Sophie Cinier, Mâcon Le Clos

Outstanding Macon Villages - tropical fruit, oak, ginger notes, cigar box and then citrus cleaning everything up. A super wine.

Sophie’s tiny estate produced its first wines only in 2000, though on her mother’s side the family has lived in Fuissé and been involved in wine production since at least the time of her grandfather. Vines he planted in 1941 came back under Sophie’s control when she returned in 1998, and there is a lovely range of different styles from this tiny domaine. The vineyard area has recently expanded to a massive four hectares (just under). She bought a new vineyard of 1.2 hectares in Igé, 10 miles north of her home in Fuissé. It’s planted with a hectare of Chardonnay for two new wines, a Bourgogne Blanc and a Mâcon Villages Le Clos, and 0.2 ha is planted to pinot noir. In addition to the grapes supplied by her own vineyards there are a few wines which come from purchased grapes. So her St Véran A la Côte is technically a negociant wine. Unlike large parts of the Mâconnais where machine harvesting is the norm, Sophie’s vineyard work is entirely manual, and she does not own a tractor, apart from the old one, rusting in her yard. But these extra vines need more hands in the vineyards, so her partner, Alain, has joined the business payroll. The plan is to turn the vineyards fully organic.