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news from Burgundy

Les Trésors des Caves de l'Abbaye de Joseph Drouhin.
The House Joseph Drouhin opened for the first time its Wine Library to the general public on the occasion of the 153rd Hospices de Beaune Wine Auction. This family house that produces about two million bottles relies on a beautiful estate of 73 hectares in Burgundy, farmed organically and in biodynamics, and has splendid historic cellars.
Located in the centre of Beaune, at 1 Cour du Parlement de Bourgogne, Joseph Drouhin’s Wine Library, is composed of a showroom on the street level and extends underground over one hectare, including the former cellar of the Dukes of Burgundy, later called the Cellar of the Kings of France that has been linked to the Cellars of the neighbouring Abbey by the current owners. Together they form a labyrinth of galleries punctuated by archaeological ruins that shelter Grand Crus that are currently maturing.
The neophyte will discover various remains like a castrum (i.e. a Roman wall), 5 m wide and 15 m high, built by Emperor Aurelian to fortify the city. Other vaults host old wooden, screw and wheel presses; and in the depth of the place, treasures, barrels with old vintages, mythic wines like Clos des Mouches in Côte de Beaune, Meursault Perrières, Puligny-Montrachet les Folatières are resting …
Six emblematic wines are proposed for tasting after the visit. We have been served a 2011 Côte de Beaune, a wine for immediate pleasure; a 2005 Meursault Perrières, a vintage whose balance, complexity, finesse and delicacy evoke the great symphonies; and a 2009 Puligny-Montrachet les Folatières, a creamy, unctuous white wine, with an exceptional blend of aromas, considered by all the visitors as a real delight!
Ready to go and discover Drouhin’s 90 appellations stemming from the
varieties Pinot Noir and Chardonnay? Visit by appointment, save a date!

www.drouhin.com

Tél.: 03 80 24 68 88

The French Vine and Terroir Festival has been announced by Cécile Bonnefond, Chairwoman of the Champagne houses Charles and Piper Heidsieck, at the end of the press conference of the Hospices de Beaune. The goal? The promotion of the French wines and wine industry with our nationals in order to make each of them become in turn the ambassadors of the wines made in France.
Sponsored by famous pens like Bernard Burtschy and Bernard Joo, chairpersons like Louis Latour and Cécile Bonnefond, institutional figures like Jean-Louis Salies, Yves Bénard or Catherine Dumas, the first edition will take place on May 17th and 18th, in Paris and in the provinces on the wine routes.

This initiative of general interest aims at promoting responsible consumption, the national heritage; at stressing the industry that employs 558,000 persons; at highlighting the professions that drive it, the 35,000 French estates and 400 cooperative cellars, their terroirs, the gastronomic meal of the French, served with appellation wines.
This national event is destined to be exported to promote the image of France, the country of vine and wine for millennia. Want to participate? Visit the website :
www.fetedelavigne.org
“The demand for young Burgundy wines intensifies”, we are explained by wine growers like André Esmonin in Gevrey-Chambertin, merchants like Albert Bichot or Patriarche. In response to this trend, Véronique Drouhin crafted in 2013, for the house Joseph Drouhin, Laforêt Chardonnay, a bouquet of aromas, and Laforêt Pinot Noir, a moreish wine. Two cuvees ready to enjoy after a year maturing.
These casual budget wines are appreciated by today’s consumers, from New York to Moscow, from London to Paris, who prefer aperitifs and improvised dinners with simple dishes.

www.lagrandeepicerie.com The Domains are changing hands in Gevrey-Chambertin. After the purchase of the domain Maume by Canadian Moray Tawse, owner of hundred hectares in Ontario, the acquisition of Château de Gevrey-Chambertin by Chinese Louis Ng Chi Sing who provides a beautiful promotion of grand Burgundy wines on his gastronomic tables in Macao, it now is a French family, historically settled in the Côte de Nuits area, who took over in late 2013 the exploitation of the domain Dupont-Tisserandot in Gevrey-Chambertin.
On the initiative of Erwan Faiveley, heir to the seventh generation, the eponymous Do­main grew of 20 ha, producing 20 appellations and three Grand Crus: Mazis-Chambertin, Charmes-Chambertin and Corton Le Rognet.

www.domaine-faiveley.com

Le corps professoral de School of Wine & Spirits Business du Groupe ESC Dijon-Bourgogne dans les caves de la Maison Champy.

To visit again and again, the cellars of the house Champy designed by Gustave Eiffel where the School of Wine & Spirits Business welcomed the press. Time seems to stand still in the one-kilometre-long cellars of the oldest Burgundy house, settled in the centre of Beaune and still working like a craftsman.
Founded in 1720, purchased by the Meurget family in 1990, this house, on the estate side, is gaining ground again with the acquisition of the domain Laleure-Piot in Pernand-Vergelesses in 2010, of the Clos de la Chapelle in Volnay in 2011, increases in quality on the vineyard side thanks to organic and biodynamic farming, and restores its image with a new packaging released in 2013 for its First and Grand Crus. A new lease on life, a quest for excellence that can be felt as from the entrance in the cellar.

www.champy.com

Le Chemin des Vignes by Claude Chapuis has been republished. Written by a wine grower from Aloxe-Corton, become teacher at the business school ESC of Dijon, fond of grape growing, its well-aligned rows, its millenary terroirs and its mythical wines, a bit of a poet, a wonderful connoisseur of its rituals and science, this book might teach even the experts. Its pages are a delight and have to be enjoyed like a great vintage of Burgundy (€14.50 - Éditions de Bourgogne).

Marie-Caroline Bourrellis

Claude Chapuis