Chris Santini
Auxey-Duresses, Burgundy, France
Chris Santini is of French and American descent. Since he was a kid he spent most of the summers in France and when he was 20 years old he worked on his first harvest. This inspired him to study Oenology at the University of Beaune. Next to his studies he worked on big and small domaines all over Burgundy untill he found a job at the Beaune office of Kermit Lynch, a famous American importer. For who he still runs the office in France next to his personal project, the cuverie in Auxey-Duresses. Chris launched his first cuvée from the cellar of his friend Christophe Pacalet in 2013. After years of working for Lynch he had formed the desire to make his own wines. He owns a hundred year old winery for which he bought all the equipment on le bon coin, the French online second hand marketplace.
Chris focusses on producing “vins de soif”, thirst-quenching wines like the ones his ancestors made in Corsica. He selects organic grapes from lesser known, yet unique terroirs among regions from Burgundy and the Beaujolais. All from honest vignerons working with respect for nature and the environment.
The vinification is done naturally, with local yeasts. The wines are bottled without being fined and filtered and without any additives, except for small amounts of sulfites at the very end. Chris chooses to use whole cluster fermentation, in order to keep the wines light, aromatic and fruit-forward. He also prefers to use infusion techniques instead of extraction techniques that require pumping the wine. Afterwards, he ages the wine in fiberglass tanks.
In 2016, Chris openend up his cellar to a couple of young winemakers, for them to make their own wines. All had to source their own grapes while equipment and ideas were shared among the group. This initiative became known as” The Auxey Collective”. Among this collective was the now well known Jonathan Purcell, making his first cuvées under the name Vin Noé there.
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