Domaine Lamy-Caillat

Sébastien Caillat’s day job is at his in-laws’ Domaine, Lamy-Pillot, but he takes time out to manage his own small operation where the wines are made in a different style, a conscious decision to get back to how white Burgundy used to be made. The vines are managed organically, without certification.

Here is the recipe in the cellar: crush the grapes before pressing, which is done, fiercely, in a mechanical Vaslin press. Start the alcoholic fermentation in tank, then transfer to barrel, keeping almost all the solids with minimum settling, then age for a year in barrels without lees-stirring before racking into tank for a further year’s ageing on the lees. No sulphur is added until the racking to tank.

New wood is limited to 20%, or none at all for cuvees of less than 5 barrels. The wines are fined but not filtered before bottling, which is done by hand using cork. The bottles are then kept upright for one month, waxed then re waxed at labelling when sold.

The St-Aubin En l’Ebaupin is made from young vines planted in 2012 after the plot had been left fallow for 10 years. The Chassagne-Montrachet is from Pot Bois, planted in the 1960s.