Travels in Burgundy 2022

this year’s last tasting week…

By billn on December 17, 2022 #degustation#travels in burgundy 2022

It’s the end of week 50 in 2022 – and how did this year go so quickly by? This was my final week of tasting in Burgundy – for this year – though January in Chablis and February in Beaujolais are already planned…

I started my tour of the domaines’ 2021s at the end of September and planned 150 visits. A heavy, coughing, cold at the end of October cost me a week of visits – though 3x negative tested. I’m becoming something of a rarity; never yet covid-positive that I’m aware of – but for more than 2 years now I have declined all large group tastings, sticking to vigneron(ne)’s cellars. It was out of respect for the producers that I wasn’t going to pretend that I could still taste their wines while coughing away…

So, nearly 130 domaines visited for the Mâconnais to Côte d’Or part of my ‘Tour de 21s‘ – lots of old faithfuls, though a few domaines drop off the list each year – preferring to no-longer show wines to ‘the press‘ now that their production is in such demand! I’ve only collected 4 domaines (who I’m aware of!) that won’t have me back based on what I’ve previously written.

Anyway – I must get to writing my report for the (mainly) white wine domaines of the Côte de Beaune, but in the meantime, here are a few images from week 22 – A week that started in the snow and icy temperatures of Switzerland. The theme continued with sub-zero temperatures in Beaune but yesterday we enjoyed 15°C and sunshine in the south of France – my base for a week of pre-Christmas writing. Our first evening’s wine:

2018 David Moreau, Santenay 1er Beaurepaire Blanc
White wax-topped. The aromatics are rather small in these (rubbish) air-BnB apartment wine glasses – an oversight on my part! But in the mouth this wine has a character that starts small and clean before widening over the palate and delivering an absorbing finish – for a 2018 there’s plenty of weight and persistence to this finish – it’s delicious too, what a lovely wine.
Rebuy – Yes

a little ‘colour’ from this week…

By billn on December 03, 2022 #travels in burgundy 2022

Truth be told, it wasn’t very sunny this week in Beaune and its surroundings but here are a few views that didn’t require blue sky!

a few views from the last days…

By billn on November 21, 2022 #travels in burgundy 2022

it rained today so how about some pics from the previous 2 days :)

By billn on October 20, 2022 #travels in burgundy 2022

But that’s another week without any gas needed for the central heating – 23-24°C in downtown Beaune this week:

Of course, so far, there have been some vignerons to see 🙂 Of course, you will meet them in the coming Burgundy reports…

weekend pics…

By billn on June 12, 2022 #travels in burgundy 2022

Romanée St.VivantThe jungle of Romanée St.Vivant, today…

Warmer and drier than last weekend – a lot – in fact, 32.5°C today with 36°C on the horizon for later this week!

early april visits…

By billn on April 19, 2022 #reports#travels in burgundy 2022

Early April 2022 visits

Okay, that was a nice week’s holiday, I’ll put some images of the places visited online tomorrow. But now it’s time to get the site back in order.

Later this week the Beaujolais 2020 report will be online, but first a peek at the visits that I started this month with. See how many you can name – enjoy!

Some days in Chablis…

By billn on April 09, 2022 #travels in burgundy 2022

There was a mix of sun and rain this week in Chablis – and, of course, starting with the frosty Sunday-Monday.

More on the frost after tonight’s brush with 0°C – or lower. More later, too, on the moon-scapes of herbicide treated vines – but that’s not just a Chablis problem – you’re almost as likely to find herbicide in the grand crus of the Côte d’Or, as you are to find it in the grand crus of Chablis, sad to say…

frost watch and electric cables…

By billn on March 30, 2022 #travels in burgundy 2022#vintage 2022

I shared a photo with you from Monday afternoon as the team of Eric Germain at Vincent Girardin were placing candles in their vines – these buds not just in the ‘cotton‘ stage but also starting to open. That said, these are the buds of the more precocious young vines – the more mature vines being less obviously advanced.

This is an important point for now – the timing of this week’s warmth and next week’s (forecast) snow and negative temperatures being exactly as per last year, but:

  • The high temperatures have been less high than in 2021.
  • The forecast low temperatures for the coming days will be less low than in 2021
  • Given that the last few weeks of fine weather have usually started their days with morning frosts, the vines are less advanced in their growth-cycle than last year.

So – it’s still an issue for the young vines in the next days – and the Saint-Glace – the day after which the growers can forget about frosts – is still more than 6 weeks away. So what more can the growers do?

I noted on Monday that the upper part (of the lower part!) of Meursault-Genevrières was being prepared for trace electrical heating cables. This generally requires a lot of infrastructure work to bring the electricity supply into the vines – though is otherwise much more environmentally conscious than the use of candles – including the more expensive ‘organic’ candles option. Or you bring a generator into the vineyards to power the cables for the time that you’re going to need them – this was the approach of Bonneau du Martry in their vines yesterday – see the images below.

Of-course, the windmills are still an option this year as it doesn’t look like the deep Winter frost that came in 2021 is expected this year – ‘just‘ the Spring variant. These windmills are starting to crop up in the vines, in waiting. Of course, they also use their own generators to function.

Finally, just a few other photos from yesterday – including a reprehensible 12-rows, or-so, of Grands-Echézeaux vines that have been laced with herbicide. I bet the owners of the nicely ploughed rows on both sides of this dirty dozen are ecstatic!

Burgundy Report

Translate »

You are using an outdated browser. Please update your browser to view this website correctly: https://browsehappy.com/;