2017 Julie, Nathalie & Gilles Fevre, Chablis 1er Fourchaume
A nice, big, saline and citrus-mineral invitation. Thrilling, driving intensity – a juicily-mouthwatering waterfall of refreshment – just what I needed! Bravo – showing exceptionally – though maybe that’s the weather too!
Rebuy – Yes
2010 Domaine Faiveley, Nuits St.Georges 1er Aux Chaignots
A wine that’s starting to show some maturity of colour. Ooh! What a nose! Complex, inviting, incredibly attractive spiced fruit. In the mouth there is much that reflects the nose – this wine is showing in such a flamboyant way today! Great energy blends with delicious complexity – it’s got so much more interest than the grand cru that it sits next to. Downright great wine today – bravo!
Rebuy – Yes
My, my – I’m so enjoying 2010s right now!
Or should I simply say ridiculous?
Let me get two things out of the way to start with:
But 98 points for a village? On the positive side, whoever reviewed this wine can indeed spot a great wine in its segment, but on the other hand, they render any scoring system completely meaningless – or perhaps, as Clive Coates once said, “Scores are in context!“…
It’s going to get hot this week – 40° hot. Many are the domaines that are altering their work schedule to cope – starting their days in the vines between 5-6am and finishing at lunchtime – at least the outdoor portion of their duties!
I briefly saw Mark O’Connell in the vines on Sunday (right, in his Pommard 1er Grand Clos des Epenots) and he told me “The foliage looks great, it looks like I haven’t got very big yields, but compared to what I’ve had in most years – 2018 excepted – I’m happy. So far nothing to worry about in terms of maladies, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed!”
Last week saw many domaines starting work on both their palissage – that’s securing the growing shoots between the wires to guard against the wind – and their hedging/pruning – i.e. cutting the tops off the quickly growing vines. This hedging usually only starts when the flowering is done and is most quickly done with a tractor and a cutter to mow the tops of the vines, but more and more domaines are choosing to use the old method of multiple people using hand-shears. As one grower confided “I’ve got 10 workers in the vines – I’ve got to keep them busy doing something! But joking aside, I’m doing this more and more by hand as that’s one less visit in the vines with a heavy tractor, compacting the soil.”
Flowering has been over for a while in some places, but Chablis and the Côte Chalonnaise were not yet over at the weekend – but it will be close to finished anytime now. I spoke with Eduard Parinet, who has vines in both Pouilly-Fuissé and in Moulin à Vent and he tells me that the vines, in both places, have recovered better than they could have hoped for following the frost of 05 April. The losses, however, are still estimated to be in the order of 25-30%.
Then there’s the question of the heat this week; The growth of the vines has been luxurious, despite not so much rain this year – another grower, Elodie Roy, told me yesterday “Thank god for the rain that we had on Friday night/Saturday morning – I’ve 1,200 new vines planted – I really didn’t want to be out in the heat with my watering can!” Of course, growth will slow if Burgundy touches 40°C – the plants tending to shut down to protect themselves from excess, but the weather pattern may cool a little and become stormy early next week – let’s see!
I visited Aupres du Clocher this week, an institution for the last years in Pommard, but learned that it is closing in 3 weeks. Probably most famous for their ‘Mousse tiède d’époisses au pain d’épices et sa tartine‘ – or a cappuccino of epoises to you and me – a dish that’s been much copied in the last years.
There will be new owners in Pommard, so the village will still have its restaurant in the church square, but all is not lost for the cheese cappuccino lovers! Jean-Christophe Moutet’s restaurant is moving and changing its name – Au Fils du Clos is the new name and they expect to be opening towards the end of August – but in Meursault!
The new place will be just across the road from Domaine Roulot. I’m looking forward to it!
Yesterday (Thursday) evening was the annual announcement of Burgundy’s Cave de Prestige 2019 – the 48th presentation of these awards, and from the photo, it looks like everyone was a winner, but actually, that wasn’t the case this year!
The BIVB had a much harder time with growers this year – last year almost 20% of the samples entered for blind tasting were selected for the cave prestige, this year they decided that that was too much – as a consequence, only 12.5% were retained from this year’s tastings. That lower number had nothing to do with the vintage, rather that they set the bar higher, preferring not to have too many examples of the sam AOP. Consequently, a lot of time was spent on the phones with vignerons, explaining why their wine wasn’t selected this year!
Despite that higher bar to winning, 137 domaines had wines chosen – versus 218 last year – and the selected wines represent virtually all of Burgundy’s 84 AOPs. Many samples were on display, but I must say that I felt a little fatigued and after 33 whites, I decided it was better to have a sit down before heading home! I’ll publish my notes in the June report…
The BIVB hasn’t yet publicly released the official list of the winning wines, but I’ll publish it here when it’s available.
[EDIT] Here you go (right):
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