Sep 2011
Burgundy Harvest Fare
14 September 2011 Filed in: Burgundy News & Views
The harvesters’ dinner at Aubert and Pamela de Villaine’s eponymous Bouzeron domaine takes place at 7.30pm each evening and is announced by a hand-held and enthusiastically rung bell – of the sort that used to do service in schoolyards across the world. Unlike the pupils’ reluctant retreat from the schoolyard, however, the bell here summons an immediate response and soon a veritable United Nations of harvesters descends on the long table. They come from Poland, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Canada, Italy, Spain and France and on the evening I visited they sat down to a meal of white bean soup, girolles tart, cold roast pork, salad, cheese, ice cream and chocolate sauce. Read More...
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Chassagne Cycle
13 September 2011 Filed in: Burgundy News & Views
“Écouter moi!” barked the vineyard supervisor as a dozy grape carrier failed to respond quickly enough to instructions about precisely which group of pickers he should be collecting grapes from. The shout had the dual effect of emboldening the hapless worker and shattering the rose-tinted spectacles through which I had been viewing proceedings up until then. Picking grapes is hard, grinding work, only imbued by dewy-eyed onlookers with some sort of bucolic romance, not by the pickers themselves. It was late afternoon on a baking day in Burgundy, with the mercury touching 30ºC and I could partly empathise with the pickers, as I had rashly decided to explore the village and vineyards of Chassagne-Montrachet by bicycle. Read More...
Conkers and Richebourg
12 September 2011 Filed in: Burgundy News & Views
The wind was whipping the conkers from the chestnut trees at Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair in Vosne-Romanée last Wednesday morning as I walked past, prompting a wimpish dash to the other side of the road to escape them. (You might have done the same if you had seen them bursting apart as they hit the road.) My destination was just a few yards further along rue du Château, where perhaps the most diligent sorting team in the world was hard at work, picking out anything that was sub-standard amongst the bunches of grapes that today are now well on their way to making Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s Richebourg 2011. Read More...
Boisset Harvest
07 September 2011 Filed in: Burgundy News & Views
“This year the sorting table will be the key.” So said Gregory Patriat, wine maker at JC Boisset, when I called to see him last Friday morning in Nuits-St-Georges, just a few hours before he was due to commence the 2011 harvest, starting in Beaune Grèves. With him having only 15 minutes to spare I managed a few rapid-fire questions before he dashed away again to see that was all was in order prior to the off. In terms of the amount of sorting that will be required Patriat reckons that 2011 is similar to 2004. Continuing, he expressed bewilderment that some people had already finished harvesting: “They must be magicians.” He could have started the previous Monday but was glad that he had waited a few extra, sunny, days – necessary to dry the grapes after the 30mm downpour a week earlier. Read More...
Good Grapes
06 September 2011 Filed in: Burgundy News & Views
“À table!” hollered Mark Haisma in French yesterday morning at 11.49, prompting his sorting team to move from the makeshift table they had been using back to the more conventional mechanical one, now repaired having ground to a halt earlier. With the noise from the ghetto blaster at conversation-drowning volume it’s a wonder anybody heard him. That, together with the Coopers Original Pale Ale in the fridge, might leave you thinking you had stepped into an Australian winery, and not one on the outskirts of Gevrey-Chambertin. Don’t be fooled. Haisma knows his stuff and his wines are far removed from the brash palate-thumpers you might expect. Read More...
Montrachet for Breakfast
If I said that this bunch of Montrachet grapes fell off the back of a passing truck no one would believe me but that is what happened last Saturday afternoon. I picked them up and hollered, sotto voce, after the driver but he didn't hear me (that's the untrue bit). Could I make a few centiliters of wine with them? What to ferment it in? The bowl of an unused pipe made of oak? No, I didn't think so either. And they taste so good. Perfect for breakfast, in fact, intensely juicy and mouthwatering, sweet ‘n’ sour all in the one bite. Impossible to stop eating them. Read More...
Burgundy Dawn
These 6.00am starts are not easy, particularly now with the days shortening and the sky still dark at that hour – save for a scattering of stars on a clear morning. But I was rewarded yesterday as I drove through Chassagne-Montrachet, crossing the D906 that links Saint-Aubin with Chagny, before climbing up the small hill between Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet on the right and Blanchot-Dessus on the left. Cresting the rise, the colours changed from muted greys to opulent reds, pinks and oranges and the vineyards went up a few notches in quality too; Bâtard-Montrachet now to the right and Le Montrachet on the left. Read More...
Remoissenet Revival
03 September 2011 Filed in: Burgundy
When I first became interested in Burgundy Remoissenet was a name to be avoided, along with others such as Mommesin, Chanson and Maufoux. However, the great thing about Burgundy is that, despite appearances to the contrary, it is always changing, like a slowly turning kaleidoscope. The result is that a correctly held opinion, written in stone today, can be turned to dangerous fallacy by the events of tomorrow. And ‘tomorrow’ arrived at Remoissenet a few years ago when long-time patriarch Roland Remoissenet sold the business to a group of American investors, with Louis Jadot also taking a small holding. Read More...
Montrachet Ladybird
02 September 2011 Filed in: Burgundy
This is a ladybird with impeccable taste, nestled snugly on a bunch of Montrachet grapes at the Drouhin winery on the outskirts of Beaune yesterday. And you needn’t worry that she soon met her doom in the press. Far from it. Having first noted that her presence was evidence of the success of their biodynamic practices, Véronique Drouhin then carefully removed her and brought her outside where she was placed gently on a white rose. The cellar hands get a good laugh out of Drouhin’s concern, though ladybird rescue is not all that she does during harvest. Read More...
Burgundy Harvest Begins
After a growing season that witnessed extraordinarily variable weather, harvest is gradually getting underway in the Côte d’Or. It is an early harvest, about three weeks earlier than last year, mainly thanks to the summer-like weather experienced in April. This continued through May and into June, with the mercury creeping towards a furnace-like 40ºC at times, leaving the ground parched and the vines badly in need of a drink. Which they certainly got in July, when the temperature plummeted and the rain came down, and down. Read More...
