Nuits-Saint-Georges, Fly Me to the Moon!

21 October 2016:

This commune which gave its name to the Côte de Nuits had a little-known claim to fame. In the book “Autour de La Lune” (“Around the Moon”) written by Jules Vernes in 1870, three men took a journey to the Moon and they celebrated their achievement with a bottle of Nuits-Saint-Georges. In a gesture honouring the novelist’s vision, the crew of Apollo 9 mission (James Divitt, David Scott and Russell Schweikart) after visiting the Aeronautic Centre at Le Bourget, were inducted as members of La Confrèrie des Chevaliers du Tastevin by Bernard Barbier, Grand Maître of the Confrèrie as well as Sénateur-Maire of Nuits-Saint-Georges, on 30 May 1969. The following day, at the Mairie of Nuits-Saint-Georges, the party was present at the naming of a barrel of Nuits-Saint-Georges as Cuvée Terre-Lune 1969. Two years later, in May 1971, the crew of Apollo 15 mission: David Scott, Alfred Worden and James Irwin, passed by Clos de Vougeot after their trip to the Aeronautic Centre at Le Bourget, and they were presented with 6 bottles of Nuits-Saint-Georges Cuvée Terre-Lune 1969 for them to take back to Florida. On 25 July 1971, the Mairie of Nuits-Saint-Georges received a telegram from Cape Kennedy, saying that David Scott and James Irwin wished to name one of the lunar craters where they landed on 31 May 1971 as Saint Georges in honour of Jules Verne’s book “De La Terre a La Lune” ("From the Earth to the Moon") written in 1865.

The name “Nui” was first mentioned in 1060 at the Abbaie de Saint Vivant de Vergy. The origin of the name could have come from an ancient word for a flooded valley or the word for a walnut tree, which was very common in the area before 1709. The wines of Nuits gathered fame during the 15th Century under the rule of the Valois Dukes. In 1680, Dr. Fagon prescribed the wines of Nuits to Louis XIV, saying that old wine had marvelous healing effects. All this attested to the excellence of Nuits wines. The current name of the village Nuits-Saint-Georges was formalized in 1892 and thus solved a political debacle around the naming of the railway station in the village (to differentiate from another station also with Nuits as part of its name). During the 19th Century, the climats of Les Didiers, Les Saint Georges and Les Vaucrains were already well know but somehow they were not requested for promotion to Grand Cru status by the Mayor nor the President of the Appellation of Nuits-Saint-Georges in 1936.

Earlier this week, a group of Hong Kong’s trade and media professionals braved the local Black Rainstorm warning and joined the comparative tasting and live broadcast masterclass on the diversity of Nuits-Saint-Georges organised by the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB). This edition of the “Rendez-Vous avec les vins de Bourgogne” took us to the heart of Nuits-Saint-Georges vineyards and shared with us the insights of two winemakers, Jérôme Flous, Wine and Vineyard Manager of Domaine Faiveley and Thibault Liger-Belair and their favourite climats in Nuits-Saint-Georges. Winemakers have long respected the multiplicity of this relatively small appellation on the Côte de Nuits, with 41 Premier Cru climats, each with its distinct personality. Nuits-Saint-Georges wines can come from 2 communes, Nuits-Saint-Georges and Prémeaux-Prissey, covering just around 300 hectares, with 160 ha at the village level and 140 ha at the Premier Cru level. Nuits-Saint-George wines are not all red, but the white vineyard area is a mere 3% of the total vineyard area.

Nuits-Saint-Georges could be masculine or feminine, depending on whether you’re at the northern end butting Vosne-Romanée where softer-textured wines with more finesse and complexity tend to be shaped or at the southern Prémeaux end, where the soil contains more clay, giving fuller-bodied and more structured wines. Jérôme Flous said Nuits-Saint-Georges could be an Asian elephant at the northern end, round and tame, whereas the southern end was more like an African elephant, wild and robust. His two favourite climats were Les Porrets Saint-Georges, robust and structured with dark fruit and almost prune like character, and Les Damodes, much more refined, with spicy aromas and juicy fruit. Thibault Liger-Belair chose Les Saint Georges and Les Boudots as his two favourite Nuits-Saint-Georges climats. For him, the former represents the quintessence of Nuits-Saint-Georges, with structure and finesse, whereas latter is all about elegance and softness, being next door to Malconsorts in the Vosne village.

The masterclass included one village lieu-dit Les Argillats and 5 Premier Cru climats, covering Les Damodes and Aux Chaignots at the northern end of the Nuits commune, Les Procès and the celebrated Les Saint-Georges from the southern end of the Nuits commune and one climat from the Prémeaux commune, Aux Perdrix, not to be confused with Aux Champs Perdrix at the northern end of Nuits.

The geology has much to account for the distinct characters of each of the 6 wines, as does winemaker/domaine style. Here in Nuits-Saint-Georges, the closed valleys named Combes in the Côte de Nuits, are much wider and the river Meuzin flows through the valleys, bringing with it a wide alluvial fan with pebbles and silt deposits at the northern end. At the southern end, the alluvia originated from La Combe des Vallerots and the soil at the foothills contains deep marly limestone. In some areas the clay has high iron oxide content, as in Les Saint-Georges.

Nuits-Saint-Georges can be divided into 3 parts. The first part forms border with Vosne-Romanée until the river Meuzin, with 240 metres at the lower end and 350 metres at the top end. Some vineyards are fully facing east, such as Les Damodes and others are fully south-facing, such as Aux Argillats (not the same as Les Argillats tasted in this masterclass). Here we have Les Damodes, Aux Boudots, Aux Chaignots and La Richemone as examples of premier cru climats. The second part begins on the other side of the Meuzin valley and finishes at La Combe des Vallerots. Here we have Les Pruliers, Les Procès, Les Vaucrains and Les Saint-Georges as premier cru examples. The third part is in the Prémeaux commune and it is a much narrower strip with climats as Clos l’Arlot, Clos de la Maréchale, Les Didiers, with hard compact limestone at the top of this strip.

The characteristic finesse and concentration of Les Saint-Georges is due to the topsoil of pebbles deposited from La Combe des Vallerots, helping drainage and acting as heat-traps, and also the high clay content giving structure to the wine. It is located at the border with the Prémeaux commune, where the wines tend to show fuller body and more richness. This is evidenced by the richness and concentration of the Aux Perdrix example by Domaine des Pedrix in the line-up. This is one for the long haul but is not entirely unapproachable now, with richness of ripe fruit coupled with chewy tannin and full-bodied concentration. By comparison, Les Damodes tends to display more elegance and freshness due to its higher altitude and more complexity from the long maturation as a result of its full-eastern exposure. The sample by Frédéric Magnien may be more driven by the winemaker’s style. The Drouhin Les Procès also bears hallmarks of the house style, with its characteristic finesse, understated power, and subtle influence of oak from extended seasoning, despite the high clay content of the climat. Les Argillats combines the freshness from the altitude and the balance and concentration from the vintage of 2014.

2013 was a difficult vintage but the samples tasted showed balance and remarkable freshness. 2014 showed much more concentration and ripeness but it was beautifully balanced as a vintage, without any heaviness at all.

The question of whether Nuits-Saint-Georges would one day have a Grand Cru to justify the quality of its wines still hovered and Jean-Pierre Renard of the Ecole des Vins de Bourgogne gave nothing away!

The wines tasted were:

Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Argillats, 2014, Domaine Philippe Gavignet

Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Damodes, 2013, Domaine Frédéric Magnien

Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Aux Chaignots, 2014, Faiveley

Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Procès, 2013, Maison Joseph Drouhin

Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Aux Perdrix, 2013, Domaine des Perdrix

Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Saint-Georges, 2014, Maison Chanzy


Thibault Liger-Belair believes that there are wines for lunch and there are wines for dinner. Nuits-Saint-Georges is definitely a wine for dinner, he says, to be enjoyed slowly, with emotion, with friends. “Never open a bottle alone….and remember: The last glass is always the best.”

Beautiful Old Riojas: 1964 Vina Ardanza Reserva Especial

2 Sep 2016: This dinner took a while to come together and in the end, we lost some people but gained others. It was a remarkable assembly of beautifully aged Riojas, including the legendary 1928 Federico Paternina Ollauri Gran Reserva and the 1964 Viña Ardanza Reserva Especial (released only 3 times in history, 1964, 1973 and 2001). I found the VA in the 1928 a bit overpowering a short while after opening. It was almost madeira like.  We were able to taste two vintages of La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 904 side by side: 1964 and 1989. They were both divine: 1964 nicely matured, and 1989 still plentiful of vigour. We were also treated to a 1968 Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva Blanco: amber gold in colour, with layers of ginger, nutmeg, Oriental spices, hints of caramel, still showing lots of freshness and a long finish. 

There's something rather romantic about old Riojas.....the silky texture, the liveliness that's still evident in most of the wines, the layers of flavours slowly unfolding on the palate, and the lingering finish. With these, we do not worry ourselves with single vineyards, just the vintage and the skill of the winemaker.  These are wines for a meditative evening, not wines to be consumed in a hurry! 

My top picks from our evening were:

1964 Viña Ardanza Reserva Especial

1964 La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 904

1989 La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 904

A couple of white Bourgogne bottles sneaked into our tasting, but they were both much appreciated.

For a traditional evening, the best venue had to be Olé, which never disappoints with its fabulous execution of classic dishes! (http://www.olespanishrestaurant.com.hk/)

1945 Rausan Segla

3 Sep 2016:
1945 Rausan Segla: "Shipped in wood" to the UK for bottling.  Harmonious, seamlessly integrated, mature bouquet of cigar box, violet and leather with caramelized fruit notes, lingering on the finish. Velvety to taste, with no noticeable acetic or oxidative notes. Incredibly well preserved for its age. An ethereal classic claret. Lacking in depth and richness for the vintage to merit a higher score. 19/20

A class above - 1990 Hill of Grace

16 Aug 2016: We finally made it to this long anticipated dinner which was originally going to be a Grange mini vertical dinner. With the passing of time, the theme was swapped for the classic Syrah/Shiraz evening. Impeccable and extremely professional service by the team at Another Place by David Myers @ HIP Cellar, and above all excellent and artistically presented dishes.  There was general consensus that the duck course was the star dish - sadly I did not take a photo - it looked so tempting, that we could hardly wait to tuck into it! 

Marinated kodama watermelon, ama ebi, edamame salad, yuzu kosho

1996 Chardonnay Extra Cuvée de Reserve, Pol Roger 
We started with this champagne. Layers of pear, almonds, brioche, rich and exuberant without heaviness, with creamy mousse and a lively crisp finish. Excellent drop, still very fresh at 20 years! 18/20

2000 Chablis Montée de Tonnerre, Raveneau
Sadly, oxidised aldehyde notes prevented our enjoyment.  This calls for another bottle from the same case to be tasted soon!

The line-up of 4 Syrahs

1978 Hermitage La Chapelle, Jaboulet
Black plum, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, wild herbs, game, black pepper, whiff of VA, vibrant acidity, elegant tannin, very long finish. Not quite the gargantuan 100-pointer that we were expecting. Wine lost its freshness and revealed a dull and coarse palate after about an hour. Worth investigating with another bottle from the same case to see if this wine is at risk of decline. 17/20


1980 Grange, Penfolds
Sweet vanilla, coconut, blackberry, minty chocolate, black pepper, firm structure, velvety tannin, firm acidity. A lush wine with a slightly rustic edge, not quite as suave. Lacked personality. 96% Shiraz. 4% Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink now and over next 8-10 years. 17/20

Interestingly, the 1980 Grange cork did not have any engravings on it.
Just a plain cork.

1990 Grange, Penfolds
Topped up with 2006, recorked in 2011. Blackcurrant, spicy, vibrant acidity, sweet vanilla, coconut, the elegant palate belies a big and powerful structure. This recorked bottle seemed youthful but very ready to please . 95% Shiraz, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon for original vintage. Long way to go. Drink now and over next 10+ years. 17.5/20

Slow-cooked Iberico pork loin, confit fingerling potatoes, yuzu jus

1990 Hill of Grace, Henschke
Gamey, slight hint of black pepper, sweet finish, harmonious, integrated with velvet tannins, minty chocolate, hint VA but enough to detract from its singular beauty and elegance. A stylish wine that has aged magnificently and gracefully. A class above the rest of the flight. Very persistent finish. Drink now and over next 10+ years. 19.5/20 (Very beautifully paired with the duck cooked under sous vide!)

Strawberry shortcake, almond milk, burnt miso ice cream

1882 Ne Oublie, Graham's
Quite different from the Scion. Layers of toasted walnuts, dried orange peel and balsamic nuances. Beautifully integrated. The anticipation from watching the bottle being extracted from the heavy encasement, to being opened, then the pouring and finally the tasting was simply breathtaking. On the palate, there was a freshness that kept the body of the wine lithe and vivacious, whereas from memory, the Scion was more unctuous and opulent. The bouquet lingering on the glass was simply mesmerizing. A very memorable end to a wonderful dinner. 20/20

Our menu - highly recommended!

Domaine Senkin defining the ‘New World’ of Japanese sake

June 2016:

I recently had the opportunity to meet Kazuki Usui, the CEO of Senkin Shuzo (or Domaine Senkin, as Usui-san prefers it being known) at a masterclass and dinner hosted at the China Club by the Drinks Business Hong Kong, in collaboration with Jebsen Fine Wines. As the 11th generation running this ancient brewery that dates to 1806, Usui-san believes that it is his duty to sustain the traditions while innovating with new techniques and styles to ensure the brewery’s continuation in a world challenged by evolving palates in both alcoholic beverages and food. With formal training as a wine sommelier, Usui-san never set out to be a traditional brewer of sake, following the standard recipes for sake brewing. He also understands that to a degree, wine selection at restaurants is driven by grape variety with regional style to pair with the food, whereas sake is more likely to be chosen based on the popularity of the brand. Therefore, his priority was to build the brand for Senkin. Putting a stamp on his individuality, he decided to adopt the Burgundian name of ‘domaine’ for Senkin, and to follow the concept of ‘domaine’, that he would only make sake with ingredients under his full control.

 

Kazuki Usui clutching a bottle of Senkin Tsuru-Kame 19

As demonstrated in the first half of the masterclass where we tasted 5 sake examples from 5 different breweries and prefectures, each with their own qualities of water, defined as hardness of water (amount of calcium carbonate and minerals such as potassium, magnesium and phosphates), water seemed a more dominant factor in influencing the style of sake, much more so than the rice variety. This was brought to light by the example of a sake from Hyogo with hard water called miyamizu and Nagano where the water hardness measured the lowest amongst the 5 examples (almost 1/6 the level of the water in Hyogo). Today, Senkin uses the same water to grow the rice and to brew sake. All the rice varieties in his sake portfolio come from fields in the Tochigi prefecture where the brewery is based.

Further, the brewery has eschewed the special designations requirements (Tokutei Meisho). Instead, Usui-san has developed his own range of ‘Classic’ and ‘Modern’ where in the former, the seimaibuai (rice polishing rate) for both kake mai and koji mai is 50%, giving a rich and rounded style, and in the latter, the seimaibuai for koji mai is 35% and for kake mai, 50%, giving a more elegant style. (Typically in sake production, koji mai or koji rice accounts for about 15-20% of total rice requirement. This is rice inoculated with koji mould that serves to split the starch into sugars for fermentation by yeast into alcohol. Kake mai is the remaining steamed rice.) The more the rice is polished, the closer we get to the shinpaku (starch core), the more refined, balanced and pure the style of sake, with pronounced aromatic profile, smoother texture and crisp finish. Within the special designation sake or premium sake which only accounts for 30% of total sake production in Japan, a sake can only qualify as Honjozo with a minimum of 70% seimaibuai, and 60% for Ginjo and 50% for Daiginjo, although 35% seems the norm for high quality Junmai Daiginjo. Rice polishing is laborious and requires time and care. Usui-san has just produced a barrel of sake with just 7% seimaibuai. It took 15 days to achieve this level of polishing rate, which reduced the brown rice grain to just a mere white speck of extreme fragility. This nerve-wrecking process would necessitate meticulous instructions in soaking and steaming, all supervised with extreme care. It was produced in batches of 20 kg and the soaking took exactly 1 minute 30 seconds, no more no less, in water at 6°C. This was followed by steaming for 45 minutes. (Compared with a 50% seimaibuai batch of 200kg, the steaming would normally take 90 minutes.) For 2.5 tonnes (2,500 kg) of rice, this method only produced 400 bottles, instead of the standard 5,000 bottles. Senkin produced one barrel only of this 7% seimaibuai sake, made with Kame-no-O, the signature rice of Tochigi prefecture, that has earthy complexities, dry style and a high degree of acidity. Half of this barrel was exclusively bottled for Jebsen Fine Wines for their own label Kikusaki. It is no surprise that Kikusaki Nana (‘Nana’ is the Japanese word for ‘seven’) comes with a high retail price tag of HK$ 3,200 a bottle. Usui-san recommended service temperature of 8°C.  

 

When asked Usui-san why he went for 7%, he replied that another brewery had produced 8% and he wanted to push the boundary further. While he can continue to experiment with the seimaibuai (ie going lower), he will turn his attention to refinement of other production techniques. We tasted his Nature-un. It was made using the kimoto technique, with natural lactic acid bacteria and natural yeast, and a seimaibuai over 90%, quite the reverse of the 7%. The intensity of umami flavours was astonishing, with such savoury complexities of dried Chinese mushroom, truffle and yeast. From the expressions on the face of a few participants, it might be more of an acquired taste. I kept some behind for the dinner and thought it went extremely well with the fried rice with roasted duck, mushroom, shrimp and conpoy in abalone sauce, scented with black truffle, for that explosion of umami flavours!   According to Usui-san, this can be enjoyed at either 18-20°C or at 45-50°C.

In future, Usui-san will also be experimenting with different types of barrels. He used a Bourbon barrel in the production of the 7% seimaibuai sake.

Contrary to the practice of adding water to dilute sake from the genshu state of 17-20% abv, there is no such practice at Senkin. So technically, they are all genshu.  In addition, there is no fining nor filtration at Senkin.

The hallmark of Senkin sakes is the balance of acidity and sugar, sometimes more than barely noticeable sweetness. The acidity was particularly marked for Senkin Issei, a 35% seimaibuai, based on Yamadanishiki rice.  It would go particularly well with fish and seafood, according to Usui-san. The noticeable sweetness could work very well with lightly spicy food, and I would like to retry the Modern Senkin Yamadanishiki with Thai cuisine for example. In fact, everyone thought this sake went very well with the ginger in the dish of braised pork spareribs with citrus fruit paste and young ginger, but the sweetness of the citrus fruit paste was a bit too overpowering for the sake.

Perhaps the widely acknowledged all-rounder and most wine-like was the Tsuru-Kame 19, with 19% seimaibuai and Kame-no-O as the rice variety. Usui-san recommended serving it at 8-10°C.  I likened it to a Chablis, with energy, tension and balanced freshness. 

Senkin is definitely charting new waters for a traditional beverage of over 1,500 years. The mystique of sake is that unlike wine (a grape variety, married with climate and soil, that would give an expected style), with sake, it is not so obvious, with so many variations that could make a difference, from water quality, soaking time, soaking temperature, rice polishing rates for koji mai and kake mai, kimoto or sokujo, natural yeast or cultured yeast, pasteurization or not, filtration or not, to ageing methods, and so much more! This matrix of variations is not meant to be confusing.  Rather, it opens up new avenues for a traditional beverage to find new amateurs who can enjoy it with different types of cuisine and on different occasions. There should be a sake for everyone and every moment!

The sakes tasted in the masterclass and dinner were:

Masterclass

Flight 1 

1) Manotsuru Junmai Daiginjo (真野鶴純米大吟醸実来): Koshitanrei, 35% RPR, Niigata Prefecture

2) Hakuko Junmai Daiginjo 50 Sarasoju (白鴻純米大吟醸沙羅双樹50): Yamadanishki, 50% RPR, Hiroshima Prefecture

3) Fukuju Junmai Mikagego (福寿純米御影郷): Yamadanishki, 70% RPR, Hyogo Prefecture

4) Takizawa Tokujo Honjozo (瀧澤特撰): Hitogokochi, 59% RPR, Nagano Prefecture

5) Michizakura Junmai Aiyama (三千櫻純米愛山): Aiyama, 60% RPR, Gifu Prefecture

 

Masterclass Flight 1

Flight 2

6) Senkin Tsuru-Kame 19 (仙禽鶴亀19): Kame-no-O, 19% RPR, Tochigi Prefecture

7) Senkin Issei (仙禽一聲): Yamadanishiki, 35% RPR, Tochigi Prefecture

8) Modern Senkin Omachi (モダン仙禽雄町): Omachi, 50% RPR, Tochigi Prefecture

9) Classic Senkin Kame-no-O (クラッシク仙禽亀の尾): Kame-no-O, 50% RPR, Tochigi Prefecture

10) Senkin Nature Un (仙禽ナチュラルアン): Kame-no-O, >90% RPR, Tochigi Prefecture

 

Masterclass Flight 2

Dinner

1) Senkin Issei (仙禽一聲): Yamadanishiki, 35% RPR, Tochigi Prefecture

2) Kikusaki Nana(菊咲 7): Kame-no-O, 7% RPR, Tochigi Prefecture

3) Modern Senkin Yamadanishiki (モダン仙禽山田錦): Yamadanishiki, 50% RPR, Tochigi Prefecture

4) Senkin Tsuru-Kame 19 (仙禽鶴亀19): Kame-no-O, 19% RPR, Tochigi Prefecture

5) Classic Senkin Kame-no-O (クラッシク仙禽亀の尾): Kame-no-O, 50% RPR, Tochigi Prefecture

6) Modern Senkin Omachi (モダン仙禽雄町): Omachi, 50% RPR, Tochigi Prefecture

7) Modern Senkin MUKU (モダン仙禽無垢): Hitogokochi, 50% RPR, Tochigi Prefecture

8) Senkin Ume-jiri (仙禽梅尻)

 

Dinner Selection

Ganpai!

9th Edition of Musique et Vin au Clos Vougeot

June 2016: We felt very privileged to be invited to join a couple of events at the 9th edition of Musique et Vin au Clos Vougeot, a music and wine festival that brings together amateurs of Bourgogne wine and music to raise funds to support young artists. David Chan, Concert Master at the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, has been artistic director of this festival since 2008. Through the participation of David and his friends, a Franco-American inter-cultural exchange has been fostered in the spirit of music and wine. The 2016 festival also saw the brilliant performance by violinist Renaud Capuçon, cellist Gautier Capuçon, baritone Ildar Abdrazakov, and soprano Hyesang Park, who along with violinist Vladimir Percevic, are the two 2016 winners. Conductor Charles Dutoit delighted the audience with his brilliant and animated leadership of the orchestra and singers at the final concert at Clos Vougeot, which consisted of arias from the Barber of Seville and Don Giovanni, as well as a beautiful Concerto No. 1, by Camille Saint-Saëns and a symphony by Georges Bizet. The entire concert was able to take place open air, under a canopy which rather nervously supported the strong winds.

Two days prior to the final concert, we also attended the concert at Château de Meursault and were regaled by such magnificent pieces of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto Brandebourgeois No. 1, No. 4 and the most captivating No. 3, with the flawless performance by a number of musicians, including violinists David Chan, Abraham Appleman, Catherine Ro and Katherine Fong, and flautists Magali Mosnier and Jose-Daniel Castellon, amongst others. The concert had actually decamped to the church nearby in anticipation of the storm that threatened to arrive early evening. This was followed by La Paulée Musicale at Château de Meursault, whereby everyone took a bottle (or more!) to share with other guests. The atmosphere at La Paulée is always very convivial, with plenty of vinous generosity, banter and animation of Le Bon Bourguignon. We tried so many wines that we failed to record them all. However I recalled tasting an excellent 1995 Charles Heidsieck Blanc des Millénaires, an elegant 2008 Château Lafleur and a brilliant 2001 Raveneau Chablis Les Clos, a 1989 Clos Vougeot Gros Frère et Soeur, a 1990 DRC Grands Echézeaux, 1988 Clos de Tart (magnum) and the 2006 DRC Romanée-Saint-Vivant which we rather tasted hastily, I felt. We took a magnum of 1988 Domaine des Chézeaux Griotte-Chambertin and that was rather delicious too!

Anthony Hanson and Clement working hard at auctioning the lots

The finale evening at Château du Clos Vougeot finished with a charity auction, with the generous support of various domaines. A well-fed and suitably ‘wined’ audience eagerly awaited every lot being declared by auctioneer Anthony Hanson who rattled through the 31 lots (2 impromptu lots were added during the course of the evening) with electrifying speed and was most persuasive with his succinct and effective descriptions of each lot in both French and English. The result was an enormous success, raising EUR 250,000 compared to EUR 178,000 last year. Some really special lots featured such as 2 magnums of Clos de Vougeot Cuvée des Moines de Cîteaux 1997 (being 2 of 150 magnums produced from a single barrel to celebrate the 900th anniversary of the foundation of the Abbaye de Cîteaux, using grapes from every climat of the Grand Cru), a jeroboam of Clos de Vougeot Hommage à Jean Morin, Château de La Tour, 2013 (an ultra-rare cuvée launched in 2010 and only declared in exceptional vintages, made with only the first cluster from the first shoot of the very old vines dated from 1910, ) and a bas relief sculptured wood representation of Saint Vincent, with original polychrome paint (this was won by our friends at Fine Wine Experience!). The final lot of a magnum of DRC Romanée-Conti 2005 went for an extraordinary sum of EUR 100,000, making it the most expensive lot. The second most expensive lot went for EUR 12,000 and it included a magnum of Corton Clos Rognet, Méo-Camuzet 2006, a magnum of Clos Vougeot, Domaine du Clos Frantin 2012 and a bottle of DRC La Tâche 2009.

Hyesang Park delighting the audience with her Korean rendition

Over the years, the festival has received much support from both France and overseas, including a number of overseas sponsors. No doubt the enthusiasm for the auction at the Clos Vougeot dinner was prompted by the quality of the wines that were served at dinner! Ildar Abdrazako and Hyesang Park respectively captivated the diners with renditions in their own languages, Russian and Korean.

Here were the wines served at dinner: 

Champagne Blanc de Blancs, Delamotte

Meursault Charmes-Dessus 2013, Château de Meursault

Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles 2004, Domaine Leflaive

Chambolle-Musigny Les Beaux Bruns 2012, Joseph Faiveley

Clos des Lambrays 2011, Domaine des Lambrays

Echézeaux 2009, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti

Château d’Yquem 2005

Liqueurs Gabriel Boudier


The weather behaved extremely well during the week-long festival. Apart from the extreme heat and torrential storm on 24 June, we had clear sky and mild temperatures that made it a most pleasant week. We look forward to joining the festival again next year!

Chaptalisation is like adding that pinch of salt....

24th June 2016, at 32°C outside, the cool cellar of Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg was a welcome change. The inflorescence has now formed but the first budbreak has not happened yet in Bourgogne. Continued sunshine and warmth would be perfect, but every vigneron was dreading the hailstorm that was predicted to arrive later in the evening, that would threaten to decimate the crop, especially after the ravages of late April frost. Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg had already lost 99% of their Chambolle-Musigny Les Feusselottes to frost. It was difficult to imagine how hail could materialize when all we could see was ferocious heat and bright blue sky.


We were received by Marie-Andrée at Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg. The domaine was created in 1933 upon the marriage of Jeanne Gibourg and André Mugneret. Georges Mugneret was their only son, a trained ophthalmologist, who kept his medical career going while being involved in the family profession. He met his wife Jacqueline while serving in Algeria. Marie-Andrée and Marie-Christine, her elder sister of 9 years, took over the domaine when their father passed away prematurely in 1988, after having finished the vinification for that vintage. Marie-Andrée was still at school then and she formally joined her sister a few years later, in 1992. The two sisters share responsibilities in the winery, for example bottling is Marie-Christine’s sole responsibility and Marie-Andrée fiercely defends her chaptalisation responsibility. According to Marie-Andrée, chaptalisation is like adding a pinch of salt when baking. It adds a certain dimension to the taste but it is inconspicuous on the palate. For her, chaptalisation is vital for the balance of wine, adding between 0.2 – 0.5% abv, religiously every year. An exception is 2009 when there was so much phenolic and sugar ripeness that no further adjustment was necessary. The culinary comparison does not stop here: Marie-Andrée assures us that adding sugar to fermenting must creates a most enticing aroma.


In the vineyards, they prefer la lutte raisonné, instead of definitively going down the route of organic, to be assured of a safe and healthy crop. For example, in 2013, they had to spray herbicide against flavescence dorée, and in 2016, they had to spray against mildew. However, in 2015, with such fine and warm weather, no chemical products needed to be used.


We tasted a range of 2014 of their wines. Flowering was early in 2014, happening at end May (unlike end June this year), summer began hot but a big hailstorm wreaked havoc on the last Saturday of June, affecting mostly Pommard, Volnay, Savigny. August remained cold (that the heating had to be switched on). Fine weather returned beginning of September and they were able to harvest around 20th September.


The domaine’s maximum production is around 120 barrels, but on average it’s around 100 barrels, with some vintage variations, such as 68 barrels in 2012, 102 barrels in 2014 and 90 barrels in 2015.

 

We tasted Vosne-Romanée village (from the climats of La Croix Blanche, Au Bas Combe, La Colombière and Les Chalandins), Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Chaignots, Chambolle-Musigny Les Feusselottes, Echezeaux (50% from Les Rouges du Bas climat which brought minerality, and 50% from Les Quartiers de Nuits which contributed power, like in Clos Vougeot), Ruchottes-Chambertin (Ruchottes du Bas) and finally Clos Vougeot. The Ruchottes-Chambertin was a very elegant balance between finesse and power, with just perfect concentration. The domaine bought this parcel in 1953 and replanted in 1954. The Clos Vougeot seemed more austere with a firmer structure, having come from vines over 60 years of age. The family had owned another parcel of Clos Vougeot previously and Georges was given some large formats from the 1929 vintage. This parcel was subsequently sold. The 1929 Clos Vougeot was such a great wine that Georges decided to purchase a parcel of Clos Vougeot located in the Montiotes Hautes climat, while still in medical school then.


The last jeroboam from the glorious 1929 vintage was drunk last year on the occasion of Jacqueline’s 80th birthday.

 

Marie-Andree explaining to us that it's the family tradition to taste the Clos Vougeot after Ruchottes-Chambertin

We then tasted a few 2015’s from barrel. We tasted Echezeaux, Ruchottes-Chambertin and Clos Vougeot. The last two were particularly impressive, with such freshness, concentration and character than the 2014 vintage. They seemed such complete wines at the moment, that they would be rather sensational with some bottle age. In 2015, the natural alcohol was between 12.5 abv and 13.2% abv.

The domaine uses 4 coopers for their different characters.


The wines all showed distinct expression of terroir, with beautiful balance, silky texture, refined tannins and subtle power for the Grand Cru wines. This is a domaine that delivers consistently and produces some really beautiful and expressive and harmonious wines. 2015 clearly showed a big step up on 2014! Do not miss the Ruchottes and Clos Vougeot when released en primeur.


NB. The hailstorm predicted for 24 June did not materialize to the relief of all vignerons. Instead, we had a furious rainstorm that lasted all night.