Vin de France Chardonnay Macération Georges Descombes (Domaine) 2017

Georges Descombes' family had been winegrowers for several generations. Descombes was always more interested in mechanics and engineering, and that remains true today. However, he was also the only one in the family who wanted to take care of the vines. After studying oenology, he produced his first harvest in 1987 from some plots in Brouilly that he had inherited from his grandmother. This did not stop him from continuing to work in a bottling company and, as if that was not enough, working two days a week for other winegrowers in the area. It was only in 1993 that he devoted himself full time to his own property. He currently manages 17 hectares, of which 7 are in Morgon and the rest, in decreasing order, are in Brouilly, Régnié, Chiroubles, Beaujolais-Villages and Beaujolais.
Even in his early days, Georges Descombes was not keen on chemical treatments in the vineyard and has used organic methods for more than ten years. The only few exceptions to this are on the very steep slopes where it is impossible to plough and he must use herbicide. Most of the vineyards are ploughed, the wines fermented with natural yeasts and then vinified almost without sulphur using a carbonic maceration technique in concrete, stainless steel and epoxy vats. From 1993, he decided to chill the harvests, in order to carry out gentler, longer vinification (like those at Domaine Jean Foillard)