Domaine Delaporte: Wines
The philosophy here is to look after the health of the soil, to harvest clean grapes in good condition, with attentive picking. “This makes for an easy vinification”, says Matthieu.
Naturally the vinification varies according to the cuvée, and especially with the colour of the wine in question. Nevertheless some generalisations can be made. All the fruit is picked by hand, the whites at 55 to 60 hl/ha for the entry-level Chavignol cuvée, but at figures closer to 50 hl/ha and lower for the Silex and the single-vineyard cuvées. The reds are picked at 30 to 35 hl/ha. The fruit is sorted on a traditional table.
Matthieu doesn’t buy in any négoce wine, and doesn’t work in any other appellations; all his wines come from his own vines, in the Sancerre appellation. He restricts his own use of sulphur dioxide, saying that he ends up typically with 50 mg/litre total sulphur dioxide in the finished wine.
While father and grandfather tended to blend across the terroirs, Matthieu has separated out some individual vineyards and terroirs, broadening the range of cuvées here. The Delaporte portfolio thus represents the three terroirs of Sancerre; Chavignol, even though you might expect ‘Chavignol’ to be a Kimmeridgian cuvée, is from caillottes. The Silex cuvée comes from flint of course, while Les Monts Damnés is from Kimmeridgian marl of course.
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