Fanny Sabre - Burgundy, France
After several years of getting none of her wines - requiring from our side a change of import partners - we are happy to have a brand new offering from Burgundy's Fanny Sabre.
Now based in Pommard, Fanny began her wine-making back in 2000 when she inherited 4.5 hectares of prime holdings in Pommard, Meursault, Volnay, Savigny-Les-Beaune, Aloxe-Corton and Beaune. Over time, working with the great Philippe Pacalet (nephew of the iconic Marcel Lapierre, Philippe is widely considered one of Burgundy's finest organically committed winemakers; his delicious wines are near impossible to find.) she concentrated on making wine in a more natural, less machine/chemical way. In time, she converted each of her vineyards to 100% organic farming. Fanny also began the process some time ago of retooling her cellar(s) to the use of traditional barrels, vats, obtaining new equipment and doing all she could to be as non-interventionist as possible.
After several efforts to try to visit and taste with her over the years, team E&R has since been able to visit with her now five times, most recently in her new cellar in Pommard. (You may recall her visit and tasting at E&R a few years back.) Fanny's philosophy of wine-making grew out of tasting, learning and trial & error. When she compared Pacalet's wines of verve and lovely clean fruit flavors, she wondered why her wines were not the same. She had great land, so why not? Part of it was everything: the farming, the equipment, the details of making the wines in the cellar - and she eventually made changes and improvements. In the vineyards she switched over to organic fertilizers, has sought to allow for greater biodiversity in the vineyards, and began plowing between the rows with a manual plow vs a mechanical tractor.
She has converted to 100% natural indigenous yeasts and does not filter or fine her wines, or use very much new oak. Fanny's wines have no additives and she uses little or no sulfur. Fanny also favors a partial use of modest "semi-carbonic" maceration in some of her wines allowing for more natural Pinot noir flavor. She believes in whole cluster fermentation (grapes and stems together at first--just like Jean-Francois Bourdy does from the 14th century methods in Jura!) which further enhance the wine's energy and vigor. Her vinification includes the old-time classic use of larger standing-up convex open-topped wooden vats which, in our travels, are almost never seen in Burgundy these days. Fanny does all the work in the cellar and in the vineyards. Each of her wines are from grapes harvested only by hand for maximum freshness and condition. Tasting through her line-up, you cannot help but notice how different each is from the next based on where the grapes are grown. It is refreshing to find a series of wines like these as opposed to so many of the homogenized and seemingly over-extracted, high alcohol Pinot noir we see nowadays. The Sabre wines are fresh, lean, fruity and sing with great energy and vitality. They are perfect for the table and/or thoughtful sipping, and benefit from time in your glass.
Nearly all of her wines are produced in quantities of 800-1200 bottles and the Parisians are downing most of them. Our expectation with a renewed import channel, is to sell the Sabre wines each year, with the knowledge we will only get one shot at her small production each year.
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Click on each wine for more detail.