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…

oops – fallen off the end of the ‘platform’

€280,000 sounds a snip for a 0.76 ha slice of villages Pommard – doesn’t it?
Such a shame the current owner retains full use AFTER you pay him the 280k (plus fees…!)
HERE

Well do you?

That’s a hard question to answer in the current market. I provide for you here a window to a relatively ‘cheap’ entry into the world of premier cru pinot noir (Chambolle-Musigny would cost you 5x the amount), but the financial transaction and subsequent model will make sense to relatively few of you I think.

Anyway, our starting point is the current ‘offer‘ via the SAFER website.

In effect you would pay €184,000 (plus an 8.5% ‘fee’ for SAFER) plus €3,500 for 0.43ha of Beaune 1er Cru ‘Champs Pimonts’ – nicely situated fifty year-old vines, though don’t ask me how good the plant material is – but even as the owner, you cannot do very much with the land, because with this purchase you also grant a ‘fermage’ agreement to the Dufouleurs so that they can carry on as before. Fermage is a long-term rental agreement, usually renewed every 20 years, and as a non-accredited winemaker, you or I would have little chance to change things, but as the new owner of the land/vines, you would, of-course receive a rent, currently worth 4.4 barrels per hectare which makes 1.93 barrels in this case. 75% of this would be ‘paid’ in bottles – representing approximately 400 bottles – the remaining 25% in cash, i.e. currently €794.

So assuming you could also convert your bottles to cash, your annual return on this investment would be only about 1.6% – though comparable to the return from many banks’ deposit accounts, but also, from some perspectives, a better chance of preserving your invested capital. This latter point is largely what is driving new investment in the Côte d’Or; not the traditional business models of buying the land and amortising the costs of the land through selling wine over 10-20 years, because the land is too expensive for that today, but rather the preservation of the value of (some) capital as part of a diversified investment portfolio – it is fair to say that it is a minority of people who can plan and invest in such a way.

Anyway, assuming you have a spare €200k which you would like to ‘preserve’ and don’t feel worried by phylloxera biotype B, this could be the thing for you. But I hope you like the incumbent’s wine, because I doubt they would let you take your rent in grapes, or specify how you might like the viticulture to be done in your rent’s 2 rows of vines…

Ooh, I almost forgot; just because you have the cash don’t for a second think that it’s a done deal. The opaque organisation that is SAFER might just consider you not fit and proper purchasers, and if so, that’s that!

Well to be specific the Clos Frantin, not Domaine du Clos Frantin.

I was chatting with a sommelier/importer from New York who was to visit Domaine d’Eugenie, and he mentioned that they were changing the name of the Clos Frantin to Clos Eugenie. I was a bit sceptical because you don’t easily change vineyard names and I also didn’t think that the parent company of Domaine du Clos Frantin (A.Bichot) would want to sell the vines. Anyway I asked a contact at Bichot…

It seems that when they bought the buildings to make their new winery, Latour/Eugenie did indeed acquire the Vosne-Romanée Clos Frantin vines too, however, swapping with Bichot the Frantin vines for some of the old Engel domaine vines in Vosne-Romanée Hautes Mazières – so both domaine’s villages Vosnes have a different recipe today.

Whilst Domaine du Clos Frantin’s Vosne had not been a monopole for many a year, given that it was blended with grapes from Vosne Damaudes in the Bichot era, I’m a little sad that this is now only a historical note; the only connection to the Clos Frantin domaine is the plaque to General Frantin on the external wall of Eugenie ‘compound’, Clos Frantin elevage long-since having moved to Nuits St.Georges.

Ah well, that’s progress – maybe there will be Clos d’Eugenie Monopole! I note that a building in the south-west corner of the Eugenie compound (Les Chaumes to the south and La Tâche to the west) is being converted into a ‘dwelling’, the planning signs outside bearing Mr Engerer’s name…

Thumbs up for Clive – still first with the news:

Philippe Brenot of Santenay has sold his 5 hectare estate to American négociant Alex Gambal. Pride of place in the Brenot holding is 37 ares of Bâtard-Montrachet. The line-up also includes Chassagne-Montrachet premier cru En Remilly, Santenay premier cru Les Passetemps, and village Puligny, Chassagne and Santenay. The white wines have a high reputation here, though Brenot used to sell over half his production off in bulk. In addition to his life as a vigneron Brenot is also a professor at the Beaune Wine School. Gambal was one of his pupils.
Clive Coates

Clive’s review of Jasper’s book is also worth reading.

€175,000 sounds quite a lot for only 0.272 hectares – even if they are close to 50 year-old Gevrey 1er cru vines…

Of-course you may be more interested in the Marsannay – then you’d be able to make rosé!