Beaujolais Villages Rosé "Vol De L'Hirondelle"

Le Vol de L’Hirondelle Rose 2017 is from the "Huire" plot at Quincie in Beaujolais Planted in 1977. Harvested at maturity, the wine is made by direct pressing to have a slightly pink colour. It is vinified at very low temperature (14-18 degrees to keep aromas of fresh fruit) the fermentation time is 15 to 20 days. Malo-lactic fermentation takes place after alcoholic fermentation. Bottled in spring.

This is a real wine that tastes  of summer,  poetically called the “Vol du Hirondelle” which translates as the “Flight of the Swallow”.

Jérôme has been a vigneron since he was 20 years old and he’s now 47!

He took over his Uncle the celebrated Beaujolaise winemaker Vincent Lacondemine in 2016 when he retired.

He’s a practitioner of low intervention wines and since 2002 all his red wines are made without added sulphur in the winery and with just a little added for preservation on bottling.

In 2020 he was asked to be organic certified for his white grapes (the cuvée Chantemerle and Rossignol)

It’s no surprise that Jérôme has been making wine for over a quarter of a century when you taste how good his wines are.

L’Hirondelle 2017 improves greatly with some bottle age. The subtle aromas of the wine can be masked by youthful acidity which softens with age. Its not oaked and matured 100% in tank.

There are two reasons for MLF, one stylistic and the other practical.

• MLF also helps to soften the acidity and with age you can pick up a lovely creamy note in the wine.
• The other reason is practical. He sells quite a lot of this wine at the cellar door in the summer as a “Bag in Box” and can’t afford for the MLF to spontaneously start in Bag! Its really a question of stabilisation.

Anne McHale said when she tasted in May 2020“ So Balanced, Absolutely beautiful”