Catharina Sadde traded her culinary career for the open air of vineyards in 2019, since which her star has risen with astonishing velocity - even by Burgundy’s frenzied standards.
Relative to their micro-negoçe peers Catharina’s reds show an extra bit of density and fruit. They do not aim for high seriousness but neither are they fleeting or insubstantial. In Burgundy’s natural wine neighborhood they inhabit the sparsely populated buttoned-up corner - idiosyncratic, yes, but also hygienic and precise.
How Catharina manages to make such a sprightly red from Pernand ‘Les Fichots’ remains a mystery considering experience with that terroir elsewhere. Its fruit is impressively alert and clear, always more red than black.
The whites have been the steadiest improvers in recent years, and entirely fair to say the group has closed considerable ground on their better known red cellarmates. Catharina’s surprising take on Aligoté - an intriguingly saline and lime-scented example - has emerged as something of a specialty.
Cheers,
Jason
