Yes you can, and indeed DRC have in Corton, while another well known grower is considering it for a recently acquired plot. But it only works if the vines are youngish, say up to 35 years old, otherwise the failure rate is likely to be too high
Like everything else, it’s hard to discuss vine genetics without regard for other factors. Before I planted a few Chardonnay vines for my wife, she asked a number of California growers/winemakers what to plant. Given the small number of vines I planted, A single clone was all that was feasible. Everyone she asked said clone 4 (Wente clone). I found out after planting my vines the Fred at Hermann Wiemer ripped out all the clone 4 as it just wasn’t performing. It’s too early to tell how it will fare for me in Maryland.
I also have some Mourvèdre that is the same clone but on different spacing and as expected there are differences in the grape clusters. The 3 x 3 vines have smaller cluster with smaller berries than the 5 x 6 vines. I don’t recall any significant difference in how tight or loose the bunches are so assume if any exists it is minor.
The picture from Volnay looks like it has a potassium deficiency. I wonder if this is intentional. In theory this should reduce vigor and yield.
Yeah, when I used to review California wine I was quite alive to those differences, and it is more common for producers to tell you what you are tasting there than in Burgundy. Obviously, there is a lot of clonal Pinot Noir in Burgundy, too, but it is not foregrounded in the discourse in the way it is in California. In Burgundy, the conversation often focusses in on vine age.
It’s even more complicated than that! There was a Wente selection, or family of selections, which came to Livermore from Burgundy and ended up at a variety of places including Stony Hill; and then a number of clonal selections derived from Wente material. If you want to take a deep dive into it this paper is very good on Chardonnay genetics in California: https://ucanr.edu/sites/intvit/files/24489.pdf especially p. 22 para 4.
Me too! And those of Kevin Harvey at Rhys, who has some very interesting vine genetics planted in his vineyards.
It is certainly interesting to pose the question how Burgundian selections of Pinot Noir (and there is plenty of Champenois, German and Swiss Pinot Noir in the USA, too) translate to California and Oregon. Firstly, is the highest quality material in Burgundy going to be the highest quality in CA or OR? And second, to what extent do the vines genetically adapt to where they are planted?
Thanks for the kind words! Though I should warn you that my palate was recently described as “bourgeois” by a US importer. 
Meaning you like what lots of people who understand wine tend to like? I thought that was your job. Maybe importers just bring in things a few esoteric odd consumers enjoy…
Give that Pinot Fin to us Americans! We’ll make it Round-up and 2,4-D ready and re-name it Pinot Freedom! I do now want to see William Kelley interview Andy Beckstoffer about best farming practices.
Haha I think it was just intended to be pejorative, I haven’t devoted too much mental energy to trying to unpack it.
In Oregon, where clonal material seems to be the bulk of the discussion, there really does not ever seem to be enough questioning of how the site and age affects the translation of the genetics. It is the opposite of your experience, the 2 year old Gala Apple tree is planted in a swamp and expected to perform as the 20 year old gnarled tree on the ridge of the hill. This is the common issue/complaint with an over-focus on clones, but even within a discussion of clones I also do not see anyone examining how rootstock affects cluster morphology and clonal expression. There were a number of rootstock studies done in the early 90s, and the initial results showed no difference, there is a block of Chardonnay at Temperance Hill though that was part of the trial. A few decades old now, there are clear and obvious differences in the cluster morphology (as distinct as your photos, or more so) in side by side rows with the same scion material and planting date, with the only difference being rootstock… just one more factor in the mix.
4 Likes
Sell what you have? France having older vines maybe of unknown genetic material, whereas California has younger vines of known genetic material? Just a thought.
Somewhat related, I’ve always found it interesting consumers of California wine put so much emphasis on single vineyard wines, disparaging blends from multiple vineyards, yet accept (or expect?) wines can be improved with blends as long as the fruit is from the same vineyard. If different clones performed vastly better at different sites, I suspect a producer would typically lose money by blending them together to make a superior product.
A friend did a lot of research in deciding what clones to plant at his place in the Santa Cruz Mountains, including asking advice from many of the top winemakers and growers. One point a few people stressed was some clones that performed very well at some sites were substandard at others. The difference as far as they could tell was elevation. (Yes, there are certainly other relevant factors, but that was their general observation.) A clone that makes incredible wine at one great site may get the wrong levels of inputs from another great site and perform terribly.
Thanks William. A very interesting topic!
I love that you post so much here, in addition to whatever is behind the walled-garden. The enthusiasm you show here has to have a positive effect on subscriptions, even if that isn’t your goal.
Speaking as a consumer, I think it helped in the early 2000s with the Dijon clones, while wineries figured out which ones were standalone and which were better suited for blending. For wine drinkers, it gave the added benefit of being able to find wines they liked in similar vein across different producers. In regards to Burgundy, if I liked Morey-Saint-Denis, for example, I would buy wines across the commune, as they share some characteristics as a whole.
Wine is a business of selling history as much as it is fermented grape juice. The disclosure of genetics in part bought the local industry some time until things were more established.
It would be interesting to see the diversity amongst different plots in a large vineyard like Clos de Vougeot or Corton.
Avoiding dogma, always the best question to ask - or even answer 
And that’s the crux. That’s why avid ‘not green harvesters’ such as Benjamin Leroux and DRC have needed to resort to green harvesting in some areas in recent vintages - mainly starting in 2017 - and they are certainly not in a minority…
Is there any resource on what vineyards in California are planted to these types of clones? Or should we assume that everything in Cali is one version or another of droit or fin? Most of the material in Cali Pinot vineyards I have walked looks like the Volnay picture.
Any ideas on my post above? Is pretty much everything in Cali some version of droit?
Marcus,
Great insight. We’re you tasting barrel samples or single clone bottling? Curious to hear.
I am now making pinot and am working with 4 different clones from the same vineyard. Each was fermented and aged separately and in at least my first vintage, they are expressing themselves distinctly enough to warrant a small separate bottling if each.
Cheers.
Hey, Larry. They were mainly finished bottles from tasting rooms like Melville & Foley and what we could glean from futures tastings at the Wine Cask.
I am now making pinot and am working with 4 different clones from the same vineyard…they are expressing themselves distinctly enough to warrant a small separate bottling if each
That’s pretty cool. Have you tried any blending?
I have Swan, Pommard, and 777. We vinified each separately this year. No idea yet if we will blend or bottle separate yet.
1 Like