Vineyards in Macon have reached the next stage in their battle for promotion to Premier Cru status.

Mathieu Bubel, marketing director of Maison Drouhin, which produces several Maconnais wines within its négociant label, told Decanter.com, ‘Visually, you can tell there are some great terroirs for potential Premier Crus in the Maconnais, from the colour of the soils, their make-up and their exposure. It remains to determine exactly which ones, and with the INAO that can take time. Clearly also methods of production need to be tougher for Premier Cru vineyards, but it’s certainly achievable.’

The INAO, which has appointed a panel of experts to study the soils of each of the four appellations and to define the exact criteria for delimitation, confirmed that a final decision is still unlikely until at least 2015.

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WINE tastings are intended to illuminate, but sometimes confusion gets the upper hand. This was one of those times.

The subject was chenin blanc from South Africa, a category I last addressed around five years ago. Back then, I lamented the shortage of options for good chenin blanc wines outside the Loire Valley of France, the grape’s spiritual home, while suggesting that South African chenin blancs might prove a welcome refuge.

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Washington’s original wine grape is once again the state’s most dominant variety, both in quality and quantity.

While this might seem like old news — great Riesling has been growing in the Columbia Valley for more than a half-century — Washington growers and winemakers continue to find exciting new areas to grow the grape.

In the past couple of years, we’ve seen two of the state’s newest viticultural areas emerge as Riesling country, much to the delight of wine drinkers. Lake Chelan, in the northwestern corner of the Columbia Valley, is a warm, high-elevation region that is showing tremendous promise. And Naches Heights, near the city of Yakima, is the state’s newest appellation, and even though it has just a few acres of grapes so far, our recent judging of 130 Northwest Rieslings shows the potential is amazing.

Ream more.

The world’s five biggest auction houses have reported a 25% slump during the first half of 2012 as investors adopted a cautious approach to the big names and Chinese buyers shifted their focus towards Burgundy.

Despite upbeat reports from many houses, Bloomberg reported that the big five – Acker Merrall & Condit, Zachys, Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Hart Davis Hart – saw wine sales slip to £160 million during the first six months of 2012.

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As Maureen succinctly put it: “the physical details of the wines that I rejected matched the physical details of the wines that Mr. Greenberg had given to Acker Merrall. Based on all of that, we were able to put together that they were the same bottles.” [Downey Depo., p 104, lines 19-25].

Maureen suggested that under the circumstances, Acker should withdraw the bottles from the auction. Mr. Christoph indicated that he would present the information to John Kapon. Christoph then called Maureen back. “The response that I received was, that he spoke to John, told John the story, this is John Kapon, and that John said they were good enough for him.” [Downey Depo., p.100, lines 20-23.]

See the rest of the post here.

THE wines of the Mâconnais region of France are nobody’s idea of a new discovery. Back in the 1980s, when I began drinking a lot of wine, they were a reliable source for fresh, crisp, inexpensive whites, and they have remained so.

Yet the wines that used to define the Mâconnais are just a part of a much wider range of styles today, though a large part. This ungainly region in southern Burgundy, where chardonnay is the white grape just as in the Côte d’Or, now produces far more interesting wines than those simple bistro guzzlers.

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Veuve Clicquot has launched the 2004 vintage of its top cuvée La Grande Dame – with chef de cave Dominique Demarville suggesting that future vintages could contain a much higher proportion of Pinot Noir.

La Grande Dame is Veuve Clicquot’s prestige cuvée. The first vintage, of which only 6,000 bottles were made, was 1962, and the first to be released commercially was 1966, launched in 1972.

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The purchase includes 235 acres in St.-Estèphe, encompassing Calon-Ségur, second label Marquis de Calon and a cru bourgeois property, Capbern-Gasqueton. This is the most prominent of several Bordeaux properties to recently change hands, largely due to inheritance taxes and family disagreements.

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Clos de Bèze by maisonilan

Hello everyone and welcome to Week Two of the Wine Berserkers Weekly Burgundy Appellation Tasting Series. This week, we are in Gevrey-Chambertin (and including any wines from vines planted in Brochon as is allowed). This week, there are many videos to add and tons of photos. So, please be patient as this first post will be edited over and over … over the next few days.

Grands Crus: Chambertin; Chambertin, Clos-de-Bèze; Chapelle-Chambertin; Charmes-Chambertin; Mazoyères; Mazis-Chambertin; Griotte-Chambertin; Latricières-Chambertin; Ruchottes-Chambertin.

26 1er Crus: La Bossière, La Romanée, Poissenot, Estournelles-Saint-Jacques, Clos des Varoilles, Lavaut Saint-Jacques, Les Cazetiers, Clos du Chapitre, Clos Saint-Jacques, Champeaux, Petits Cazetiers, Combe au Moine, Les Goulots, Aux Combottes, Bel Air, Cherbaudes, Petite Chapelle, En Ergot, Clos Prieur, La Perrière, Au Closeau, Issarts, Les Corbeaux, Craipillot, Fonteny, Champonnet.

Gevrey-Chambertin is the first commune we will visit in this series with Grands Crus associated with it. The history here goes back a long way. In fact, just a few years back, an ancient vineyard was discovered in the lower, flatlands of Gevrey-Chambertin dating back the first century AD. This backs up the writings of Pligny the Elder mentioning Gevrey as the first areas of plantation in the region. (Marsannay is thought to have followed suit shortly thereafter). http://translate.google.com/translate?u … =&ie=UTF-8

Gevrey (later Gevrey-Chambertin) was the first village granted permission by King Louis-Philippe to append the name of it’s village (1847) to the most renowned vineyard in its area. Other followed, producing names such as Chambolle-Musigny, Nuits-Saint-Georges and Morey Saint Denis.

Gevrey-Chambertin is the only village appellation which has vines on the East side of the Route Nationale 74 which produce grapes which are allowed to be classified under the same region as an appellation on the West side.

A portion of vines located in the commune of Brochon to the North produce grapes which are allowed to be included in the Gevrey-Chambertin Village AOC.

I will be back shortly with photos, videos, etc

The following are notes translated from Jules Lavalle’s Histoire de la Vigne et des Grands Vins de la Côte d’Or written in 1855

Gevrey-Chambertin (copied from 2010s Series)

-387ha 59a planted to vines in Gevrey, though there are areas in the flatlands which have not been included in this calculation which would surely increase the figure to above 400ha planted.
-The half of the vines (give or take) planted at the base of the slope and in the flatlands are planted exclusively to gamet (gamay) which generally yields between 45 and 50 hl/ha
-The other half, situated on the slope and in the best exposition is planted to pinot noir, though in some locations a bit of pinot blanc without other grape types planted.
-The general distinctive character of the wines of Gevrey is the firmness or the body, and it is this which is searched for in the market.
- When with a wine of Chambertin, it is close to unnecessary to speak since it is one whose fame is the most popular and widespread in the two worlds (Old World and New World), but since the word is more practiced thing and there are many people that know without doubting, that this celebrated cru possesses at the highest degree all the qualities that constitute the perfect wine: body; color; bouquet; finesse. It is comparable in quality the greatest wines of the Côte d’Or. Though, no other has this particular signature that makes it distinguishable even to amateurs, though La Romanée excells in finesse, Le CLos Vougeot by it’s bouquet, Le Chambertin by it’s body and color, yet with all of their qualities together, all three share the prize and all three sell would sell at the same price, if they were owned in totality by one owner. Mnsr Ouvrard owns each, though not each as monopoles
-Between 1651 and 1761, the price of a queue (456 litres – the size of two standard Burgundy barrels) Chambertin went from 30 livres to between 700-800 livres.This is largely credited to the reputation that Mnsr Claude Jobert (later changing his name to Mnsr Claude Jobert-Chambertin.

Lavalle’s 1855 Classification of the Vines of Gevrey::

Tête de Cuvée

Chambertin (Clos de Bèze included) 27ha

Première Cuvée
Saint-Jacques and Clos Saint Jacques 6ha 52a
Fouchère 1ha
Chapelle (upper) 3ha 89a
Mazy (upper) 4ha 21a
Ruchotte (above) 2ha
Charmes (upper) 3ha
Grillotte (upper) 2ha 90a
Veroilles (old section) 4ha
Etournelles 1ha 96a
Castiers (upper) 7ha 98a

Deuxième Cuvée

Mazy (low) 4ha 38a
Chapelle (small) 4ha 1a
Ruchotte (lower) 1ha 40a
Gemeaux 2ha
Charmes (low) 9ha
Mazoyères 18ha 36a
Latricières 6ha 93a
Echèzeaux 3ha 31a
Lavaut (upper)

Troisième Cuvée

Meixvelle 1ha 87a
Meix-Des-Ouches 1ha 9a
Craipillot 2ha 86a
Champonet 3ha 16a
Fonteny 3ha 5a
Corbeaux 3ha 60a
Clos-Prieur (upper) 2ha 27a
Cherbaude 2ha 20a
Pallut 3ha 37
Carrougeot 5ha 43a
Combe-Du-Dessus 6ha 43a
Combe-Au-Moine 2ha 20a
Ensonge 3ha 60a
Vellées 1ha 16a
Motrot 3ha 50a
Marchais 5ha 56a
Champs 9ha 67a
Champerrier (upper) 2ha 36a
Champeaux 6ha 48a
Cherreux 5ha 79a
Crais-Du-Dessus 5ha

Lavalle makes it clear that there are sections with similar names producing different levels of quality. He expresses his opinion of quality by specifying whether the subject vines are in an upper, lower or older section while having the same official name.

He adds that some locations are classed lower than what the terroir’s potential suggests, noting that it is clearly understood that younger vines produce wines that are very ordinary, showing no characteristics of great wines. Generally, the average production in the vines of Gevrey are between 20 and 22 hl/ha.

Thank you again for your participation!

Ici Tout Commence by maisonilan

Vines at Chambertin by maisonilan

Mist over Le Chambertin by maisonilan

Le Clos Saint-Jacques by maisonilan

Latricières-Chambertin by maisonilan

Vines at Mazy-Chambertin by maisonilan

Clusters at Le Chambertin by maisonilan

Chambertin Soil by maisonilan

Le Chambertin Slope by maisonilan

Corbeaux by maisonilan

Old Vines at Corbeaux by maisonilan

Les Corbeaux and Mazis Chambertin (to left) by maisonilan

Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru “Aux Charmes” (Hauts) by maisonilan

Charmes-Chambertin “Aux Charmes” (Hauts) by maisonilan