When asked “How long will your wines age?” Philippe Pacalet responds “That depends on how many friends you have!”. This response sums up Pacalet’s refreshingly different approach to making wine and communicating about it. The nephew of Marcel Lapierre, the legendary Beaujolais wine grower who is one of the leading figures in the natural wine movement, Pacalet is a trained scientist and believes all winemakers should “feed” themselves with different disciplines like this. His nuanced take on viticulture and viniculture – chemical-free, biodynamic and low-intervention practises, without being bound by rigid rules – resounds with the young winemakers making an impact in Burgundy, and produces wines of incredible freshness, purity, elegance, and finesse. Pacalet purchases carefully selected grapes from vineyards of particular interest and vinifies them at his own 19th century winemaking facility in the heart of Beaune. He is adamant about removing anything from the vinification process that obscures the pure expression of terroir, shunning industrial yeasts and using minimal quantities of sulphur, at bottling only. He never destems his grapes, seeing the stems as an integral part of the winemaking process, and believing that if the stems are not ripe enough, then the grapes are not either.

Distribution in UK only

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Official website:
http://www.philippe-pacalet.com/fr/

Official Instagram:
@philippe.pacalet