Santini

Santini Collective wines: buy at the best price

Based in Auxey-Duresses, at the heart of the Côte de Beaune, Santini Collective is one of the most compelling projects of the new wave of Burgundy winemakers. Founded under the name Santini Frères by Chris Santini, a Franco-American winemaker with Corsican and Tunisian roots, this micro-négociant sources grapes exclusively from organically farmed vineyards through a trusted network of growers, both within Burgundy and beyond. The cellar, a century-old winery that has never seen a single commercial yeast or enzyme, has become an incubator for an entire generation of natural winemakers. Carbonic macerations, indigenous yeasts, no fining or filtration, sulfites reduced to an absolute minimum: the range, which varies from one vintage to the next, favors lesser-known appellations and characterful easy-drinking wines.

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Santini Collective Champlitte 2018
Bio
4 in stock
102442
Red
75cl
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Burgundy | Vin de France

Santini Collective Champlitte 2018

€19.20 inc-VAT per bottle
€16.00 ex-VAT

History of Santini Collective

Chris Santini was born in the United States, in Pennsylvania, to a Corsican father raised in Tunisia and an American mother. He spends every childhood summer in France and completes his first harvest in Provence at the age of twenty. It is love at first sight. In 2003, he settles in Beaune to study viticulture and oenology, where his teachers include Jean-Yves Bizot and Sylvain Pataille, and his classmates include Étienne Thiébaud, Catherine Riss and Amaury Beaufort. He then goes on to gain experience at Burgundian estates of all sizes, before landing in 2006 a position as export assistant at American importer Kermit Lynch, whose Beaune office he will eventually go on to manage — a role he still performs on a part-time basis today.

His négociant venture begins modestly in 2013, at his home, buying and rebottling very small lots of finished wines from figures of the natural Beaujolais scene such as Guy Breton or Christophe Pacalet. Two hundred bottles in the first year, a thousand the next. In 2015, he moves on to winemaking, in a space rented from Tomoko Kuriyama at Domaine Chantereves, and releases a first blended cuvée named Ponts Rouges. The turning point comes in January 2016 when he obtains the keys to a vast cellar in Auxey-Duresses. Rather than keeping it for himself, he invites his friends Jon Purcell, the future Vin Noé, as well as Christian Knott and Morgane Seuillot of Domaine Dandelion. Bastien Wolber and Arnaud Lopez will also make their debuts there. This shared space, nicknamed the Auxey Collective, becomes the cradle of the Burgundian natural wine scene. After years of financial difficulty, which lead him to consider giving up, Chris Santini relaunches his project in 2022 under the name Santini Collective, with a new vertical press, longer fermentations and deliberately reduced volumes, in collaboration with his brothers.

Terroirs and Vines of Santini Collective

Santini Collective owns no vines. Like other micro-négociants of the new Burgundian generation, Chris Santini buys grapes rather than wines, from a carefully selected network of growers. The rule is absolute: all sources are farmed organically. This way of operating gives him a freedom of terroirs impossible for a classical estate, and allows him to explore appellations that prestigious Burgundy often overlooks.

The range of action is broad. In the Côte de Beaune, he works the Hautes Côtes around Monbatois, a hill situated just above Savigny-lès-Beaune, as well as parcels in Nolay, a small village to the west of the Montrachets, Santenay and Saint-Aubin, and grapes from Auxey-Duresses. Further south, the Mâconnais supplies him with Chardonnay, notably from the commune of Uchizy, and the Côte Chalonnaise with Pinot Noir. North of Dijon, he sources from around Champlitte, in Haute-Saône, from a forgotten vineyard that gives its name to one of his most emblematic cuvées. In Beaujolais, it is the village of Lantignié that supplies his Gamay. He also occasionally ventures outside Burgundy, with Grenache from the Drôme. The grape varieties he works with are therefore multiple: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Gamay, Aligoté, Pinot Beurot, Grenache.

Winemaking at Santini Collective

The century-old winery in Auxey-Duresses has never received a single commercial yeast or enzyme. All fermentations start with the indigenous populations alone. The legend of the place has it that in August 2016, on the eve of the first harvest, the team opened jeroboams of Lapierre and sprayed the walls while drinking, with the idea of seeding the cellar with the yeasts and bacteria of a wine that inspired them.

For a long time, the reds were vinified by carbonic maceration, a technique Chris Santini has mastered but whose limits he learned during the difficult 2017 vintage, marked by fermentations that struggled to finish and volatile acidities that were delicate to manage. Since 2019, he has been experimenting with a method inspired by winemaker Daniel Sage — flotation — which consists of submerging the whole harvest in direct press juice, in order to obtain gentler extractions and more digestible wines. Certain whites are also vinified by skin-contact maceration, up to three weeks of contact with the skins, which yields amber wines of great texture. The wines are never fined or filtered, and the addition of sulphites is generally limited to one or two grams per hectolitre at bottling. The result is a range of easy-drinking wines that are both precise and joyful, endowed with a vibrant acidity, sometimes a slight spritz, and a formidable drinkability.

The Cuvées of Santini Collective

The Champlitte cuvée is undoubtedly the most emblematic of the house. A blend of Pinot Noir and Gamay from the forgotten vineyard of Champlitte, north of Dijon in Haute-Saône, it is bottled as a Vin de France. Crunchy, spiced, marked by a tart red fruit and a sharp acidity, it perfectly embodies the philosophy of the project: to seek out neglected terroirs and draw from them lively and affordable wines.

The Beaujolais-Villages de Lantignié is produced from Gamay purchased in collaboration with Jon Purcell of Vin Noé, the two winemakers sharing the harvest. Vinified by carbonic maceration, it offers a brilliant nose of cherry, raspberry and flowers, a light and sprightly palate, without an ounce of heaviness, to be served slightly chilled. A Beaujolais-Villages Supérieur version sometimes completes the range with more body and structure.

The Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune Rouge, sourced from the Monbatois hill above Savigny-lès-Beaune, was one of the project's first wines, long bottled in old-fashioned one-litre bottles. This high-altitude Pinot Noir plays the freshness and tension card, with redcurrant, cherry and a peppery note, fine tannins and a saline finish. The Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune Pinot Beurot is, for its part, an absolute rarity: sourced from a tiny parcel in Nolay planted for generations in Pinot Beurot, this ancestral grey variety turned red during the 2018 vintage, prompting the winemaker to macerate it for a week to extract the colour. The result is a wine of great purity, endowed with a noble tannin and a superb finish.

The Bourgogne Blanc comes from Mâconnais Chardonnay, around Uchizy. Full, luminous and flavoursome, it unfolds notes of white fruits, citrus and a fine salinity, with that slightly creamy texture derived from lees ageing. Depending on the vintage and the availability with the partner grower, it may also be marketed as a Mâcon-Villages, in a sunnier and immediately appealing register.

The Coteaux Bourguignons Ponts Rouges represents Chris Santini's very first vinified cuvée, in 2015: a bold blend of Mâconnais Gamay, Couchois Pinot Noir and Beaujolais grapes, declassified to Coteaux Bourguignons. Fruity, crunchy and unpretentious, it remains a milestone in the history of the project. The Bourgogne Côte Chalonnaise, a Pinot Noir from the south of the Côte d'Or, offers a more classic expression, with ripe cherry and undergrowth, a supple tannic structure and fine digestibility.

The Vin de France Grenache Noir, produced from grapes purchased in the Drôme, marks the winemaker's first foray outside Burgundy. Vinified using the flotation method, it reveals a juicy dark fruit, a garrigue note and an unexpected freshness for the variety. The Vin de France Rouge, a blend of several vintages bottled without a year, illustrates the same pursuit of drinkability, as do the occasional Cinsault cuvées the winemaker releases according to available opportunities.

The Vin Ambré completes the range in a more experimental register. This skin-contact white, fermented for three weeks on the skins, develops a thick and tannic, almost chewy texture, with aromas of lemon and ginger tea, jasmine, cashew nut and a pronounced salinity. Vibrant and slightly sparkling, it stands out for its crackling acidity and remarkable energy. Finally, occasional cuvées such as the Vin Amiable or Au Vin Rouge enrich the range according to the vintage, with Santini Collective fully embracing a production that changes every year depending on the grapes available and the desires of the moment.

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