Vinoculation

After a long flight with an extended delay in Chicago, on the below average United Airlines, I arrived with much excitement and anticipation to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, France. One bus and three trains later, I found myself on the steps of Gard de Beaune. A quick phone call and Blair Pethal appeared and took me back to the winery and accompanying house of Domaine Dublere. The winery is situated on the outskirts of Beaune on the way to Savenay-les-Beaune. This was where I was to spend the best part of the next month helping with the 2008 Burgundian harvest.

Blair is a very interesting person. A man who seems to really be ecstatic with his lot in life. For the duration of harvest I had the pleasure of helping Blair realize his passion of turning a year’s meticulous hard work in the vineyard into the gorgeous, unctuous and downright awesome wine that Domaine Dublere achieves.  Domaine Dublere typified what the very best Burgundian wine producers are known for—excellent viticulture that produces fantastic quality grapes which are then guided through vinification into becoming an elegant and complex elixir which wows wine aficionados the world over.

The first day I was there we did about 19 hours work; we picked a block of Mersault and then processed it. Now when I say picked I mean bending down to the fruiting wire in Burgundy which happens to be about 30 centimetres off the ground. Luckily I was identified as the big guy who is not very flexible and was assigned the duty of porter. A position I would hold throughout most of harvest when out in the vineyard. This duty involved carrying an aluminum basket holding contraption up and down rows and having all the other workers dump their loads…of grapes…. on my back. Sticky juice would run down the back of my thighs and itch like crazy. I still think I had the better end though as all that bending would have killed my back.

As we progressed through harvest it became apparent that the amount of care taken in the vineyard and indeed right throughout the process of transforming grapes into the wine in the bottle was paramount. Attention to detail was key and any wavering from that line could cause disaster. In the 2008 growing season if a farmer missed even one spray it could have meant up to 100% loss of grapes to rot and certainly meant a dramatic drop in total grape must quality from the affected parcel. It became apparent that it is not easy to be a wine producer in Burgundy. The climate and terroir really stresses the vines which really are growing in extreme conditions, right on the edge of being unable to produce grapes worthy of wine production. With cold winters and barely adequate summers it is a wonder maturity is reached at all. However, I think it is these factors that make the wine fantastic, and gives those passionate enough to toil in the vineyard to produce great wines such satisfaction in a job well done when the grapes finally arrive to maturity and begin the lengthy vinification and elevage processes.

Blair Pethel was definitely one of the meticulous ones. Where rot devastated parcels right next to ours in Chassagne-Montrachet and in the flatter land around Meursault and Savigny-les-Beaune we managed to salvage a crop which considering the vintage was very healthy indeed. We had our fair share of Botrytis mid bunch but the care and attention to detail displayed in the winery really showed why the wines are of such a high standard. It was all in the sorting, sometimes painfully slow but always a necessity. The white was all whole bunch pressed on a long champagne-like cycle so a slow methodical sort on a vibrating table was required before the grapes were giraffed into the press. The red was destemmed following a rigorous sort and then whole berry sorting on a second table took place to take out tiny stems and any miss coloured or rotten berries. This stringent approach as well as the excellent viticulture implemented throughout the year is the reason why nothing apart from SO2 is ever needed to be added to the wines.

Burgundy is a region of subtlety and I entered the hallowed appellation thinking I knew a lot about the land and its producers. Every piece of land is different and has been assigned value or quality designation. Essentially each vineyard is assigned a quality level. At the bottom of the slopes of the Cote d’Or we find the Bourgogne level vineyards. The only wine that can be produced from these vineyards is Bourgogne; it cannot be given a village designation. The next up the chain is the village level vineyards. These parcels of land produce wine that may be assigned the village name from which they come. At this level the vineyard name may also be mentioned but is usually not as the village wines usually come from several vineyards around each village. Just up on the main slope and right at the top of the slope of the best aspects the Premier Cru vineyards can be found. These are considered to produce superior wines in good vintages and are often subject to growing and production parameters that differ from the village level vineyards, (such as natural sugar level requirements etc). Then we come to the fabled Grand Cru vineyards, they are usually found in the middle of the slope (with the exception of the enormous Clos de Vougeot). These vineyards are supposed to consistently produce the best wines in each geographical area. These wines mainly come from single special vineyards where some premier cru wines are appellation wines with many different vineyard sources…..

Ok so that can be confusing but was nothing new to me. What surprised me was the need to really know the producer. I entered the arena believing any wine with at least a premier cru designation would be good to very good…. boy was I wrong. My first visit to the local E.Leclirc (a cross between Wholefoods and Wal-Mart) taught me a short, sharp lesion. I bought a mixture of bottles, all Premier Cru wines from various villages and all from producers I had not heard of. Back at the jeet having opened the wines I soon realised why a) Premier Cru wines were selling in a supermarket for such low prices, and b) why I had not heard of the producers…..The wines were terrible. Now not wanting to sound like a snob they were not undrinkable but they were like uninspired homogonous goon.  All green and stemmy, with little primary fruit and no secondary complexity. Wow I really didn’t think that Burgundy would produce much bad wine let alone this bad.

As Vintage progressed and more and more wine was introduced amongst the group we became a little wiser in our choice of producers and were definitely rewarded. Wines from Patrice Rion, Jean Marc Pillot and of course Domaine Dublere were frequent and sublime. Each wine was different in its own right and really showing the character of the land and the vintage as well as the artisan who grew the grapes and created the wine. That really is what Burgundy became about for me. More about who grew the wine and who made it than the actual land, yet as a contrast and maybe slight hypocrisy the parcel of land really mattered as well, but only to the producers who cared and applied knowledge and skill to their work. Just because a producer has some Premier Cru and Grand Cru vineyards does not mean their wine will be any good, and a good producer can have fabulous wine from Village level vineyards. As a general rule the producer who has poor village level wines is also likely to have below average Premier and Grand Cru wines while the vintner who has great village wines will have spectacular Premier and Grand Cru wines if they have access to the vines.

So happy hunting Burgundy lovers, I am richer for the experience and now more than ever I realise that you have to drink a lot of Burgundy to find a great one but when you do it is a sublime experience.