Brothers Richoux, Gabin and Felix, are 3rd generation vignerons, following their family tradition of proudly growing grapes and producing wine in Irancy, France's most northern red wine appellation, 15km south-west of Chablis and 60km inland of Sancerre.
“Being a winemaker in Irancy is a unique situation that must be cherished, defended and appreciated.” This quote from young Gabin and Felix reflects the passion and pride in their hometown. It would’ve been easy for their ambitions of producing top red Burgundy, to have driven them south into more traditional fine wine areas. Their resolve shows the commitment to the village and in turn, the unique Irancy terroir rewards them, enabling some fantastic wine to be produced by the Pinot Noir grown there. For a very long time, Irancy has been Paris’ best kept secret and their ‘sly supplier on the side’, surreptitiously slurping 80% of all village production at some points. The word is slowly spreading, though you’d be hard pressed to find any Irancy AOC wine on UK shelves. It wasn’t until a meeting at wine fair in Montpellier this January, that it really came onto our radars, though Robin had bought a little back in his Somm’s days.
Considering its winemaking neighbours are solely championing white grapes (Chardonnay in Chablis and Sauvignon Blanc in St. Bris), you’d be forgiven for thinking the village of Irancy would be following a similar path. Wrong. In fact, it’s the exact opposite, the AOC of Irancy ONLY permits red varieties.
As far as Burgundy appellations go, Irancy AOC is a pretty recently established village, created in early 1999. As mentioned, it only allows red varieties, the obvious Pinot Noir making up 97.5% of this and the 2.5% being a rare, indigenous variety said to have been brought over by the Romans, aptly named César. This is permitted into the blend, extremely peculiar for Burgundy and from what I hear brings a little extra punch to the wine when featured, a richer crimson colour and a greater lick of pepper than you’d maybe expect. Sadly we don’t have any of these examples from the Richoux boys yet, but we’ll be crossing our fingers for some in future!