New Wave Burgundy

Three producers who look to different aspects of pre-industrial viticulture and vinification for inspiration. Sure, to some degree it’s about additives or lack thereof. But what I admire most about these growers is their single-minded dedication to their values and to quality.

What they share is a commitment to increasing quality by returning to historic, artisan methods. While their approaches vary, these methods all require more time and labor in an era still dominated by speed and efficiency. This shared ethos is what puts them amongst the top of a very exciting new wave in Burgundy.

What also impresses me about these producers is their understanding of the circular relationship between viticulture and cellar work. I’ve heard it said that winegrowing is an accumulation of details and these three producers seem to have an intuitive grasp of how each decision might inform and impact the ones that come before or after.

Microbial Ecology

Though having worked at wineries who do not sulfur until bottling, who make sans soufre cuvees, I don’t object to sulfur in the dogmatic way many do today. I see it as a tool, no more, no less. I see it as a tool to help manage the microbial and redox equilibrium in guiding grapes into wine. I plan on using the right amount to help establish a healthy native yeast ferment without having to intervene in other ways. Long story short, my priority is to get it right, not too much and not too little.

My hope is to produce wine each vintage that I am proud of, rather than to make a statement, either ‘political’ or about myself. I’ve done plenty of therapy. I don’t feel the need to make something fucked up. Being Asian, I certainly won't have natty street cred to fall back on if a wine turns out tasting like shit, cider or both, as so many celebrated wines today do.

But I do respect those who choose to work with very small quantities of sulfur and consistently produce wines of great purity and emotion. Chantereves and Sylvain Pataille are two of those producers. The difference between these two producers and others is in their aesthetic goals and the grasp of their craft.

What I’ve learned from conversations with Terry Leighton and William Kelley is that from a microbial ecology perspective, wine production is not a set of unrelated discrete events, primary fermentation, secondary fermentation, barrel aging, etc. Instead, it is the result of interconnected and interactive ecological processes. The goal of winemaking, from this viewpoint, is to establish a synergistic wine microbial ecology. Without an understanding of how all these pieces fit together and an aesthetic ideal to work towards, it’s hard to form a coherent picture.

From their choices, it’s clear that Pataille and Chantereves fully grasp the risks that come with working with reduced sulfur. This is exemplified in how both producers make a set of interlinked decisions that create the circumstances for a healthy primary fermentation, finding other methods to manage the microbial equilibrium in their wines.

Even though Pataille ferments with high percentages of whole cluster, often 100%, he chooses to gently break the skins of up to 30% of these berries as they go into their cuves. The crushed whole bunches release juice, allowing for a faster start to primary fermentation, establishing a strong population of native yeast before lactic or acetic bacteria can crowd out them out, consuming malic, sugar and other nutrients and introducing high levels of acetic acid.

Chantereves chooses to work with pied de cuve, the wine world’s version of a sourdough starter, as well as a tiny sprinkling of sulfur on the surface of the fruit (as lactic and acetic bacteria are aerobic), without homogenization into the must. Like at Pataille, Chantereves’ choices work together to enable a strong native yeast population quickly, helping to guide the microbial ecology in their favor and ultimately towards the wine they hope to see in bottle.

A Commitment to Purity and Finesse

While mechanization and technology have undoubtedly benefitted the world of wine, pumps and temperature control being an obvious example, many of the most common products and processes available today have been developed with time, efficiency and a reduced need for skilled labor in mind. Filters allow for earlier bottling, mechanized presses allow for faster and greater juice yield, wider rows and lower density plantings allow for large tractors to pass through for mechanical pruning, hedging or harvesting.

These three producers have chosen to return to traditional, even historic, manual methods in order to bring their wines closer to their aesthetic and qualitative ideals.

Chantereves doesn’t destem at all, and chooses to avoid any pumping during the entirety of vinification and elevage, inspired by the wines of Nicolas Faure and conversations with Jean Yves Bizot. Beginning with ankle deep foot pigeage, gradually getting deeper, breaking the skins over a slow period to slow sugar release and gently prolong maceration time. An individual approach to ‘infusion’ that runs counter to much of the conventional wisdom in Burgundy today.

“Pumping is a mechanical intervention and I simply find it so brutal” - Tomoko Kuriyama

Pataille works with 5 different sized basket presses for his reds. At first this was out of financial necessity as he couldn’t afford a pneumatic and the family had an old manual basket press. He found the results so compelling he went out and bought four more old ones in different sizes (though not all at once).

Pataille’s choice illustrates a continuing dissonance between modernity and tradition in wine. While mechanical presses are faster, can yield more juice, they also inevitably result in a much higher proportion of solids, often necessitating another step in settling or the use of clarifying agents for both reds and whites. While slower and with less yield, wines percolate through skins in basket presses, clarifying naturally as part of the process, saving the winemaker an additional step and work. With a high proportion of whole clusters, this clarification is enhanced and the stems also absorb and deflect pressure during pressing, ensuring an even gentler process. Which is better? Well, it depends on what one is trying to achieve. But from this simple example, it becomes abundantly clear that the priorities of each approach are very different. This is also great reminder that with red wine vinification, the most neglected yet potentially most extractive undertaking is that of pressing.

In a past conversation, William Kelley mentioned that Pataille observed that there is a misconception that pigeage inherently leads to firmer wines. Instead, his feeling is that firmness can result from a maceration without enough pigeage. While I believe one must consider the context and impact of surrounding choices (destemmed, whole cluster, crushed or whole berry, fermentation temperature etc), the evidence in the glass is compelling.

These two red Burgundies are amongst the most crystalline, weightless and pure I’ve had recently, and not just for this warm vintage. The wines I’ve tasted by both producers from 2018 share a sense of weightless intensity, crystalline purity and wonderfully silken tannin texture that brings great pleasure. These two particular wines were classic in their proportion and balance, resembling 17s more than what many associate with 18s.

In recent years, the discourse amongst young winemakers in Burgundy has focused heavily on semi carbonic and pumpovers as being the primary tools to achieve purity in whole cluster driven ‘infusion’. Yet here, one producer argues for crushing whole bunches, against semi carbonic fermentations (particularly as it obscures terroir) and the other eschews pumps entirely. I wonder if the discourse is beginning to shift?

The Vineyards

After a few 15s that were a little microbial, firm and dark, my recent bottles of Pataille’s 18s and 19s have been just the opposite. After having listened to his recent interview with Levi Dalton, I can see that his continued refinement of work in the vineyard and cellar is bringing better balance, expressiveness and greater purity to the wine.

Whereas vigor was previously too low, and the resulting fruit became too dense, tannic and dark, Pataille mentioned in the interview that he has worked to find a better balance of vigor in his vines. He now tailors the timing and quantity of ploughing, composting and canopy management to the soil structure of each lieu dit and climate characteristics of the season, even working with tressage, or rolled canopies in some plots.

As Chantereves has primarily operated as a micro negociant and only acquired their own 4.7 hectares in the previous few years, my research into their viticultural practices has yielded limited findings. I'd love to hear from any readers that can speak to the details of their approach.

In the vineyard, these three growers all utilize Poussard or sap flow based pruning. Though this method has come into prominence in recently with the work of Francois Dal and Simonit and Sirch, it was first developed in the late 19th / early 20th century. This method requires a deeper understanding of the vascular system within the vine. By reducing the number and size of cuts, avoiding clean cuts, allowing room for desiccation, and placing cuts along the head rather than down the trunk, the Poussard method allows for sap to flow unencumbered bilaterally from root to leaf and living tissue within the vine is maximized within as a result. With training and experience, the time differential per vine between Poussard and conventional manual pruning is negligible, but the required knowledge, impact to vigor and potential vine age are vastly different. Other growers such as Dujac and Arnoux Lachaux report significant revitalization of vigor in their old vines after conversion to Poussard, extending the productive life of their treasured vielles vignes.

We converted our original plantings to Poussard in their second winter, and each vine planted since then has been pruned this way from the very beginning. As the majority of our vines are now ungrafted, the idea that we can maximize the sap flow between roots and leaves gives me hope that the balance of our fruit will be able to reflect the idiosyncracies of our soils to an even greater extent.

Lamy is famous for replanting his vineyards to the high densities (between 14,000-30,000 vines/ha) of pre phylloxeric viticulture, before the invention of tractors. The results are stark and impressive - bunch weights are much lower, with much higher skin to juice ratios. The intensity of flavor in each berry is greatly amplified, sugar accumulation is increased relative to acid degradation. Root depth in the first few years of vine establishment is increased dramatically.

For Lamy’s Chardonnay planted at 30,000 vines/ha, the bunches average only 30 grams each. Inevitably this results in a much higher number of man hours and greater cost needed to work each hectare, but the wines are astounding. There are a few wines I’ve tasted that are as chiseled and perhaps as dense as Lamy’s Haute Densite bottlings. Where these wines challenge me is how even with such incredibly intense building blocks, the feeling in each wine is one of wondrous harmony and finesse. Therein lies its distinction, combining and intertwining these elements of three dimensional density, structure, weight, texture and acidity to form something more than the sum of its parts.

Both Pataille and Lamy have moved away from hedging vines in recent years, instead employing tressage or rolled canopies first used in Burgundy by Domaine Leroy. Tressage is done to avoid hormonal stress that comes with hedging the shoot tip, which can slow down phenolic ripening, diverting resources to vegetative growth (particularly pushing laterals) instead. Studies in New York have shown that tressage leads to earlier cessation of shoot growth during the growing season. The technique also reduced or eliminated the need for leaf removal in the fruiting zone due to fewer laterals. So, with decreased lateral growth, particularly in the fruit zone, tressage can mean better airflow and less disease pressure. With less stunting hormonal stress from the removed shoot tip, there can be a closer rate of ripening between sugars and phenolics, helping the winegrower avoid a long wait for flavor and tannins to ripen while sugars are already at an appropriate level. This allows for earlier picking, thereby preserving acidity. But whereas vines can be neatly hedged by tractor, tressage can only be done by hand.

All of this is to say, these growers work hard: choosing traditional, often pre-industrial, laborious, time consuming, manual methods in a commitment to quality and achieving their aesthetic ideals. The reduction or lack of additives in their wines is simply a function of that commitment rather than a defining feature.

Tasting Notes:

Chantereves 18 Nuits Saint Georges Damodes -

1pm to 6pm slow ox, then decanted

My first pour was still somewhat reticent but the second glass explodes. Rosewater, rosehip, crushed strawberry, black cherry, incredibly fine, silky, very pure and sweet. Subtle nutmeg, tamarind, cardamom, black pepper that points to northern Nuits. Really exploding on the palate with strawberry yogurt, rhubarb and subtle meaty musk that add sweet breadth and depth to the wafting florals. More like 17 than 18 in its classic Burgundian balance. Weightlessly intense, crystalline and pure. This is the kind of wine I love. Emotion and pleasure in each whiff of the nose. Sweeter and more crystalline with the roast pork. My wine of the evening.

15 Lamy Saint Aubin Clos de las Chatenieres vv

Fennel, lime zest, lemon oil, chalk dust, flint, oyster brine, lemon zest scented creme fraiche. So expressive and detailed. Beautiful balance of chalky, pithy density that speaks of the thick skins in 15, fresh acidity, detail and generosity of fruit and viscous weight. Lamy does so well in warm vintages, or perhaps it’s that warm vintages suit his approach and length of elevage so well? Incredibly sinewy and dense. Wonderful with the sweet, saline umami of the bafun uni and shrimp stock pasta sauce.

Pataille 18 Marsannay La Montagne

1 pm slow ox, 7:45 pour, 8:30 pops.

Darker, with more spice compared to the Chantereves. Crushed strawberries, damask rose, violet, nutmeg, tamarind. Beautifully silky as with his other 18s. I feel that Pataille really has mastered the management of his maceration and how it combines with elevage length to polish tannin texture. White pepper, earth, musk, more savory than the chantereves but equally silky. Really evolves and impresses with food, noticeably sweeter, more high toned and pure with the roast fennel.