Entries from 2020

05-Sep-20 – Vézelay & a harvest update from there…

By billn on September 05, 2020 #vintage 2020

Vézelay
Vézelay

Unlike Chablis, where they are about 90% of the way through harvesting, in Vézelay there has been some harvesting but not much – Sophie Woillez of Domaine La Croix Montjoie explained “The maturities are really all over the place – we were expecting such an early harvest but in many cases we’ve had to wait and wait. In Irancy the yields are very low; anywhere between 9 and 30 hl/ha and that’s largely down to the dryness – only 20mm of rain in July and August combined. Probably here we will have some maturity by concentration as much as phenolic maturity, but it seemed that we would gain nothing of interest if we had waited, so we harvested the Irancy this week. We did a little Bourgogne rouge this morning but then stopped as the temperature was rising in the vines. It will be a particular year for sure – in which directions the wines go we will have to wait and see.”

A few views of Vézelay today:

Vines under the old town of Vézelay
Grapes facing the sun
Grapes not facing the sun
Vézelay
Vézelay
Vézelay
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04-Sep-20 – harvest update

By billn on September 04, 2020 #asides

There are still some domaines harvesting chardonnay in the Côte de Beaune, but the whites being picked are now tending more to aligoté. The reds of the Côte de Beaune have been largely finished. The earlier Chablis harvesters started quite a while ago, but many are still far from finished. Like in Chablis, the Mâconnais and Beaujolais are following similar timings…

My home domaine had last weekend off (a long weekend – Friday to Sunday) as their higher vines in Pernand Les Pins (blanc) and Pommard Vaumuriens were not yet ripe on the 28th August. Monday 31st they were able to assemble enough pickers to finish the job. So 8 days of harvesting but over 12 days.

Today I managed to taste the reds – no whites as I was 15 minutes too late! Ripe but pure, super depth of flavour already despite specific degrees only between 994 and 1005. Particularly, I like the lines of these nascent wines – they have a great spine of acidity – roughly with pHs of around 3.20-3.30. It will be a pleasure to return to them in 12 months – I expect a style for reds much closer to 2019 than 2017 or 2018. Yields are modest – 35-38 hl/ha for whites and closer tho 30, on average, for the reds. This domaine is always conservative on yields, the average of the Côte de Beaune is higher, but not in the Côte de Nuits, where the dryness and some patchy areas of oïdium have made for losses of up to 50% in some places – Groffier still managed to make 40hl/ha but we will have to wait for the tanks to be emptied and the wines pressed before we can, generally, have a better idea…

Our afternoon saw a nice north to south tour through the Côte de Nuits. Not too many teams out in the vines this afternoon – but it was a warm day – touching on 30°C again this afternoon. Mainly we saw teams close to the RN74 – typically Bourgogne vines, though a few villages in Vosne and Chambolle. Just one team could be seen in the vines of the Clos de Vougeot – I think that this was the team of Chantal Lescure.

Tomorrow a nice trip out to Vézelay…

And for interested parties – Marko de Morey has been in the middle of his Côte de Nuits vines since Wednesday this week…

Vintage 2020!
Fixey
Fixey
Fixey
Fixey
Fixin 1er Hervelets
Clos de Vougeot
Clos de Vougeot – team Lescure
Clos de Vougeot – de la Tour
Clos de Vougeot
Clos de Vougeot
Vougeot Clos des Perrières
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the wines of burgundy – just a small update…

By billn on September 04, 2020 #books, maps, magazines, films even podcasts!

The wines of Burgundy Pitiot and Gotti

Only 20 years separate these editions; the current number 14 in English versus the 10th edition from 1999. There are 16 editions in French…

This remains the pre-eminent small-form guide to Burgundy – and also the only one which (sensibly!) today includes Beaujolais – though sadly without any maps for Beaujolais. In 20 years we have an additional 100 pages too – now 390 of them. I have only one nit to pick; Roger Jones translated the text for the 10th edition into English – it’s faultless. This can’t be said for the new one as there are many spelling mistakes and even more approximations of English – which a shame – though in the end, these bring more of a smile than a distraction.

Still the most successful small guide to the technicalities of the region and highly recommended.

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the saint-vincent 2021

By billn on September 03, 2020 #diary dates

2021 Saint-Vincent

The 77th edition of the Saint-Vincent Tournante will be hosted by Corpeau, Puligny-Montrachet & Blagny, January 30th and 31st, 2021. I’d love to go, but it’s always complicated by January being my 3-week-long project of Chablis tastings. Oh, and let’s not forget the concerns about viruses! Still, I hope to make it!

Their website is now open: www.saint-vincent-tournante-2021.com/

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corton & charlemagne – the map!

By billn on September 02, 2020 #books, maps, magazines, films even podcasts!

I’ll be the first to admit that I get far too easily excited by maps, but here’s a new one in the series by Laurent Gotti – perhaps with help from his new partner Sylvain Pitiot? – Laurent is now joined with Sylvain, replacing the name Poupon, on what was once the indispensable book of vineyard maps by Pitiot & Poupon – it still is indispensable if you have small pockets. For those of you with more space, this would be my first choice 🙂

From Beaune’s Athenaeum – here. Shining light onto, perhaps, the most complicated (ownership and wine-colour wise) of all Burgundy’s grand crus. I suppose I will be buying a copy this week!


Image from Athenaeum.

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oh well…

By billn on September 01, 2020 #degustation#seals (not the furry kind)

Ah – the anticipation. The ritual of opening so carefully. Not to mention finding the right filter for the photos!

Previous bottles of this from Bertagna were fabulous, but: Ah – the cloudy wine. The smell of mushrooms, of beef, of cork – lots and lots of cork! The sound of wine pouring down the sink because we don’t have the chance to make beef bourguignon in the next week or so…

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so you want to work in burgundy?

By billn on September 01, 2020 #the market

Vita Bourgogne

A project that has been over three years in gestation. And the seed for this new approach all began with the ‘tractor-driver war!‘

No, not really a war! But a few years back, due to a lack of communication/transparency, tractor-drivers (in particular it seemed) had the ability to get a job at a good domaine, work there for several months then move to another domaine for a higher salary offer – then move again and again every six months. It was not so much the escalation of salaries that stung people into action, as much as the clear indication that for all the jobs at domaines and their suppliers, there had to be an easier way to find people for open positions.

A 2019 survey of 500 Domaines and 50 Maisons de négoce (carried out jointly by the CAVB and the FNEB) revealed nearly 700 open positions for wine sales-people, for maintenance employees, tractor operators, administrative employees, packaging operators, vineyard employees etcetera. It should be pointed out that Burgundy comprises more than 4,500 Domaines, 400 Maisons and 17 cooperative cellars – so the actual figure for open positions was certainly much, much higher.

With nearly €1 million Euros of investment, you can already get more than a flavour of it from the 1st September, that’s the new website launch-date to put potential employers and employees together.


www.vitabourgogne.com

*”The website is a platform that brings together information on the vine and wine sector in Burgundy, to put candidates and professionals in touch with each other:

“For candidates: this is a website for information on the various specialisations, training courses and partner training organisations in the sector. There are many videos, job descriptions and other information available. Additionally, there are the contacts for training organizations, admission conditions, funding possibilities as well as the procedures to be followed. VITA Bourgogne is also the site to find all the job offers in the sector in Burgundy and apply online in a few clicks.

“For professionals: the website streamlines the recruitment of future employees, particularly offering consulting advice and information on hiring, work-study programs etcetera.

“This website will be supplemented with an increased presence on social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and LinkedIn with the aim to grow the VITA Bourgogne community. As soon as sanitary conditions allow, the entire VITA Bourgogne team will be present at events in the Bourgogne Franche-Comté Region i.e. career forums, student fairs, career days, etcetera.

“Vita Bourgogne warmly thanks the Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne for its support from the very beginning of this great program.”

*My translation and summary of the Press-Release.

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cantin’s 2010 irancy

By billn on August 31, 2020 #degustation

Benoit Cantin 2010 Irancy

A ‘northern Burgundy night! A few ‘house’ Chablis to start the night – because we were 4!

2010 Benoît Cantin, Irancy
‘Only the standard Irancy, but a magnum! Of-course, a cork that broke in two!
Medium colour – just! The nose has a small vibration of fruit and a herby note – rosemary – interesting and quite inviting. Nice and freshly mouth-filling, I like the energy here. Not über-concentrated, more of an airy style to this, but this is tasty, easy to appreciate wine: a magnum of not so great wine tends to hang around, but this was a bottle that emptied quite quickly for its size. A similar level to a very good Bourgogne here.
Rebuy – Yes

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evangelist – moi?

By billn on August 30, 2020 #degustation

2005 DIAM

I’d hate to think of myself as an ‘evangelist’ for anything because I’m a fan of balance; as such, when it comes to sealing a bottle I’ll buy wine that has been stoppered with anything if I’m intending to drink it within 2-3 years – both colours – but if I’m cellaring whites I want DIAM. The ‘traditional’ alternative has cost me too much over the years. I’d take screwcap too, but I so rarely see them. For reds I don’t have any problem staying with cork, but here’s an interesting example of one of the earliest DIAM bottlings, but still in perfect condition after 15 years.

2005 Roger Belland, Santenay 1er La Comme
DIAM seals were commercially available since 2004, here’s an example for an early adopter, but in red. This seal was in perfect condition – wine ingress amounting to no more than 2mm – at that rate the wine will age 100 years before the seal is breached!
Plenty of colour. Fresh, intense, the last vestiges of creamy oak – this nose is now far more interesting than when the wine was young. There’s a little grain of tannin at the base of this wine but the texture is good and the concentration for the label is very impressive – that’s the vintage of course. The creamy oak on the nose overlays the fruit on the palate too – but gives this wine an extra something to its baseline and little extra gloss. The flavour widening impressively in the finish. It’s a shame that this is my last of these; what was once concentrated, oaky and lacking a little clarity is now very good – another 5 years and it could be a dry fine Santenay indeed!
Rebuy – Yes

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