The rare "Vermont" bottling, named for the hamlet in which the Descombes family live and grow and make wine, comes from a special small patch of old vines near the house. It is not bottled separately every year and 2018 is the current offering. (The first since 2011) Though this bottling is rare, it is made in the same way as the rest of the Descombes line-up. The farming is organic, though not certified, and the harvest is manual. The vinification is traditional: whole-bunch, semi-carbonic maceration in large vats (cement, fiberglass, stainless steel) with native yeasts and no sulfur. All of the vieilles vignes wines are aged in used Burgundy barriques for at least a year and bottled with a very small amount of sulfur and without filtration. Black tea, earthen dark cherry fruit, and smoke linger on the lasting finish. A case in point example of how gracefully Beaujolais ages. Just entering its drinking window now, this still has a long life ahead.
