"Where would we be without those drunk monks?" -Gavin

Today in class we learned about Burgundy's beautiful white wines.
We tasted:

Alain Gras, 2007, St. Romain
Pataille Marsanay, 2005, "La Chance aux Pretres"
St. Aubin, 2007, Primier Cru, Marc Collin, En Remilly
Montrachet, 2006, Chassagne Morey, Vieille Vigne
Puligny - Montrachet, 2006, Jean-Marc Boillot

Our field trip was to Domaine Dublére and Château Merusault:

Domaine Dublére is particularly interesting because it is owned and operated by one man, Blair Pethel. M. Pethel is a fellow North Carolinian from Greensboro. He started out as a political journalist in London in the 80s. His first vintage was in 2004 and moved into his own place just in time for the 2006 vintage. Literally a one-man show! He renovated an old horse barn into a small production room; and except for harvest, he plants, farms and processes his own vines.

Blair himself

The barn. See how everything's squished together?

Blair is only one step away from being a completely organic vineyard. M. Pethel is a man of hygiene - within his first couple of steps, he adds sulfur to the grapes to cleanse them. Though, something I haven't seen yet is this great gadget: a water filter! The water in Beaune has chlorine in it, and especially high content after 9/11/01. This device takes the chlorine out of the water and makes it so that when he cleans the barrels and the cuves (the large steel containers the wine sits in initially) completely untainted, as to not disturb the wine! Chlorine, in effect, sparks the TCA and often leads to "corked" wines.

After that we visited something in a wholy different spectrum, Château Meursault. As Jane, my roommate, put it, "It's like the Disney World of Beaune." And it was. There was a huge compound, with a gift shop and all! Meursault estate was actually a winery that was about to die because of poor funding. It produces wine en masse and has over 150 barrels aging at the same time. Unlike Domaine Dublére, the Château Meursault adds yeast and acid to their wines regularly to produce balance and certain tastes. It's caves were loaded! The wines weren't that great at all.


It started raining at about 3:15pm today. The winemakers have been expecting it but hoping for rain at the least. God forbid, a thunderstorm here could be a complete catastrophe, especially if it produces hail. It rained til about 6:45 pretty steadily, but barely any wind or precarious weather.

The elements are testing us!

Jane, Gavin and I all are in the CFPPA program together. After Ch. Meursault we grabbed our rain jackets and headed to Maison Alex Gambal, just across Beaune from the school. When we arrived Diana was talking to a mechanic that works only on labeling machines. Apparently, ours had gone awry and "was acting like the those characters in that movie The Exorcist!" When we walked down stairs, Alex was talking to his new winemaker, Geraldine Godot; It was her first day on the job! "She trying to get her bearings," explained Alex. He lost his whole wine team mid-July and is starting anew. "It's as if all of the elements are testing us," said Diana. Even this morning there was a slit in one of the pipes that connect the refrigeration to the cuves. Needless to say Diana is working on her squeegee muscles :)

We sat down with Alex over a glass of his Pinot Noir Blanc - scrumcious - and talked wine. He wanted to know what we've learned and we wanted to know what he thought about the weather and the progression he's been making on the grapes he's hoping to get in Clos Vougeot. Interesting stuff. I'm glad I'm with Jane and Gavin. They are very experienced in both production and retail. This will be Gavin's 7th Vendage!

Happy first day of September, everyone!

LOVE!