# VDF Baisers Retrouvés (2023)

- **Producer:** Yannick Meckert
- **Colour:** red
- **Type:** still
- **Grapes:** Pinot Noir
- **Region:** Alsace, France
- **Style:** Natural
- **Alcohol:** 11.0%
- **Average price:** €34
- **Vegan:** Yes
- **Contains sulphites:** No
- **When to drink:** Now or Later
- **Serving temperature:** 13–15 °C
- **Aromas & flavours:** cherry, raspberry, strawberry, orange

## About this wine

Yannick Meckert, raised by an Alsatian father and Burgundian mother, crafts high-altitude, minimal-intervention natural wines in Reichsfeld, Alsace. After training with natural wine icons such as Philippe Pacalet, Patrick Meyer, and Le Coste, as well as studying sake production in Japan, Meckert returned to Alsace to farm without synthetic inputs. Baisers Retrouvés (Found Kisses) is the 2023 vintage continuation of his Baisers Volés cuvée, sourced from 25 to 35-year-old vines grown in blue schist soils.

## Interesting facts

- The front label design mimics the classic literary cover aesthetic of French publishing house Gallimard.
- The cuvée name Baisers Retrouvés translates to Found Kisses, following the previous vintage Stolen Kisses.
- Vineyards are worked without heavy tractors, using only quad bikes to preserve the blue schist soil integrity.

## Food pairing

This light-bodied red Pinot Noir features vibrant acidity, gentle chalky tannins, and bright red fruit. It pairs exceptionally well with lighter meats like poultry and duck, earthy mushroom dishes, and soft cheeses where its fresh acidity cuts through richness without dominating delicateness.

## Wine making process

Harvested manually from blue slate slopes, whole bunches undergo seven days of maceration with daily gentle pigeage for six days. Fermentation is spontaneous using native yeasts without added sulfur dioxide. The wine ages for nine months split across 50% ten-year-old Burgundian oak barrels, 25% neutral tronconic oak vats, and 25% sandstone amphorae, before being bottled unfined and unfiltered.