Dispatches from Burgundy: June 2018

A new generation is shaking up Burgundy. Mathilde Grivot, Amelie Berthaut, Charles Lachaux, Charles Van Canneyt have all reinvigorated their family domaines. Then, there are a handful of new producers like Nicolas Faure, Armand Heitz of Heitz-Lochardet and Maxime Cheurlin of Domaine Georges Noellat. It's hard to believe that another incredibly talented class from the Lycee Viticole de Beaune are now seasoned veterans with many vintages behind them.

This trip I arrived early Friday March 9th on Swiss International to Geneva.  On the same flight was Maxime Cheurlin of Domaine Georges Noellat. He offered me a ride to Beaune - lucky me. Max's Swiss importer met us at the the airport and drove us through Geneva on a bright Friday morning, around the lakeshore, past the Jet d'Eau and into the hills to a beautiful house in a gated community about 500 meters from the French border. Some very famous and wealthy French people move to Switzerland for tax reasons, this house used to belong to a movie star, the next door neighbor was a former formula one champion.

We had breakfast - just the kind of breakfast you want after a long flight, rich steaming espresso, bread and butter followed by a bottle of 2001 Michel Bouzereau Meursault 1er Cru Charmes and some 24 month old Parma ham. Then, the 36 month old pata negra.  The wine was served blind - we didn't come close to guessing what it was. I think we might have guessed that it was a white rhone wine, it didn't seem to have a lot of acidity.

Then it was time to leave for France.  It's 230 km to Beaune, takes about 2 1/2 hours on the autoroute over the Alps and through Savoie as you descend through the foothills, go straight to Macon, make a right turn and the next stop is the Cote D'Or.  It's a stunning drive - when it's not fogged in.  That morning was lovely, clear skies and sunny.  As you go down the Alps there is a particularly exhilarating stretch of elevated highway that passes through soaring limestone cliffs and millions of pine trees, in the valleys below alpine villages with their distinct architecture.  Lots of high pastures full of contented cows.  You can almost taste the Comte. We continued down the foothills, then low rolling hills leading to Macon.  We drove through fields of cereal grains north to Beaune.

Such fantastic roads and beautiful weather would inspire many to drive fast, as many people were that morning. They all passed us.  We stayed in the slow lane. Max is a very cautious driver, he mentioned to me that if he got one more point on his licence it would be revoked until January 1st 2019.  The French authorities are very strict about speeding tickets and if you lose your license it is very difficult to get it back. He has to get through the 2018 vintage.

After a quick stop for gasoline (and an espresso), the remaining drive went by quickly. Maxime dropped me  at my hotel in Beaune and drove to his home/cellars on the Rue des Chaumes in Vosne Romanée.  His backyard is the premier cru vineyard -- he actually has a small patch of lawn that would be Vosne Romanée 1er Cru "Les Chaumes", if it were planted with vines.

I saw all of the young growers mentioned above at one or more tastings for the Grand Jours de Bourgogne. There were invitation-only tastings at exporters: some were very fancy, some were after the work day at a winery with other winegrowers invited to present their wines. It was a very busy week for everybody - this was all in addition to their normal duties. Tuesday March 13th was the DIVA tasting at the Chateau de Santenay in the morning (44 wineries) and a buffet lunch. In the afternoon there was an event with 46 Corton growers, then from 5 to 8 it was the "off-grid" tasting at Philippe Pacalet's cellars at Beaune - 14 producers including Jean-Yves Bizot, Claire Naudin, Mathieu Lapierre, Chanterêves, etc. Everyday was full of tastings morning noon and night - a day in the Cote Chalonnaise, a day in Chablis, and then there was a tasting at the Clos de Vougeot with almost every grower from Vosne-Romanée present.

The following week I got to visit many growers at their wineries including Amélie Berthaut, Nicolas Faure and Maxime Cheurlin.  Here are my notes:

Domaine Berthaut
Amélie Berthaut has a brand new cellar, and she really needed the space. At the old cellar in Fixin there was hardly enough room. Now she has taken over almost all of the vineyards from both her mother's and father's sides of the family, she now has just over 13 hectares. Fixin, Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny, Vosne-Romanée, Échezeaux and Clos Vougeot. Lots of work for her vineyard manager and soon-to-be husband Nicolas Faure.  His domaine is only one hectare but he has to do all of that work after his day job.

We tasted in Amelie's very cool modern poured concrete cuverie + barrel cellar in Fixin. Very nice, no more bumping your head and lots of room for her increased production. She is quite pleased with it.

Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Nuits from on top of Vosne-Romanée, called Concoeur. Very rocky, shallow soils on top of limestone, It is very cold and windy and pruning is hard work. Bright sour cherry - strawberry fruit, sprightly, full of energy, saline, mineral, lip smacking acidity on the finish.  Wine that makes you salivate, wine that makes you hungry, wine to drink now. Very good. Incidentally, this is adjacent to the parcel the Gerbet family rents to Michel Digioia

• Fixin AC -- very deep topsoil, lots of clay, old vines, 40 years old. Sweet, good rich dark fruit, earthy, lots of mineral, good long finish. Another wine to drink young. Delicious.
• Fixin "Les Crais" -- a mix of old and young vines vinified separately and blended. Very bright and lively, dark fruits, minerals, earthy, medium-bodied, good powerful finish.
• Fixin "En Combe Roy" -- Amélie says this is her baby.  Her baby Premier cru. 60 year old vines with very small berries, from a selection massale from Fixin "Clos Napoleon".
• Gevrey Chambertin -- bright, pomegranate like fruit, a beautiful tartness and lots of depth, a very layered wine.  Much going on here, will age beautifully, long finish.
• Vosne-Romanée -- Powerful, tangy, tannic & rich. Very good length, medium bodied, very complex. A lovely Vosne-Romanée from vines in Aux Reas and la Riviere.
• Fixin 1er Cru "Les Arvelets" -- from a very large parcel of almost 1 hectare. Great fruit and power.  Very tangy with lots of sap. Layers of complexity. Very long finish.  Really illustrates how fine Fixin can be. This will age beautifully if you can keep from drinking it.
• Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru "Les Cazetiers" -- dark cherry fruit, powerful, rich, fine, racy and elegant. Good long finish.
• Vosne-Romanée "Les Petits Monts" -- she has 1/2 of a hectare of 80 year old vines. "Planted before my grandfather". It is so steep they have to plow with a winch. She says it's a very quiet vineyard, maybe because there are no tractors? This has lovely sweet, dark fruit and layers and layers of complexity, very long finish.  It's one of those wines I hope I can try again.
• Clos Vougeot -- from the bottom of the Clos but very old vines and good plant material. Nice perfume, good body and weight, complex, earthy, good long finish. Definitely Grand Cru. This is a very good example of this most mysterious grand cru which is sometimes exhilarating and sometimes disappointing. I think that the very best Clos Vougeot combines the perfume of Musigny with the power and spice of Grands Échezeaux.

Domaine Nicolas Faure