Lot presentation

Santenay Les Chantalbins Pierre Laforest 1996

The wine

Overlooked by the Trois-Croix mountains, Santenay village (south of the Côte de Beaune) is not only famous for its wines but also for its water (from the `salty' fountain). The sand-lime soils and magnesian sub-soil provide favourable ground for the Santanay wine stock. Its red wines (95% of the production) have a good reputation, with memorable crus such as Les Gravières, Comme, Beauregard and Clos de Malte, the emblematic cru from the Maison Jadot. The wines are a deep ruby colour and reveal intense perfumes of forest fruits: blackberry, blueberry and cranberry. They are often tannic when young. They have lingering flavours of grenadine. As they age, Santanay develops aromas of leather and tones of undergrowth and truffle and its tannins soften up. Like at Chassagne, a distinctive feature at these vineyards is that they often use the Cordon de Royat spur training system, which improves the quality of the grapes.