2018 Aurélien Lefort kuRNik šOpa

Formerly a Parisian painter and illustrator, Aurélien Lefort farms around one and a half hectares around his village of Madriat. The terroir here is quite different to the northern part of the Auvergne, with less volcanic elements and a higher volume of many different types of clay. The vineyards are planted with numerous diverse varieties and vines up to to 120 years old can be found. Aurélien makes wines of incredible purity in a tiny cellar underneath his house and his usual production is ridiculously small, made even smaller due to the scarcity of grapes in recent years as a result of hail and frost. For this reason some of Aurélien's labels are made from friends’ grapes grown in other parts of France and even sometimes in Italy.

Aurélien's wines are deeply intellectual, often made using techniques like immersing whole-cluster grapes in direct-press juice in order to recreate the anaerobic environment of carbonic maceration without the addition of CO2. Seriously tiny quantities, almost impossible to find. These won't last long.

"The name comes from a Czech Republic saying used for telling off kids when they do something bad (Aurelien’s wife is from there). The wine is made from grapes grown in Aurelien’s vineyards in Coteaux de Baudes where the soils are a base of calcareous marl and black clay on basalt. Different clones of pinot noir were left in whole bunches and fermented into the direct pressed juice of different clones of Gamay d’Auvergne and Chardonnay, where maceration takes place for nine months and fermentation well over a year in old small barrels" - Giorgio, importer

Varietal: Gamay d'Auvergne, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay

Region: Auvergne, FR

Viticulture: Organic