RULLY PREMIER CRU
MOLESME 2021

Grape Variety

Chardonnay.

Tasting notes

Colour: a beautiful pale golden yellow.

Bouquet: fruity notes (pear) with hints of honey.

Palate: a lovely texture on the palate. The wine is smooth and charming, offering a nice length.

Food and wine pairing

Excellent with cold cuts, delicate fish, seafood, warm starters, or white meats with sauce. Best enjoyed with aged cheeses, such as certain goat cheeses.

Serving suggestions

Ideally served between 12°C and 14°C (54–57°F).

Ageing potential

Can be easily cellared for up to 5 years after the vintage.

Origin

Rully is one of the renowned villages of the Côte Chalonnaise, south of Burgundy. It is a village appellation comprising 23 climats classified as Premier Cru.

White Rully wines cover 261 hectares, including 68 hectares of Premier Cru, while red Rully wines are produced on 116 hectares, of which 28 hectares are Premier Cru.

Rully takes its name from a wealthy Roman, Rubilius, who built a villa and founded the village during the Roman occupation. Originally called Rubiliacum, the name evolved over time to become Rully.

Terroir

The Château de Rully, a former 12th-century fortress, has become the iconic landmark of the village of Rully. Its vineyard is entirely and exclusively managed by Domaine de la Bressande.

The Molesme parcel covers half a hectare of Chardonnay vines, south-facing on a gently sloping hillside.

This terroir is located just above an underground river. The vines suffer less from drought thanks to a reddish-brown calcareous soil that retains water, with loam at the bottom of the slope.

The subsoil consists of an Oxfordian substrate of lithographic and oolitic limestone, producing rich, rounded, and mineral white wines.

Vinification and maturing

Chardonnay grapes from the Molesme parcel were hand-harvested on September 28. Pneumatic pressing was followed by cold settling for 12 to 24 hours to remove coarse lees (solid particles from skins, stems, and other impurities that settle by sedimentation). Alcoholic fermentation took place in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks to ensure precise temperature management and consistency of the cuvée, followed by transfer to barrel at the end of fermentation. Ageing in 228-litre barrels (25% new oak) on fine lees for 8 months. Stirring of the lees was carried out twice a month until malolactic fermentation (early January), promoting the development of complex aromas while preserving fruit purity. This also helps protect the wine from oxidation (barrel staves and bung hole) and reduction (build-up of sulphur compounds at the bottom of the barrel or tank) by keeping the fine lees in suspension.

Vintage : 2021

Nature certainly set a challenge for the winegrower and the winemaker with this vintage.

It began with very warm temperatures at the end of February which led to an early bud break.

The historic frost in April then destroyed young shoots that had emerged too early, significantly affecting the future harvest. Changing weather continued to characterize the vintage through to the harvests.

There were spells of rain from May to mid-August, obliging winegrowers to be constantly on the alert. The only periods of relative calm were during flowering, which took place in good conditions for the formation of the future fruit, and the véraison (colour change), which benefited from the return of the sun from mid-August.

The vagaries of the weather contributed to the development of outbreaks of disease, which were contained thanks to the tireless efforts of our winegrowers. In spite of this, considerable sacrifices had to be made to ensure a high level of quality, and rigorous sorting of the fruit in the vineyard and on arrival at the winery was necessary.

This vintage also required a major technical effort. The vinifications had to be carried out with meticulous attention and precision with a particular care over the extraction of colouring matter, the balance of the structure and the aromatic expression of the red wines, and of the freshness, balance of acidity and aromatic potential of the white wines.