The weather is far from settled – or for that matter, warm – we have about 18-22° in the forecast for this week – more rain than sun, too!
But the first/early flowers can be seen, here and there, across the Côte de Nuits. It looks like we will be in ‘peak flowering’ by the end of the week, certainly the weekend. So, for argument’s sake, let’s say Friday for mid-flowering, add 100 days, equals harvesting from the 25th September(?) Let’s see…
I’ll keep you posted…
A modest, but tasty, selection:
2005 Joseph Voillot, Volnay 1er Brouillards
This retains a deep and young-looking colour. The nose is big, but with some perfumed red fruit – looking good! Tasty, layered wine – no obvious tannin – there are 05s with more oomph, and 05s with more focus, but this does what it says on the label; open, fine and tasty drinking.
Rebuy – Yes
1995 Dubreuil-Fontaine, Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Ile des Vergelesses
Hmm – and almost truffled, inviting, even textured nose – this is just so lovely – it demands that you put the glass to your lips. Tasty, tasty, tasty – there’s a faint tannin, still, but here is much, mouth-filling, flavour dimension and complexity. REally super wine – perfect drinking today. Bravo! I also had the 95 Lafarge Clos des Chenes in my glass this week – it’s currently not even close to how good this wine is!
Rebuy – Yes
2012 Clos de la Chapelle des Bois, Fleurie
An easy perfume to this nose – totally different in register to the older pinots – but it’s clean and inviting. In the mouth there’s plenty of concentration to the perfumed fruit flavours. Fine acidity that underpins the persistence of finishing flavour. Thumbs-up from everyone for this wine.
Rebuy – Yes
It was cool to see the first flowers of 2016 yesterday – even more-so to have the ‘buzzing’ accompaniment of the hover-flies too. I only had my phone with me, so I’m doubly impressed by this result!
This picture was taken in the southern Beaujolais Villages area – but truth be told it’s a semi-fake! These gamay vines are actually in a nice ‘garden’ in the city of Villefranche – the commercial capitol of the Beaujolais region – so they are not really in a ‘true’ vineyard area.
But they are real flowers – the outliners for the vignoble. They are a few days ahead of the ‘real vineyards’ as the city has a temperature advantage versus the vineyards – and remained ‘frostless’ this year. But yesterday was 28°C in the Beaujolais, so the real ‘floraison‘ is clearly not far away…
[EDIT:]The first flowers reported in a real Burgundy vineyard today by Jean-Philippe Bret in (chardonnay) Pouilly-Vinzelles!
A beautiful start to the day here in Beaune – with particularly pretty clouds too – but they hide approaching danger; by 12h00, as you can see (above), they are turning darker.
There’s a weather warning for violent storms in the départment of the Côte d’Or today – most of the worst weather looks like it is north of Dijon, but let’s see…
[EDIT] Beaune stayed dry today – but Fixin had very heavy rain – fortunaltely none of that ‘frozen rain.’
Des #orages parfois très pluvieux (risque d'inondations très ponctuelles) sont prévus des #HautsdeFrance au #Jurapic.twitter.com/f9ODq9bSvP
— Keraunos (@KeraunosObs) June 7, 2016
Meursault 1er Clos des Perrières – today.
Well, having been away for 10 days, I though that my first job today should be to tour the vines of the Côte de Beaune – more particularly the place where flowering usually starts in the chardonnay. Two years ago I found the very first flowers in this nicely wind-shaded, south-facing spot in Meursault Perrières – on the 21st May. Today, a little over two weeks later-on in the year and the flowers are still waiting to open. It’s forecast to be warmer this week – and we do indeed have some nice sun today – maybe that will be a catalyst, but the weather forecast is far from settled…
The palissage, or training of the vines has been partly done – those shoots not affected by the frost are sufficiently large to train between the wires, but the new/second-growth is not quite developed enough to reach the wires yet – the wires protect the vine growth from the wind which can easily rip-off the shoots. Given the lateness of the growth, we need a beautiful summer to start very soon, or there will be zero chance of second-growth bunches reaching ripeness – even the first growth may not be ready before the end of September…
One vigneron I spoke to today related that the majority of his vines have responded quite well to the challenge of the frost, he won’t have much fruit this year but he’s pretty sure that he will have something to prune so that he has fruit next year – which was his biggest concern – though one of his vineyards in Savigny ‘still looks like winter…’
I will, of-course, keep you posted…
1999 Nicolas Potel, Volnay Vieilles-Vignes
Medium-plus colour A little herb and a lot of sweet, plummy fruit. A middle-weight, but one of sweet silkiness, supple delivery of flavour, widening and intensifying a little in the mid-palate. The finish is tasty and medium-plus length, slowly fading on a more floral register. Very drinkable now – one might even say ready! Tasty and enjoyable wine.
Rebuy – Yes
1996 Jean Grivot, Richebourg
I decided that 20 years should be enough to consider ‘approaching’ this wine – I was wrong: Deeper colour. A wide nose that begins with a hint of jarring herb, but slowly fading herb, then a more floral top note and a weighty core of relatively tight fruit. Mouth-encompassing, every space is filled. There’s a faint rasp of tannin and plenty of acidity too – yet the overall impression is neither sharp nor dry. Large-scaled as this is, the finish is really the thing that impresses. This may never be a wine of grace – though its power, and mid-palate punch will never be doubted. I love the bold finishing flavour very much – there’s great fruit in there, it’s nicely sweet too – but if you ignore today’s obscene price for this wine, today at-least, it’s easy to move onto something less challenging to drink – like the Potel – as opposed to staying, only to academically dissect. I think I’ll wait another 5 years for the next one, yet, there’s no doubt that this is impressive stuff…
Rebuy – Yes – at the original price 😉
Hello from a windy beach in the UK! I’m back in the saddle on Thursday, but this is hot in today – très French – I haven’t seen a translation, not yet, anyway, but I’m sure you all know how to use google 😉
Cheers!
Château de Pommard : le Clos du Château reprend son nom historique et entreprend sa conversion biodynamique
La renaissance du Clos Marey-Monge au Château de Pommard
En 1855, Jules Lavalle présente la classification officielle du Comité de Viticulture de Beaune dans un ouvrage intitulé “Histoire et statistique de la vigne et des grands vins de la Côte d’Or.” Dans cette classification qui respecte les hiérarchies anciennes, le Clos Marey-Monge, rebaptisé Clos du Château de Pommard en 1936, figure parmi les premières cuvées, qualificatif correspondant au premier cru aujourd’hui.
Pour visualiser le communiqué multimédia, rendez-vous sur :
http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7850851-chateau-de-pommard-restores-marey-monge/
Avec un profond respect pour les valeurs de la région, l’histoire et la classification de Lavalle, en mai 2016, le Château de Pommard est fier de reprendre le nom historique du Clos : Clos Marey-Monge.
“L’équipe du Château de Pommard se réjouit de retrouver la dénomination originelle de Clos Marey-Monge. nous attachons une grande importance à la préservation de notre héritage viticole et aux racines historiques de notre région. Ainsi la renaissance du Clos Marey-Monge est un symbole fort de notre volonté d’aller de l’avant dans le respect de ces traditions.” Michael Baum, propriétaire.
La conversion du Clos Marey-Monge à la biodynamie
Engagé dans une série de changements, le Château de Pommard est très fier d’annoncer son projet de conversion du Clos Marey-Monge à la biodynamie.
Emmanuel Sala, le Directeur Technique, élabore tous les Grands Vins du Château de Pommard depuis 2007. Sa philosophie est “de sublimer le millésime, rester à l’écoute de la nature et ne jamais perturber l’équilibre naturel.”
Dans la continuité de cette philosophie et en maintenant son exigence de qualité il s’engage dans la conversion du Clos en biodynamie. “Un tel projet s’inscrit dans ma perception des vins, m’incite à écouter la nature pour comprendre le terroir et la vigne et restituer cette sensibilité dans mes vins,” s’enthousiasme Emmanuel Sala.
Ce projet de conversion sera conduit avec l’appui d’Antoine Lepetit de la Bigne, oenologue et ingénieur agronome. Ce passionné de vin et d’agronomie a passé huit ans au Domaine Leflaive et s’est récemment spécialisé dans l’accompagnement des domaines viticoles vers la biodynamie. Convaincu et converti à cette viticulture, son approche et sa méthode de conversion se résument ainsi, “améliorer l’expression et la profondeur du terroir du Clos Marey-Monge dans une logique écologique.”
Il confirme la capacité du Château de Pommard à conduire sa conversion “toutes les conditions sont réunies au Château de Pommard pour mener une conversion réussie.” Les sols sont bien entretenus et le labour a été pratiqué régulièrement. La mise en place des préparations biodynamiques sera facilitée par les moyens humains et techniques existant au Château de Pommard.
Cet accompagnement intègre un coaching technique et une formation dispensée par Antoine Lepetit de la Bigne à l’ensemble de l’équipe viticole et aux commerciaux. Il considère que tous les acteurs de cette conversion doivent être impliqués pour une compréhension parfaite de l’approche et une cohérence de discours. Avis largement partagé par le Directeur Technique qui conclut : “ce projet n’est pas un projet personnel c’est un projet fédérateur exceptionnel.” Une opinion largement partagée par le propriétaire, Michael Baum : “Toute l’équipe du Château de Pommard est impatiente d’ouvrir cette nouvelle page de l’histoire du Clos. Nous espérons tous produire des vins biodynamiques exceptionnels.”
Le projet se fera en plusieurs étapes, avec dans un premier temps deux hectares en biodynamie dès le printemps. Cette première phase vise à acquérir l’expérience nécessaire avant d’étendre l’approche à tout le Clos.
Le Clos Marey-Monge verra donc son premier millésime biodynamique en 2018.
Bref historique du Château de Pommard
Le Château de Pommard existe depuis 300 ans, grâce à l’une des plus anciennes familles de Pommard, la famille Micault. En tant que conseiller du roi Louis XV, Vivant Micault entreprit la construction du Château de Pommard dans un pur style Régence.
Au XVIIIème siècle, la famille Marey, l’une des plus influentes familles de Bourgogne, était l’intendante du Clos et a forgé la grande réputation des vins du Château de Pommard.
Le Château de Pommard élabore des vins élégants issus de cinq terroirs distincts au sein du Clos Marey-Monge.
Ce Clos historique d’une superficie de 20 hectares est le plus grand monopole privé de Bourgogne.
Ce terroir unique permet d’assembler le meilleur de chacune des cinq cuvées et de produire un vin d’exception, réputé pour son élégance et sa complexité.
La philosophie du Château de Pommard : offrir un moment de partage symbole de l’authenticité. Le Château de Pommard appartient aujourd’hui à la famille Carabello-Baum, la cinquième famille depuis 1726 à exploiter le domaine, une destination véritablement exceptionnelle en Bourgogne.
Vincent Audras, ‘Verigoude’ Viognier (Beaujolais)
The producer thrust this bottle into my hand, after I told him I’d prefer just to taste just his reds – ‘try it over the weekend‘ he said. I’d already mentioned that I wasn’t the best person to review Viognier, as it isn’t to my taste – but you can’t beat persistence 😉 As I expected very, very floral and rich both aromatically and on the palate too. I have no more to add! (I see no vintage reference, but believe this to be the 2015)
2012 Château Bonnet, Moulin à Vent ‘Vin de Garde’
Now this smells lovely – it tastes great too. There’s an opening touch of vanilla on the nose, but not the palate – this is gone after 15 minutes – so then I’m happy. Fine dark-fruited freshness and a very tasty wine – three people polished it off in no time – super!
Rebuy – Yes
2005 d’Ardhuy, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Chaumes
Dark coloured, an equally dark but seemingly tight, fresh nose. Very lovely, silky flavour with lots of concentration and intensity – yet delicious and balanced – this was drunk even faster than the Château Bonnet – super again!
Rebuy – Yes
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