Domaine Du Cellier Aux Moines, Givry
Guillaume Marko
We are thrilled to offer here, exclusively to the UK, our eighth consecutive vintage from this superb estate, which has gone from strength to strength since Catherine and Philippe Pascal bought the property, and started their investments here, nearly 20 years ago.
The buildings and vineyard date back over 8 centuries, to when a nearby Cistercian Abbey chose this south-facing hillside to plant vines and put up buildings, with wooden vats to receive the grapes and a cellier in the hill, for the barrels. The monks made the wine until the French Revolution, after which the buildings and land were sold and divided.
Catherine and Philippe Pascal bought the ancient monument in 2004, then managed to acquire many of the original, surrounding vineyards. These are perfectly situated at the centre of a south-facing Givry 1er Cru hillside. In 2015, the Domaine built a brilliant full-gravity winery, in Givry’s old quarry. Downhill from the cistercian buildings, this winery works on four floors. Grape arrival and sorting are at ground level, then below come fermentation vats, then barrel ageing, then assembling and bottling, with no pumping. 0xidation of juices and wines during all processes is efficiently minimised. Three levels of the four are underground in the old quarry, allowing optimal temperature and humidity control, with minimal energy consumption.
They have progressively up-rooted those Pinot Noir vines which were high-yielders, and made new plantings of carefully selected, small-berried, low-yield Pinots. Since 2006, no herbicides or pesticides have been used, and regular ploughing was re-introduced. Over recent years, white vineyards have been added to the estate, and wine-maker Guillaume Marko is proving as adept with Chardonnay grapes as he is with the Pinots. Guillaume is a Dijon-trained oenologist, who worked several stints at top Côte de Nuits estates, before coming to Givry.
These wines are again superb in the 2022 vintage, and we most warmly recommend them.