1. So plenty of hot air is being generated by the fraud story broken by Le Bien Public yesterday, but frankly there seems only hot air; the few known ‘facts’ seem to be an idea of the quantity of fraudulent bottles (one assumes lower appellation wine being given a higher appellation label rather than cutting with vin d’Algerie as was once popular) and that four directors of Labouré-Roi have been arrested. I guess more ‘facts’ might prejudice any trial, but let’s see if anything useful leaches out…
2. Château du Puligny-Montrachet has been bought by the de Montille family of Volnay. The only surprise here is that the official announcement of this has taken so long – there was plenty of ‘chatter’ already at the end of last year.
   

   « Ces deux exploitations avaient déjà développées des synergies », explique Etienne de Montille. Environ 5 hectares seront revendus. Au final ces deux domaines couvriront 35 hectares, dont 20 en Premiers et Grands Crus. Des vignes cultivées et certifiées en agriculture biologique.
   Source: The BIVB

3. The pretty domaine Le Clos du Moulin aux Moines (Auxey-Duresses) has also bought up some new vine in Pernand, a 1.42 hectare plot of chardonnay in the village lieu-dits of Les Champs and Combottes.
4. Last month the cooperative cellars of the Côte Chalonnaise, Mâconnais and Beaujolais unveiled their Coteaux Bourguignons label, ‘a new appellation which links Burgundy and Beaujolais’. The Fédération des Caves Coopératives Bourgogne-Jura (FCCBJ) brings together the cooperative cellars of Côte d’Or, Saône-et-Loire, Yonne and the even fruit industry of the Jura – so maybe some strawberry wine then?. Although the label will initially only be seen on red wines, the AOC Coteaux Bourguignons label could also be used for white and rosé wines in the future.

Enough news for now 😉

It’s not just about faking expensive old bottles like Rudy K, fraud can touch all buyers:

Bad news from the Côte d’Or – fraud at Laboure-Roi concerning up to 2 million bottles it seems! More information will doubtless follow…

It’s a late (only 4 days!) addition to the Spring 2012 Burgundy Report – but it doesn’t make sense to leave it in the drawer until (the Summer Report in) July/August to share with you: So here are the notes to a simply exquisite set of mature and maturing wines from Nicolas Potel. Read em and weep as they say 😉

If the launch of these old wines is a thing to cheer the heart, some of the developments surrounding Nicolas’ old label – in the UK at least – are of less cheer. One retailer is now selling 2006 Maison Nicolas Potel wine, which would be fine, except for the fact the Nicolas says he didn’t make the wine that they are selling. To be clear, Nicolas made all the wines up to and including the 2007 vintage before being asked to leave the company wearing his name. It was then, completely clear to consumers, that anything 2008 onwards should be more carefully scrutinised before buying. The arrival of these ‘older’ wines seems to me depressing news, and that’s because it will now cast a shadow over the whole NP back catalogue – the line in the sand for choosing your bottles/vintages will be washed away by any tide of ‘new’ releases.

Of-course it’s all perfectly legal; the current owners run a négoce company and can, just like Nicolas is doing with his collection Bellenum (linked above), buy and sell older wines. What is ‘unfortunate’ is that they cloud the waters in such a way that you would assume the wines were made by Potel – i.e without differentiation – which, according to him, they were not. The Collection Bellenum, whilst wearing a Maison Roche de Bellene label, also has the Bellenum stamp on that label and a back label that explains that these are old wines backed by Potel, but not made by Potel – I think there is a great difference in approach, don’t you?

Ah, finally some real work for the team at M&M – hope they have trained their backs for all that bending! 🙂

I don’t often show you the invites that come in the (e)mail, but just occasionally I think some are so well designed that they deserve a wider audience: