Domaine de Juchepie: Wines
Anyone who has tasted with Eddy and Mileine Oosterlinck knows that the domaine is very strong on sweet wines; vintages rich in botrytis allow Eddy to make his beloved sweet cuvées, his real passion. When there is less noble rot in the vineyard sweet wine production continues all the same, albeit with more reliance on passerillage, and the production of the dry whites naturally increases. The balance of dry to sweet wine produced here is thus determined by nature, who “does not always make the most commercially sound decisions“, says Eddy.
The fruit is harvested in up to eight tries, although six is usually enough to bring the crop in, then transported to the cellars. Eddy begins the pressing early in the evening, starting gently, using just enough force to burst a few berries and allow the juice to trickle down through the pressed fruit. Eddy believes this slow pace allows the juice to bring more elements of interest to the finished wine, not just sugar but also minerality, acidity and bitterness. As the trickle of juice slows to a drip he turns up the pressure to encourage a greater flow, and in a process that takes perhaps 24 hours he gently teases about 85% of the juice from the grapes. Although it is not something Eddy and I have discussed, this effectively gives his wines extended skin contact, and I think this does come through in the style of his wines.
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