Louis Picamelot

Based in the village of Rully, this first class ‘mousseux’ producer was founded in 1926 by Louis Picamelot, son of a barrel maker and vineyard owner. The family have since judiciously expanded their vineyard purchases to 11 ha with enviable acquisitions in Rully 1er Cru and St. Aubin, not to produce still wines but to enhance the quality of their sparkling ones. In addition, they work closely with contracted partners, supervising both the growing and harvest of the grapes. Once harvested, the wines are then fermented and aged, for a minimum of twelve months, in their spectacular underground winery and cellars, carved out of a disused quarry.

Burgundy

FRANCE

Founded in 1926, Maison Louis Picamelot is nowadays one of the oldest Crémant wine houses in Burgundy and is distinguished by its deep attachment to the terroirs.

Philippe Chautard, as grandson and owner of the place, together with his team dedicates himself to maintain a constant high level of standards by making products of excellence.

Our Cremants are before anything else Burgundy wines. Just like salt and pepper in a dish, the bubbles complement the wine. In concrete terms, the production is made per vintage and divided into 4 categories of Cuvées:

THE GASTRONOMIC WINES: Jean-Baptiste Chautard and Jeanne Thomas.
THE SINGLE VINEYARDS: En Chazot, Les Reipes, and the future plots in Talant.
THE BLENDING OF TERROIRS: White and Rosé Terroirs.
THE TRIBUTE WINES: 90 Year’s Crémant, Heritage Cuvée.

Viticulture

The village of Rully is the historical centre of sparkling wine in Burgundy, explains Philippe Chautard at Maison Louis Picamelot. Initially it was a way to increase the value of the regional appellations. Maison Louis Picamelot in Rully. Rully is in the Côte Chalonnaise, 20 minutes northwest of Chalon-sur-Saône. For the past two centuries sparkling wine has been a considerable addition to the village production. Maison Louis Picamelot dates back to 1926, when Philippe Chautard’s grandfather, together with his father, started out making Bourgogne Mousseux, as it was called at the time. Today we produce 40 per cent of the grapes we use. In total we have eleven hectares. I prefer to stay relatively small. My aim is not to make crémant for the supermarkets. Our annual production is 250 000 bottles. In addition to that we also produce between 50 000 and 100 000 bottles for other growers. Harvest is, as prescribed by the regulations, done by hand. The grapes are put into small 20 kg cases and then transported back to the winery, located in an old quarry in Rully. About 50 per cent are pinot noir, 30 per cent are chardonnay and the remaining 20 per cent are aligoté. Much of the bought in grapes come from the Côte Chalonnaise. Some from the Mâconnais.

Winemaking

As soon as the grapes arrive in our winery, they are directly distributed among one of the two pneumatic presses we have. A pressing cycle slow and delicate starts. The pressing allows us to separate the different qualities of the juice for a stricter selection: – the very first juices, the most quality ones called jus de cuvee, – the intermediary juices called les tailles, – the very last juices called rebêche that will be sent to the distillery. The settling allows the separation of the sediments present in the musts to obtain clear and limpid juices that will be then accommodated in vats or oak barrels before the fermentation. We carefully follow the alcoholic and malolactic fermentations via a software, which allows the control and self-regulation of the temperature in real time. Specificity: To make our Crémant Rosé, we do not blend white and red wines. We proceed to the direct pressing of our Pinot Noir grapes in order to extract its typical aromas and a brilliant pink colour. Once the fermentations ended at the end of winter, the base wines are tasted to create the definitive blending of different grapes varieties and terroirs. (This operation does not concern our plots of Crémant de Bourgogne). The bottling consists in putting the base wine in bottles with the addition of a cane sugar and selected yeast blend to provoke the third fermentation in bottle, called “prise de mousse”. The manual or mechanical riddling consists in gradually rotating and tilting the bottle so that the sediments gather in the bottle neck.