Most have the vines in the Côte de Nuits now have some leaves and all of those in the Côte de Beaune do.
Looking at the weather forecast, it’s warmer in the coming nights – it looks like we can forget about frost (thumbs up!)
The March 2023 Report is now online – 33 domaines including 5 new ones to me.
The domaines are spread over Chablis and Beaujolais plus March marked the return to the Côte d’Or with a trio of domaines that shouldn’t be missed. The coming months will be a mélange of regions, domaines, appellations and climate – but with a little more focus on the Côte d’Or
These reports are still covering the wines of 2021 but a couple of Beaujolais domaines were sold out – so we looked at their 2022s – that’s already 308 published domaine visits since the end of the 2023 harvest – and nobody covers Chablis and Beaujolais in such depth as you will find here…
Enjoy here…
News came out, yesterday, of the acquisition of the Château d’Etroyes by the Bollinger group of Champagne. As you will see, the actual Press Release (here) positions this more as an acquisition by Domaine Chanson of Beaune – who are, of course, Bollinger’s arm in the Côte d’Or.
Despite a production covering more than 50 hectares in the area of Mercurey & Rully, plus producing over 20 different cuvées – it’s a name that I confess to not having stumbled across – except for here – and I have one more!
I expect that this will change over the coming years, as this acquisition more than doubles the surface of vines of Domaine Chanson. I also expect that there are multiple synergies to be unravelled in the coming years.
A patchwork of history of the Château d’Etroyes
Whilst the château and some vineyard ownership dates from around 1720, the existing winery of d’Etroyes was founded in 1930 by François Protheau. Following the death of François in 1955, his son, Maurice, took over and expanded the family holdings – in the 1960s the domaine ran to ‘only’ 35 hectares – it was double that at its peak – though only 50 of those hectares were in the Côte Chalonnaise. After 50 years at the domaine, Maurice passed away in 2005, leaving the winery to his children Michelle, Martine & Philippe. The domaine and château had new owners in 2016 – the Helfrich family – who resold in 2018 before the chateau found its latest owners. There are some additional aspects to this transaction in that François Protheau had also a négociant operation with about 10 hectares of vines which produced Mercurey, Montagny and Rully – I’m unsure if this part of the business/vines is also part of the Chanson-Bollinger transaction, or whether they remain in the portfolio of the Côte d’Or’s François Martenot – i.e. the old Maison Béjot.
Right: Patrick pictured in his cellars in 2016…
I was tasting 2021s at the domaine only few days ago and heard that Patrick was in very poor health but the news remains undilutedly sad – Patrick passed on Saturday, the day after I visited the domaine.
Patrick, born in 1950, came to Volnay in 1997, following Gérard Potel as head of this iconic domaine. His 1999s were good but not particularly great in the context of that fine vintage or in the context of the wines of his neighbours – he was aware that the domaine could do better and so single-mindedly started his search for improvements and finding new help at the domaine – help came in the form of Hubert Rossignol. The progress of this team was more than steady.
Investments came thick and fast – new vines in Chambolle – including Bonnes-Mares – but Patrick wasn’t one for pausing – there came additional vines in the grand crus of Corton and more in Puligny too – including Clos des Caillerets and Chevalier-Montrachet.
Patrick, always the engineer, was constantly striving for new solutions to aid wine-making and together with Hubert started to trial amphoras in the Côte d’Or – a rarity in 2015 – but what wines they produced like this, wines of incredible clarity.
It was Patrick’s son, Benoit, who took up the reigns of the domaine when his father chose retirement – Benoit too, augmenting the vines of the domaine.
Patrick’s retirement certainly didn’t slow down the wanderlust that he shared with his wife, Marie. Unfortunately, it was during one of these trips that a miss-step caused Patrick to fall, the result of which caused him more and more issues and further falls. He weakened considerably in the last months.
All my sympathies are with the family. There will be a service at the church of Volnay this week, on Friday…
Yes I know, it’s very early to be making comparisons – but – we still do have some useful reference points, even at this early stage of the 2023 vintage.
Most places seem to have come through the frosts unscathed – though there are still 2 weeks until the Saint-Glace when the potential of frosts visiting the vineyards can be (historically!) forgotten.
The weather has remained rather fresh in the nights and early mornings despite sunny sheltered daytime spots quickly heating up. The result of this pattern of weather is a vintage whose early indicators suggest a mid to late September harvest – see below – but things can, and still may, change as quickly as the weather!
Most of the chardonnay are now showing their first leaves but the pinot noir and gamay are barely breaking their buds – only a few sunny spots are starting to show leaves.
Plenty of vineyards sites – last week – still had their baguettes (canes) standup up – often with extra buds left in place. The ‘definitive’ pruning to come – i.e. the cutting of the last 4 buds, or so, and then attaching the cane to the wire – with this done, all the buds see the same amount of sap versus when ‘standing up’ when the end buds get preferential treatment. This is the utility of late pruners, hoping that if a frost comes, just the end buds – which will anyway be discarded – might be the only parts hurt by the frost.
The last days saw rains in Côte d’Or of up to 20mm – that following a relatively dry and sunny week. To date, the largest challenge in the vines has been the bud-eating caterpillars – the mange-bourgeons – but the work in the vines has been aided/facilitated by the modest amount of rain this year so far – and judging by the number of tractors and horses in action – there is much work to do!
That’s enough for this week!
Charles Lachaux's Romanée St.Vivant…
Today, it’s raining in the Côte d’Or – we were luckier earlier in the week:
I think it may have been recorded before Christmas – but at any rate:
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