There’s an annual tasting of Côte de Nuits Villages which, I’m ashamed to say, I’ve never yet got to.
And that won’t change this year either as my last day tasting this year, will be the 8th of December – a shame!
But if YOU are in town, I urge you to go along – this is the third presentation by the producers 😉
It will be held on Thursday 14th December – from 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. – in the community hall of Comblanchien…
Whilst I’ve had plenty of open questions for wines in multiple sales by this Swiss auction house, Baghera continues to push the boundaries as to what a great sale can be.
Irreproachable sales of the last bottles from the Engel and Jayer estates are now complemented, if not augmented, by this.
An online catalogue will be available on February 18, 2021 for the sale on Sunday 18 April, 2021 – I think that I will try to attend…
“On April 18, as part of its “La Romanée Memories” sale, Baghera/wines will have the immense honour of presenting a set of nearly 2,000 bottles from the cellars of the Maison Bouchard Père & Fils to the public. This extremely rare collection of 1,926 bottles, magnums and jeroboam contains wine in an irreproachable state of preservation withdrawn from a long rest in the Château de Beaune cellars.”
Quote and image above from Baghera
The storm clouds gather: Beaune yesterday…
It’s already a couple of weeks since we lost the 2021 St.Vincent, planned for Puligny-Montrachet, Blagny and Corpeau.
In our new reality it seems to be mainly the larger, event-style, tastings that are currently being cancelled. One major maison has cancelled it’s usual sit-down/tutored new vintage tasting and another, even larger event will not now take place – the Roi Chambertin. For the former, I have already been able to arrange a private visit but the Roi will be a loss to my calendar – it will also be an opportunity too.
An opportunity? Well, yes.
I wouldn’t have joined the tasting this year if they’d stuck to the usual format – over 120 bottles (in duplicate) in a cellar with over 100 tasters – in covid-time, no thanks. The opportunity for me will be to visit more Gevrey domaines in person – something that in recent years I had relatively restricted to domaines who didn’t show their wines at the Roi.
Of-course there are a few sought-after domaines that are also suggesting that tastings of their 2019s may be possible in Q1 next year but not in 2020 – or even not at all. Let’s see how that pans out too – there are always more domaines available than are possible to visit in the time available but some ‘losses’ seem inevitable this year, though for the moment I see only a modestly diminishing availability for my usual tastings.
There are other big events that are affected too: The wine auction of the Hospices de Beaune will have a much smaller tasting schedule – the buyers have to be included, of-course, but there will certainly be fewer spaces for journalists and other interested parties – including in the sale itself where they are planning alternate seating – occupied and not occupied. Outside of the sale-room, Beaune’s half-marathon (the same weekend) is currently still planned to happen, but with 3,000 participants versus the usual limit of 5,000. Then 2 days later there is the Paulée de Meursault; normally a gathering of over 700 souls in a place more comfortable for about 400! This year they plan just 250 places. Masks are mandatory for those serving their wines to the occupants of other tables – but if I know the people celebrating this event, maybe that detail will be forgotten after – hmm – maybe 15 minutes(?)
Nobody said that it would be easy, and of course, there are places that are much worse off. Indeed some of these truncated events may also be cancelled at short notice. Luckily for the region, what they are potentially losing in not getting their message out has been partially compensated for in 2020, mainly by the Brits – who are drinking more than ever of their stuff. Apparently they bought early and extra to get them through brexit, but given covid, they drank all that, so now need to replenish early 🙂
The Saint-Vincent Tournante in Puligny, Blagny and Corpeau, slated for January 2021 has been rescheduled to 2022. It’s of no surprise that this is covid-related. Jean-Michel Chartron who is President of the Organising Committee would like to say:
“We want that the Saint Vincent Tournante of Puligny Montrachet, Blagny and Corpeau should be festive and convivial – marked by sharing. This is why, with all the members of the Bureau, we have taken the decision to postpone it until January 29-30, 2022. Guaranteeing the health and safety of all remains our priority.“
We may not know a lot about the covid-compatible arrangements for November’s 160th auction of the Hospices de Beaune wines, but we do now know that the Hospices de Beaune and the Château de Chambord are coming together to deliver the Pièce de Charité or Presidents’ Barrel for the auction on Sunday November 15, 2020.
We also know who the end recipients are for money for this special barrel: The profits from the sale of the Presidents’ Barrel will benefit the hospital workers of France via the Fédération Hospitalière de France (FHF) and the Management Committee of Social Works of Public Hospitals (CGOS) who will oversee the distribution of the donations to hospital staff and their families who have been affected by the covid epidemic.
The wine itself will come from the Côte de Nuits – Clos de la Roche from vines planted between 1968 and 1972 – and the barrel will be made from oak from the Chambord forest of the Domaine de Chambord.
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/
Above (behind) the winery that, today, is the home of Faiveley in Nuits St.Georges.
I’ve shared a few images with you over the last year or-so, but on Monday evening the team at Faiveley made a reception to celebrate the completion of this mammoth renovation project. Monday it was a mere 200 clients (or-so) plus a few itinerant journos. On Wednesday night they will do it again with over 300 visitors, having invited all the local vignerons.
‘Rootstock‘ happened at the Château de Pommard this weekend.
Rootstock – Woodstock? Well, why not…
Of the two days possible to visit, we chose the Saturday to attend – it was hot despite plenty of cloud-cover – storms were forecast, but the weather-gods deemed that the storm should arrive only around 23h30 – I think the organisors would have accepted that. Sunday morning it was still showery-wet – we were under-way to Switzerland about midday – hopefully the weather improved for Rootstock’s Sunday-session – ‘acts’ having a start-time of 14h30.
Bus-shuttles were being run from a couple of places in Beaune – but I was too stupid to find the timetable, so I drove. For a first attempt, I would say that there were enough people there on the Saturday to bring some atmosphere for both the performers and attendees. Two favourites for me were a neo-Franzosich Ed Sheeran on the ‘acoustic stage’ and the pint-sized but brilliant Nina Attal on the main stage.
There were Champagne bars, cocktail bars, bar-bars, small bijou-food bars, ice-cream bars – the place just lacked a decent plate-full-of-food – bar so we left after about 4 hours – a little after 8pm – but hungry.
Good organisation and hopefully sufficiently well-recieved that they might do it again next year!
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