2019 Sylvain Pataille Bourgogne Rouge
WINEMAKER: Sylvain Pataille
REGION: Burgundy, FR
VARIETAL: Pinot Noir
VITICULTURE: Certified Organic/Biodynamic
Described by Rajat Parr as one of the best Bourgogne Rouge in Burgundy, Pataille’s first red is a blend of parcels in Marsannay and the Haute Côtes, covering just over one hectare in total. Again, there are plenty of old vines in the mix, including one parcel planted in 1956. Each parcel is vinified separately before blending, with a variety of maceration styles involved. The final blend usually includes approximately 30% whole bunches. Aging is in barrel for one year and the wine is not touched by sulphur until bottling.
For the most part, Pataille’s Bourgogne Rouge sits at the pretty and crunchy end of the spectrum. Having said this, we found the 2019 a fleshier style, with brambly depth and potent flavour. It’s a delicious Bourgogne Rouge that lives up to Parr’s billing as “one of the best in Burgundy”. Don’t miss it.
By the time Pataille had reached his mid-teens, he had started working vintages on the Côte and enrolled at Beaune’s Lycée Viticole. Here, he shared a classroom with Benjamin Leroux, Olivier Lamy, Nicolas Rossignol and Pierre-Yves Colin—how we would love to have been a fly on the wall at this school! While Lamy returned to his family Domaine in Saint Aubin and Leroux took off to Oregon, Pataille moved to Bordeaux to continue his studies. Here he met Kyriakos Kynigopoulos, who took the precocious talent back to Burgundy to help him at Burgundia Oenology in Beaune.
In the cellar, whole-cluster vinification (where it makes sense), natural ferments, extended macerations, very low sulphur use, and long maturations are the basics of Pataille’s approach. He uses an old vertical press, inherited from his grandfather, that presses very slowly over six to eight hours and is used for both whites and reds. Pataille describes his approach in the cellar as the “new old style”.
Pataille has been co-opted under the natural banner, regardless of whether he is comfortable with the dogma and the company that this entails—and he isn’t comfortable. Pataille tells us he has no interest in badges, and while his aim is to use as little sulphur as possible—hardly controversial for a grower at this level—it takes a great deal of work in the vineyard and cellar to ensure that he can work this way.