I’m guessing that it’s not a good idea to hold your breath whilst waiting for lower prices 😉
At grand cru level, land sold for between $2.7m and $12.9m a hectare (2.47 acres) in 2013, the ministry wrote. The average per-hectare price rose from $5.2m in 2012. It has been rising steadily since 1996, when a hectare was selling for a relatively paltry $1.66m.
Source: Winesearcher
Oh, and for those of you who missed the news:
Domaine des Lambrays has been sold to LVMH. Some links:http://t.co/1Q1tOfQRONhttp://t.co/amSnFYOzda
It's official.— Jeremy Seysses (@JeremySeysses) April 14, 2014
Owners of Clos des Lambrays have sold up evidently no point in staying in Morey St Denis now that David Clark has left…
— Jasper Morris (@justjasper) April 14, 2014
Domaine Seguin-Manuel gets a toehold in the Côte de Nuits
Domaine Seguin-Manuel takes over a 1,8-hectare vineyard in Vosne-Romanée « Aux Communes ». Hand harvested on October 3-4, the grapes coming from these old vines are showing a high quality potential.
The estate now covers a total area of 8,5 hectares. Initially located in Savigny-lès-Beaune, Domaine Seguin-Manuel has been farming several new plots in Beaune, Pommard, Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet since its acquisition by Thibaut Marion in 2004. In the process of certification, all the vineyards are organically grown.
« This new plot in Vosne-Romanée makes it possible for us to get a toehold in an iconic village of the Côte de Nuits. It contributes to the control of our supplies of sought-after appellations wines and strengthens the artisan dimension of our winery».
Seguin-Manuel produce 80 000 bottles a year and export 70% of them in some thirty countries.
Thibaut Marion
Vigneron
Whilst the harvest starts to peak in the village of Morey, it’s all-change for some of its number. David Clark and Kellen Lignier are working their last vintages, doubtless both with a sense of sadness, but for very different reasons.
Starting with David Clark; it was clear that he hoped to move up through the crus, eventually ending up with some nice 1er or grand cru land – but after ten years, he still hadn’t broke through the villages-level ‘ceiling’. Add to that a back that wasn’t born to grape-tending and was needing regular physio-sessions, and a pretty lonely existence in Morey, earlier this year David finally decided to sell his domaine. It’s been common knowledge in and around Morey that Yann Charlopin (right, right – son of Philippe) together with his wife, Justine, are buying the domaine – indeed, everything was signed and sealed today – Yann, who has also worked in Tasmania, is looking to establish his own credentials, stepping away from the shadow of his father. The new domaine will be called Charlopin-Tisser.
David who wanted to stay in Morey until the end of the year is now paying rent 😉 I wish David all the fun and success in whatever he plans to do next – I understand some of David’s engineering creations, his bottling ‘line’ for instance, have found a worthy home at Le Grappin.
Onto Kellen Lignier, who, with her two children, combatively continued making wine (and very good wine too) following the death of her husband, Romain Lignier. Most of the domaine’s vineyards belonged to Romain/Kellen’s Father/Father-in-law, Hubert Lignier. Well-passed his retirement, Hubert embarked on a course to recover all his vines from Kellen and (I suppose) his grand-children – no easy task, as Kellen and family were de-facto metayeurs – and French law usually sides with them. First Hubert had to get a wine-maker back into the family, and that was his son, Laurent. Then he set about a number of legal actions which first returned the Gevrey 1er Les Combottes and now about 3 years later, it seems everything else. Kellen has had some bitter things to say on her Facebook page, but it seems a fait-Ã -complit. I assume there will be no L&A Lignier 2013’s, but Kellen rarely returns emails anymore…
I also wish Kellen, and family, all the best in whatever they next choose to do.
And it goes without saying, that a certain book’s chapter on Morey St.Denis is now way out of date…
…everyone is buying up land in Macon, Beaujolais and even the Jura is becoming fashionable, but methinks Jadot are a little slower than, say, Drouhin in this case. It’s anyway a nice ‘retirement’ project for Jacques!
I’d seen the construction work since at least July 2012 – it could have been June – but what exactly was going on with those earth-movers up the Chemin des Argillières above the Clos l’Arlot in Nuits St.Georges?
This week I managed to quiz a few locals and an interesting, indeed amazing story was relayed – though let’s be clear, it’s just their ‘story’: This is a vineyard that has been ‘constructed’ – it simply wasn’t there last year – but this is construction on an industrial scale.
Apparently some old building(s?) at the foot of the ancient (1500-1700s or probably older(?)) stone quarry had been bought by a resident of Dijon – who came originally from Premeaux. With hundreds of tonnes of materials he has filled in the space and made a reasonable slope upto what was previously just a stone cliff-face. The basic platform that now waits for vines looks very stony – not much organic material – but has had a ‘faux historic’ entrance and steps constructed as an entrance-way. Only when you look at the southern side of the ‘platform’ do you realise what has actually been done here.
There are a couple of other matters too: This piece of land has no AOC, despite bordering the premier crus of Clos de l’Arlot and Les Argillières. The locals are also far from supportive of the ‘land’ getting an AOC – today even Bourgogne Rouge or Blanc is not allowed. One of the reasons why it might be hard to be awarded AOC could be that it’s not entirely clear where the ‘land-fill’ has come from! However, I suppose that they could ignore AOC completely and make a ‘vin de table’! There is just one more pertinent (I think) point: The buyer, and instigator of this project is apparently aged about 85 years old – so not likely to be drinking any of the wine that this platform may (or may not) ever produce! It is said that a son-in-law could eventually benefit…
It’s not “Gevrey-Chambertchang”, but…
Les châteaux de Meursault et de Marsannay seraient vendus pour vingt millions d'euros à Olivier Halley, sans les vignes (et la Safer?).
— Bernard Burtschy (@Burtschy) August 24, 2012
I was travelling the last days so couldn’t post the news, hence, Keith beat me to it. But the news is that the small domaine which includes Gevrey-Chambertin’s most iconic building is now sold.
Whilst that (surely) must auger for some eventual improvement in the quality of the wines, there is local angst that the efforts that they made to buy the buildings and vines for the village of Gevrey-Chambertin were thwarted at the last-minute. Locals had amassed a $5 million offer, but lost out to $8 million from a group of Chinese investors (reportedly) from Macau. I’m sure it smarts.
The headlines will shout ‘Chinese buyers’ and there will doubtlessly be some ill-thought quasi-xenophobic editorials, yet I expect the biggest shame will come from not finding that local solution…
Part of the de Montille disposals to fund the purchase of the Château de Puligny; unofficially, we’ve known about the new owner for the last couple of weeks, but as the words finally trip from his own mouth, I think I’m safe enough to broadcast it 😉 Based on the numbers in the SAFER website, we can assume that with all taxes and fees paid, the final bill was about €3 million, for the only premier cru on the ‘wrong side’ of the RN74…
Just bought the 2,2 hectares of the Monopoly Nuits Saint Georges 1er cru “Clos des Grandes Vignes”. A new Monopoly for the Estate (the 3rd…after Clos du Chateau and La Romanée) and a new challenge for myself…try to make some “drinkable” white wine. Part of the Clos des Grandes Vignes (0,35 ha) is in Chardonnay!
Louis-Michel Liger-Belair
I only tasted one vintage at Château Puligny – 05 was (I think) their first vintage after the vines were acquired from the ‘dissolving’ Domaine Thomas-Moillard – that was the 2009, and I thought it excellent, the ‘villages’ cuvée seemed fine too (it’s a split vineyard with villages and 1er cru portions) but those were from barrel. I never saw Etienne’s bottles on the market. The chardonnay at the bottom of the vineyard was a ‘re-graft’ by Etienne a few years ago – it can be difficult here as the drainage is poor at the bottom of the vineyard, but Etienne had already done considerable work in the vines to allow their certification as biodynamic. 2012 will be Louis-Michel’s first harvest…
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