Domaine de la Pirolette - Saint-Amour La Poulette 2021

Bettane & Desseauve

About the domain :

Grégory Barbet, son of former House Director Jean Loron, produced his first vintage in 2013. With 15 hectares perfectly situated around the estate, Grégory quickly understood the need to deal with the heterogeneity of a cru better known for its evocative name than for its hitherto confidential parcels. While his village cuvée is positioned in a reliable, structured style, his plot-based cuvées, Poulette and Carjot, are in the making. Indeed, while the use of wood has improved, it's the blending with concrete eggs that has really brought a more subtle balance to the woodiness, which is finding its rightness in 2018. In an appellation where references were lacking, here is a young estate to watch, as much for the rising quality of its wines as for the contagious passion that inhabits this young winemaker.

Robert Parker - Wine Advocate

RVF - La Revue du Vin de France / Guide des Meilleurs Vins de France

About the domain :

A former cooperage sales executive, Virginie Barbet bought this estate in 2013 with her husband Grégory and a few investor friends. Depending on the cuvée, the grapes are either destemmed or pressed whole. But always with a "chapeau grillé" accompanied by pumping-over and délestage for gentle extraction. They then mature in French oak barrels and concrete eggs their various parcel-based cuvées, which are among the most distinctive terroirs of the cru. Today, they are one of the few estates to restore Saint-Amour's cru status.

James Suckling

About the wine:

Exceptional ripeness and elegance for the 2021 vintage make this young Saint-Amour stand out. But the beautiful base of fine tannins, wrapped in ripe raspberry, is also very impressive. Long, velvety finish!