Image: Julien Brocard, 29th January 2015.

The domaine of Jean-Marc Brocard was, last weekend, targeted by thieves, and not for the first time in recent days. In a ram-raid smash and grab (the domaine and its shop is remote from its home village of Préhy, about 7-8 minutes drive from Chablis town) about 600 bottles were stolen, and of-course only the best cuvées were stolen from their retail shop. The damage caused by the ram-raid is nearly comparable to the cost of the wine – so feel free to raise an eyebrow if you see some cheap JM Brocard in the next days; apparently the bottles are all numbered…

The weekend’s second smash and grab was much more corporate in nature: Late on Friday, Maison Albert Bichot put out a press-release before switching off the lights for the weekend. The have acquired the 33 hectare domaine of Pascal Bouchard in Chablis, or maybe it’s the maison part(?) – the press release is a little opaque in that matter. On Thursday I’ll get the infos from the horse’s mouth – but clearly that makes an interesting second brand from Bichot in Chablis and a nice big new cuverie on the otskirts of the town too…

More info when I have it!

For those with an interest 😉

• http://www.shankennewsdaily.com/index.php/2015/05/05/12312/u-s-becomes-top-market-for-burgundy-despite-a-decline-in-volume-and-value/

Christophe Buisson and Alex Gambal sign at last – pic from Alex.

Hmm – what a good story – 🙂

This deal took a very long time to finalise, but now ‘Domaine Alex Gambal’ is exploiting the following:

My hat of the day award!

I’m more than 75% of the way through visiting roughly 35 domaines for my January, Chablis Vintage 2013 Report (though my last half-dozen visits are not for another 10 days) and its a very particular vintage.

I won’t publish my report until the start of the second week of February, but given all the offers that I’ve seen, and more particularly some of the descriptions (exultations/exhortations to buy!) I’ve seen, I thought it timely to add just a few words – caveats if you like…

Except a few wise old owls who invoke very old vintages (ones never, ever, drunk by 99.9% of current buyers) the producers will tell you that they have no reference points for this vintage. Yields were low, but that doesn’t always mean concentration. The wines may be direct, fresh and mineral ‘Chablis’, or they may be round and rich with hints of botrytis and apricot – admittedly tasty chardonnay, but not really Chablis. It really depends on the address. Really!

It should be fine if you get to taste samples beforehand, but buying blind makes 2013 a much more complicated proposition than 07, 08, 09, 10 or 12 was – or indeed 14 will be (just for the record, I really don’t like 2/3rds of 11 Chablis, sorry). So be careful out there! On the positive side, apart from a couple of massively over-subscribed domaines, whose 2013s are anyway fine, (and who only spend their money on funny hats), Chablis is generally some of the easiest white burgundy to source – so you’ve time to wait for my report 😉

PUNCH | Is the Jura Dealing with the “Urban Outfitters Effect”? http://t.co/gA9inFNPQe

— Melissa M. Sutherland (@melissa_ful) December 13, 2014

http://punchdrink.com/articles/is-the-jura-dealing-with-the-urban-outfitters-effect/

A well-written and thought-provoking piece. There are many viewpoints of-course, and it is really no different a complaint to that of people lamenting the high-price purchases of ‘outsiders’ in Burgundy i.e. LMVH, Château Latour and/or whoever is eventually going to stump up the cash for Pousse d’Or (I don’t see anyone stumping up the cash for Rebourseau!).

The argument cuts in all directions; Guillaume d’Angerville himself, hardly happy about a ‘negociant from Nuits’ having bought a sizable chunk of villages Volnay, when he would have preferred the vines to have stayed in ‘Volnay hands.’

It’s sometimes described as progress – it’s always transient – but change is inevitable…

DOMAINE LEFLAIVE 2013 – Puligny-Montrachet (En Primeur)
Just for reflection, you will see the same offer prices of their 2012s in the brackets. Oh, and can anyone tell me if Montrachet was really included for the first time? I remember seeing a price but was temporarily blinded!

Bourgogne 2012 75cl 35.00 Swiss Francs (35.00)
Puligny-Montrachet 2012 75cl 65.00 (65.00)

PREMIERS CRUS
Puligny-Montrachet Les Clavoillons 75cl 88.00 (85.00)
Puligny-Montrachet Les Clavoillons 150cl 186.00
Puligny-Montrachet Les Clavoillons 300cl 412.00
Meursault Sous Le Dos d’Âne 75cl 99.00 (96.00)
Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatières 75cl 148.00 (139.00)
Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes 75cl 159.00 (149.00)
Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles 75cl 175.00 (175.00)
Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles 150cl 360.00 (355.00)
Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles 300cl 760.00

GRANDS CRUS
Bienvenues Bâtard-Montrachet 75cl 319.00 (289.00)
Bâtard-Montrachet 75cl 355.00 (310.00)
Chevalier-Montrachet 75cl 450.00 (395.00)
Chevalier-Montrachet 75cl 150cl 910.00

Montrachet 75cl 4,850

I guess that last bottle will be 3x the price of DRC’s label then – at least the 1st tier DRC pricing – here’s mud in your eye 😉