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!

Okay, not entirely cheap at €186,000, but you get almost 0.3 hectares – who would complain? I do, however, note that said vines are available only after the 2015 harvest, I didn’t know that you could also buy vines en-primeur…!

For sure it’s cheaper than the previous Puligny, but is it me – or does €75,000 sound rather a lot for 0.4 of an acre?
Anyway:

• 3,94 ouvrées plantées en cépage Pinot Noir
• Age de la vigne : environ 40 ans
• Situation : Belle exposition sud-est
• Vigne présentant un bel état général

Good luck with your bids!

Thought this might cheer you up:

€255,000 for approximately 380 bottles per year worth of villages Puligny. If you can get €700 per bottle, you’ll pay for it in only 1 year!

Oh, but don’t forget, you will also need somewhere to make wine…