Chablis – (near) Lignorelles

It’s much colder in Chablis this week – and it’s supposed to be sunny too – but I’ve not seen much of that yet – maybe this afternoon! Anyway, this week I got here without recourse to any new car-parts – that will come next week when it’s service time!

And the 2020 vintage in Chablis after my first 30 domaine visits? Well, there are great wines – as I had expected – but there are also significant complications which I hadn’t anticipated. This will be an interesting report to write!

Water and cables…
What’s clear in Chablis is: the floodplains are doing their job! The river is high and the low-lying fields are underwater. The reservoirs are looking full and ready, should they be required to combat the frost in April/May. Some areas – particularly in Maligny – are starting to invest in trace-heating. These electric cables are quite expensive to install but the maintenance is low – certainly lower than the plumbing required for the aspiration. The environmental impact is lower than for aspiration too, and clearly, they can be used where there are no reservoirs. Maybe that’s also a way forward in the Côte d’Or; considering that Corton-Charlemagne in many places produced 1 barrel per hectare in 2021 and likewise, Bouchard’s Chevalier-Montrachet produced 2 barrels from 2.5 hectares of vines – that’s multiples of millions of euros lost in a single frost event…

Saint Vincent(s)
Last Monday, the Chablis Saint Vincent in Fleys was, once more, postponed due to covid. This event, originally planned for 2021, is now postponed for a second time but they don’t yet have a new date. This info automatically last week put the spotlight on Puligny, Blagny, Corpeau who were in exactly the same position, having also postponed from 2021. The team has put in a tremendous amount of work but admitted, last week, that the decision had been taken out of their hands as to whether the event transpired or not. Late on Friday, as anticipated by most of us, a postponement was announced. The new date is for the weekend at the end of the Grands Jours de Bourgogne – itself postponed from last year! Because of covid I haven’t registered for the Grands Jours so am also unlikely to be going to the Saint Vincent – and will either of them actually take place? I’m pessimistic. Just look at the rampant covid-positives from that famous super-spreader event in November – otherwise known as the Paulée de Meaursault. I will say no more on that subject!

I should also, probably, mention a wine or two:
There were a couple that I finished 2021 with:

1996 Darviot-Perrin, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Les Blanchots Dessus
A wine that Marko de Morey had kindly gifted me which I’d planned to open last Christmas – but last Christmas was a quarantine time (negative, but…) so I left it another year.
Like the earlier (1993) François Jobard, this was in great shape but it was a wine that needed aeration. It started very clean, direct, faintly of lanolin but was a bit austere and unforgiving. 4-5 hours in a decanter – required because the cork crumbled into dozens of bits and 40% of it never made it out the bottle – plop! – brought a broadening of the flavour and highlighted more the fruit. A sweeping, complex but still slightly austere thing which I liked a lot but had very little to do with young Blanchots!
Rebuy – Maybe

2001 Frederic Esmonin, Ruchottes-Chambertin
Easily the best red wine of Christmas – in the classic sense – ie everybody loved Stéphanie Colinot’s Irancy the most!
Deep and impressively aromatic – still clean but adding a depth of sous-bois notes – it’s maturing well. I was most impressed by the combination of concentration but also brilliant finishing energy – this was not just tasty wine, it was dynamic wine – bravo!
Rebuy – Absolutely!

And from last weekend, I won’t bore you with a note on the Thivin – my wife’s favourite label and a house wine of 2021 chez nous – this was just as good as all the other bottles – it’s also, I think, the penultimate of this case!

2010 Jean-Marc Bouley, Volnay 1er Caillerets
Am I allowed to be disappointed by one of Thomas’s wines? Well, what on earth could be amiss with the combination of 2010 and Caillerets in the hands of Thomas?
Well it’s obvious isn’t it – it just smells of vanilla – it tastes of vanilla too – and I really don’t like vanilla. I have nothing further to add…
Rebuy – No

Goodby 2021

Hello 2022!

Ta-da! Chablis biscuits!

Antique Chablis videocassette comode!

Yes, it’s a Château in Chablis, but this is an olive press (!)

What a pair!

Cousin 1

Cousin 2

High water 1

High water 2

The short-term replacement steed of Burgundy Report – don’t ask me why Citroen provided a Peugeot 206 – but what a magnificent motor – just look at that paintwork! As a diesel, hardly run-in, with a mere 325,000km on the odometer…

My ‘working’ year – in terms of being out and about and as opposed to typing – started early on Monday. This was the small matter of 465km from Bern to Chablis via a quick stop in Beaune. 66 domaines are lined-up to visit in 3 weeks.

The first 445km of that seemed unremarkable; the usual lack of traffic on the Swiss A16, followed by the almost similarly quiet French A36 to Beaune. A parking space in Beaune’s Place Carnot was already waiting for me when I arrived – which tells you all you need to know about how busy Beaune was on the 3^rd of January!

Having watered some plants and bought a sandwich in Beaune, it was time for the A6 to Chablis. There was more traffic on this road and closer to lunchtime the services were packed with people – perhaps this was a late wave of people heading back to Paris and their first working week of 2022…

The day got a bit more exciting when I exited the autoroute at Nitry. Whilst at the peage, I noted an unusual sound coming from her-Subaru-ness – and it seemed to be becoming more insistent! I parked, stopped the motor and quickly checked under the hood and under that car – all seemed secure. I restarted and the noise was still plain. It’s another 20km to Chablis – largely on easy straight roads – I decided to take a chance – cruise control set to 80km/h – which is modest by my standards – as there are a few garages in Chablis and clearly none in Nitry!

So then came the garage story – of course, you knew that all the garages would be closed on Monday – didn’t you(?) So given the resounding lack of help from both Renault and Peugeot, as luck would have it, Citroen were open – you just had to find them – because Google Maps has them at completely the wrong end of Rue d’Auxerre – and that road is quite long! Having finally found them, and limped into their parking, I only had to wait another 20 minutes for them to come back from lunch (it’s France, deal with it…) It was now time for the diagnosis: Ta-da! It was the alternator that was grinding away! Typical that this should happen 2 weeks before my next service – did I mention(?), the 500,000km service. On the other hand, this could have easily still happened the week after my 500,000km service – and that would doubtless have made me much more pissed!

But what nice people at Citroen, Chablis – not sponsored – as I actually had to pay nearly €500 for a replacement part to be fitted. Not only that, they lent me a trusty steed to get to all my appointments – and I was only 30 minutes late for the first one. This afternoon, I reluctantly returned their magnificent carriage as the Scooby-do was again raring to go.

So far, 7 of 8 scheduled appointments made and only 1 covid-cancellation… Hopefully, that cancellation percentage improves over the coming days. Onwards…