Chateau Haut Lavigne Cotes de Duras Blanc

The Woman... Nadia Lusseau is a young winemaker committed to reconverting Haut la Vigne to organic viticulture. This is a multiple-year process, but soon she will receive official certification. Lusseau works an estate that covers almost nine hectares, land that is planted with slightly more red than white grape vines. She hand-harvests all of the estate’s fruit to avoid damaging the delicate, ripe grapes, and to create an initial visual triage of fruit destined for fermenting vats. Lusseau slowly and gently presses her grapes, allows ambient yeast to begin fermentation, and permits several weeks of lees contact to increase texture and flavor complexity in her finished wines.

The Land... The French revolution had a profound impact upon the agricultural fortunes of the The Côtes de Duras. As France was carved into departments by agents of revolutionary change, the Côtes de Duras was attached to Lot-et-Garonne, not Gironde, the department of Bordeaux. A tough break, given the similarity of terroir with Entre-Deux-Mers to the west. Chateau Haut la Vigne is 10 kilometers from the town of Duras. The terroir of the area is shaped by clay, limestone, sand and silex soils. Sunny days (on average the area receives more sunshine per annum than Bordeaux) and precious limestone shape wines that can be a lean and bright. The Côtes de Duras was an early recipient of AOC status, an honor which it was granted over 70 years ago. In spite of this, sadly only a few producers have followed Lusseau’s lead and attempted to make wines expressive of their place.

The Wine... Typically the wines of the Côtes de Duras resemble in composition and character wine from Bordeaux. Actually, they are closer to the traditional style of basic Bordeaux, a type of wine still made in that region, but losing ground in competition with products crafted in a smoother, more international style. Nadia Lusseau uses 72% Merlot for her red wine, which is filled out by equal quantities of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon. The wine spends two weeks macerating in Haut la Vigne’s chilly cellar prior to fermentation, a cold soak that is eventually ended by indigenous yeasts. Her white wine is a blend of equal parts Sauvignon blanc and Semillion. The components for this wine are fermented separately.