Domaine de Cassiopée
Domaine de Cassiopée
Sampigny-les-Maranges, Côte des Beaune, France
Hugo Mathurin and Talloulah Dubourg
We are delighted to welcome Hugo Mathurin and Talloulah Dubourg to the portfolio with their inaugural vintage from their estate, Domaine de Cassiopée. Following their training experiences with fellow GCS growers, Jean-Marc Roulot and Benjamin Leroux, we were eager to see what this young couple would do when the time came to make their own wine. Their objective was clear: find a place cold enough, that could, amidst the growing challenge of climate change, produce the fresh, light-footed wines they liked to drink.
They found that home in Sampigny-les-Maranges - in the extreme south of the Cote de Beaune with its cooler climate and varied landscapes. After jumping on an opportunity to take over a 5 hectare estate that included a house and eight different plots scattered throughout hillside vineyards and flanked by wild forestland, Domaine Cassiopée was born in early 2020.
They are investing in Maranges, by getting right to work in the vineyards, which has been slow compared to other appellations in converting to a more organic approach to farming. The wines are pure and energetic, much like the young couple who are eager to redefine the Maranges appellation through their commitment to understanding the singular identity of each of their plots reflected by their release of eight individual cuvées. their site-specific cuvées. These are the new faces of the next generation in Burgundy and we couldn’t be more excited to be along for the ride with them.
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Hugo Mathurin and Talloulah Dubourg founded Domaine de Cassiopée in January 2020 after seizing an opportunity to take over a unknown domaine in Sampigny-lès-Maranges that included a house and just over 5 hectares of vines, mainly in the Hautes Côtes de Beaune, Maranges, and Bourgogne appellations. After combined experiences at Jean-Marc Roulot, Frederic Mugnier, Clos de Tart and Benjamin Leroux, Hugo and Talloulah's objective was to find a place known to be cold, which could, thanks to climate change, produce fresh wines that they liked to drink.
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Maranges is the southernmost appellation of the Cote de Beaune and probably the least known. It's divided among three villages south of Santenay and Chassange-Montrachet, and Domaine de Cassiopée is at the eastern end, at the limit of the 1ers crus, in Sampigny-lès-Maranges. Shadowed by the Trois Croix mountains, the villages are caught between hills and valleys and the plots of vines are interspersed with wild forest. Cooler temperatures mean later ripening, with harvests here are on average ten to fifteen days later than in Meursault or Volnay.
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Upon taking over the vines they immediately began to convert to organic viticulture and their certification will be complete by 2023. They are applying some biodynamic principles, for now mostly in the cellar - minding the lunar calendar before racking and bottling.
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In the cellar, Talloulah and Hugo intend to intervene as little as possible, with little or no sulfur used (with a very light dose during bottling). For aging, they are using more classic wooden barrels ranging from 228 to 450 litres as well as experimenting witha 500-litre Italian terracotta vessel.