Château Haut-Rian Pure Gourmandise

“I must say I benefit from the hard work my parents did…” says Pauline Lapierre. Michel and Isabelle Dietrich focused on quality, lowering the yields and spending time to analyze the best soil and parcels for each grape variety. Almost four decades later, the results are showing and the reds keep getting better and better.

This is exactly what Pure Gourmandise is the result of. It is a 100% Merlot from a plot called les Bouens. This is one of the most beautiful plots of the estate with very high quality clay topping a thick substrate of chalk. Merlot is difficult to work with (the leaves and branches are growing “down” instead of growing up), and it was planted in 2015. In 2021, the conversion to organic will be completed and the results are impressive. Pauline felt confident that this allowed her to make a clean and joyful “no added sulfur” red. The plot is less than a five-minute drive to the cellar, which is ideal for a no added sulfur wine. The grapes were picked early in the morning and they were covered with a tannin powder to bring them back safely to the cellar. Pauline chose to add yeasts directly onto the grapes right when they entered the cellar, in order to secure the alcoholic fermentation and avoid any oxydation. She limited the number of pumping over to what was strictly necessary for the wine to ferment, not aiming at extracting too much, as the grapes themselves are rich enough. She filtered right after the malolactic fermentation, and decided to leave the CO2 from the fermentation to protect the wine during the mid-December bottling. The wine is rich yet delicate, with fresh fruits and structure. 14% alcohol. 5000 bottles produced.

2022 vintage : a warm vintage that resulted in wines with both richness and depth of character, concentrated fruit and fine aromatics.