes of a network of grower friends, farming for biodiversity with cover crops, trees and chickens between the rows, and making wine by infusion rather than extraction. Les Valozières is a premier cru on the Aloxe side of the hill of Corton, and his parcel is planted with sixty-year-old Pinot Noir vines facing east on soils evenly divided between Corton limestone and clay. A third of the fruit goes in as whole clusters, a third is fermented berry by berry and a third destemmed, with gentle crushing only at the end of the alcoholic fermentation and no sulfites added during it; the wine then goes through an old Italian vertical press, moves by gravity and spends twelve months in oak, a fifth of it new, before a light filtration without fining. The style is pale in colour and complex in character, infused tea and spice rather than weight; a touch of reduction on opening fades in ten minutes.

Expect wild strawberry and redcurrant, rose, black tea and a peppery spice, a silky, lifted palate with fine tannins and a long, chalky finish. Serve at 16 degrees with roast guinea fowl, a mushroom dish or a Cîteaux. Drink from 2027 to 2038.

About Pierre-Olivier Garcia

Pierre-Olivier Garcia founded his domaine in Nuits-Saint-Georges in 2016 around 0.4 hectare of his own vines and the fruit of a network of grower friends. He farms for biodiversity, with cereal cover crops, ploughing, trees planted and chickens grazing between the rows, and he makes wine with as little intervention as possible: about a third whole clusters, a third fermented berry by berry and a third destemmed, infusion rather than extraction, gentle crushing only at the end of fermentation, no sulfites added during fermentation, an old Italian vertical press, gravity, twelve months in oak with a fifth of new barrels, light filtration and no fining. The wines are pale, perfumed and built on tea-like infusion rather than weight.