One of the most iconoclastic of producers – Domaine Van Berg – in Meursault is about to undergo a sea-change.They are in discussions with potential successors, but, for the moment, they have no new names to announce…

“For 15 years I have had the singular purpose of offering a quality product without concession. To maintain this high level of quality has demanded unceasing attention as well as, at times, very physical work. I have to face the fact that, at my age, continuing this exacting work is no longer possible for me, and it would be out of the question for me to offer a lower level wine than what I have, up to this point, produced. Thus, I decided at the beginning of 2016 to reduce my land properties and to let go of two small plots of land situated in the municipality of Puligny-Montrachet; the vineyards where the cuvées of “Les Bergers” and “La Combe” are grown.

On April 27, a late frost came at the most delicate moment of the vegetative cycle of the vine, just as the buds emerged, and this annihilated thousands of hectares of vineyards in Burgundy.

Most of the wine growers of our area have a very small harvest this year, and this is also the case for other areas of France and Europe. For our Domain, the loss has been 90% and the 2017 harvest is already compromised because of the damage done to the vine. Thus, I cannot hope for a harvest before 2018, which clearly means there will be no wine to offer before 2019 or 2020.

At that time I will be more than 70 years old.

Because of this fact I have decided to stop my work and look for someone younger who could continue to produce “Le vin le plus simplement” with the same philosophy as ours.

It pulls at the heartstrings that the moment will soon come to thank you for having encouraged us throughout these years, with your enthusiasm, with the trust you have shown us, and – more than anything – with all of the wonderful moments of sharing and emotion.

A beautiful adventure will shortly ends but life continues…and moving closer to our children and grandchildren, who do not live in France, seems to us the most cheerful proposition.

Sincerely,
Bernard and Judith “

Another interesting lactuduvin article – here on Pousse d’Or and the art of mulching.

Or, if you prefer, a google translation.

http://www.winemag.com/2017/01/24/burgundys-new-generation-rising-to-the-challenge/

Of-course none of these will be new to regular readers, but this is a nice piece, with some lovely portraits by Jon Wyand. Though for a ‘new generation’ this group is becoming ‘rather mature!’ – I profiled most in these pages more than a dozen years ago 🙂

And as a digestif, why not a little Chablis from Bruce?

So, Stan Kroenke, owner of Screaming Eagle & sports teams aplenty, now owns majority of Bonneau de Martray. A white to go with the red

— Jancis Robinson (@JancisRobinson) January 4, 2017

Jancis (above) was the first to post on this, in English. One hour ahead of her was the following in French.

My rough commentary is:

American Stanley Kroenke has acquired the majority of the capital of Domaine Bonneau Martray
Kroenke, approaching 70 years old, and owner Arsenal football club in the UK, plus US basketball, soccer and football teams, is also the owner of, amongst others in the US, the Screaming Eagle winery.

The Bault de la Morinière family (Jean-Charles – pictured right – 15 Dec 2016) for a long time have told the tale of ‘only 3 owners in 1,250 years‘ but the family have now sold the majority (whatever that means) of their shares in the domaine to Stanley Kroenke for an undisclosed sum – and he’s not a Frenchman! – but maybe this allows the family to claim maintenance of ownership, even if a minority ownership.

At nearly 70 years of age, Kroenke is roughly the same age as Jean-Charles; whilst the latter has been looking for a successor, the former continues to forge deals. I had heard that the generations following Jean-Charles were not interested to take up the reigns of the domaine – maybe there was no other possibility – or indeed this was the least worst solution, assuming that Pinault and Arnault were potentially unwelcome suitors…

I hope that it works well for all the parties involved, Jean-Charles has been a fantastic steward of the domaine, I have always enjoyed my many discussions with him, though it’s also a domaine that has been blighted with oxidation issues in the last years. According to Les Echos, Armand de Maigret, ‘the French general manager for Mr Kroenke’s vineyards, will supervise the property while maintaining its unique identity.‘

More Leflaive: I originally posted about this in my Domaine de la Vougeraie 2015 report, in December 2016.

Seemingly, and for many weeks, this was Burgundy’s worst kept secret, yet no-one publicised it, and I’ve still seen nothing official about this from either domaine; but, just before Christmas, Pierre Vincent finished his career as winemaker chez Domaine de la Vougeraie. He has now started in that role for Domaine Leflaive in Puligny-Montrachet.

Pierre has made super whites for a long time, no less so his 2015s chez Vougeraie, where he was responsible for a little over 42 hectares of vines – all managed with biodynamics. Chez Domaine Leflaive he now has 24 hectares, again, all biodynamic. (Drouhin are the largest Organic/Biodynamic practitioners with 78 hectares including Chablis)

I think it’s fair to say that the expectations (rightly or wrongly) of Domaine Leflaive clients will be higher – given their long history of excellence – though their wines having been patchy since 2002 (quality and resistance to oxidation).

Actually, I’ve found Domaine Leflaive just a little opaque in the last vintages – ‘who actually has been making the wines and taking the big decisions for the last 18 months?‘ – I don’t know. Of-course Leflaive made the recent big decision to the change to DIAM closures from the 2014 vintage – I think we can be pretty sure that Brice de la Morandière (cousin of Anne-Claude Leflaive, who took on the role as head of the domaine in May 2015) was responsible for that decision. It will be interesting to get Pierre’s updated take on that, as the wineries of the Boisset group have been resistant to that particular change – Vougeraie remaining with cork for top whites in the 2015 vintage – but perhaps that was a Boisset group decision, rather than left to individual wine-makers.

But good luck Pierre, I’m sure that lots of people will be watching!