Nicolas Chemarin has wanted to be a winemaker ever since he can remember. After studying viticulture and oenology at Château des Rontets in Fuissé, he went on to work part-time in the cellar at Louis Tête, a small Beaujolais wine merchant. Today he farms 8 hectares in Marchampt, and released his first vintage in 2006. Nicolas lives in his great-grandfather’s house in a landscape of forests and meadows, stretches of wilderness and a plethora of flora and fauna. The vineyards are very steep, ranging from 350 to 600 metres - an altitude which both offers and requires flexibility in vineyard work and at harvest. The balance of woodland and open pasture has been a blessing in the increasingly hot summers brought on by climate change, offering cool nights that allow a slow and steady development of the grapes, without their acidity dropping at the end of ripening. On the flipside, cooler years often see disease and lower yields as a consequence. The terroir has a huge influence on the taste of the wines and working without inputs allows this to shine through. Wines made from grapes at the bottom of the slopes have a lot of black fruit flavours, while those from higher up are more mineral and fresh. The soil is shallow and full of granite, requiring extra care during vinification to achieve finesse rather than over-extracted, concentrated wines.
The grapes for P'tit Grobis 2022 were harvested at the beginning of September, from vines averaging around 35 years at an altitude of 500 metres. Whole bunches were given two days of cold maceration, then pumped over to homogenise. After fermentation started the grapes macerated for a further 8 days, slowly releasing juice as they naturally compressed. After ageing in concrete tanks, the wine was bottled without any added sulphites. Enjoy at 14–16°C.