Monks divide Burgundy at Oregon's International Pinot Noir Celebration

If you you had a magnifying glass for the fine print identifying the wines in the photograph, you would read that all the wines we sampled at the "Study Abroad in Burgundy" session at Oregon's International Pinot Noir Celebration in McMinnville are either Premier or Grand Cru wines. That means they represent the best Burgundy has to offer. It was a shame to spit, but it was 9:00 a.m..

At my very first session at the International Pinot Noir Celebration, I learned it was the monks who divided Burgundy into wine growing regions hundreds of years ago. The IPNC session was "Study Abroad in Burgundy".

Those Cistercian Monks first appeared on the European scene nearly a 1000 years ago.  They built their first abbey at Cîteaux (Latin Cistercium, hence "Cistercian") near Nuits-Saint-Georges.  It just happeed that several of the wines we tasted in the IPNC Burgundy session had roots in the region. It felt like I was tasting history.

As they grew grapes and made wine, those monks kept great records, according to moderator Allen Meadows, who spends 4 months a year in Burgundy when he visits more than 300 domaines and publishes Burghound.com—an e-newsletter specializing in Burgundy. Those monks started to notice that the wine from one parcel tasted different from the next, sometimes from adjacent plots. 

Fortunately, they planted lots of Pinot noir, the most terroir transparent of grapes, says Meadows. He claims the monks were tasting differences in terroir, in geography, in soil, in temperature.


The monks attributed the taste differences to God. For those pious monks, Pinot noir was only the messenger, not the message.


Regardless, those monks prospected for terroir. They planted vines everywhere but only kept those that were the most interesting. And they took meticulous notes, keeping volumes of hand-written records. So now Burgundy has hundreds of years of history of knowing what will grow best where.

Thus today, Burgundy is divided into many different appellations, sometimes covering only a single vineyard. In fact, Meadows said there were some 1600 different "climats"—a term unique to Burgundy which designates each plot or group of plots of vines which have been known under the same name for several centuries.


In the end, Meadows and the 5 Burgundian panelist—Bertrand Ambroise from Maison Ambroise, Cyril Audoin of Domaine Charles Audoin, Philippe and Vincent Lécheneaut of Domaine Lécheneaut and Jacques Lardière of Maison Louis Jadot—seemed to agree with the historic monks: Pinot noir was the messenger of Burgundy terroir.

Thank you monks. Thank you God.

Changyu Thinks Bigger than Disneyland

Changyu, officially China's oldest winery—though Zhang Bishi founded the winery in 1892, that was long after adventurous French monks planted productive vines and made wine in remote mountainous Cizhong village in Yunnan province—has big wine plans. 

 Changyu started with industrial-sized facilities scattered throughout Yantai city, in Shandong province.

Then they partnered with the French to build Changyu-Castel in Yantai in 2002 and with the Canadians for Château Changyu Ice wine in northern Liaoning Province and Changyu Kely Estate in New Zealand. 

 And then came the Disney-like marketing effort called Chateau Changyu AFIP Global.  

Besides, these facilities, the company is building three other chateaus—Changyu Baron Balboa in Xinjiang Uygur province, Changyu Moser XV in Ningxia province and Changyu Reina in Shaanxi—planed to open in 2013. Adding to this armada of wineries, Changyu  announced at the end of June plans to build a “wine city” in Yantai.  Blueprints call for the 413 ha facility to have a research institute, wine production center, vineyards, an international wine trading center and, of course, a “European-style village.”

Obviously Changyu feels it has a winning formula with the European-style villages as wine tourism destinations. Back at AFIP, even the adjoining estate vineyard serves dual purposes, both as a source of wine grapes and as a scenic experience with the Yan shan Mountains in the background. A young couple stroll hand in hand through the vineyard on the two-kilometer long street-wide concrete walkway with a lacy metal arched overhang. They giggle and photograph themselves with iPhones near tight clusters of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes hanging ready for harvest.


Changyu just might have the winning wine formula—by combining entertainment, education and tasting—for luring Chinese to wine. 

Have you used this wine byproduct?

I had never heard of it until a couple of years ago. One of the executives at China's Chateau Changyu AFIP told me they offered a grape seed oil spa at their European Village. So how do they process those tiny seeds? It must take millions for one spa.
I saw exactly how those seeds were gathered at Pernod Ricard's Helan Mountain winery in Ningxia province. After the winemaker has determined the juice has had enough skin/seed contact, these Cabernet Sauvignon grape skins and seeds are transported on a conveyor belt to this mesh wire tube to separate the skins from seeds.
The seeds are then spread out onto nearby streets to dry.
It's amazing what I learn hanging around Chinese wineries. Not only does Chateau AFIP use it, grape seed oil is actually a preferred cosmetic ingredient for control of skin moisturization. Since it's such a light, thin oil, it leaves a glossy TV-model-ready film on the skin. It's also used in aromatherapy. I've even heard some use grape seed oil as a lubricant for shaving.
But Chinese use it for cooking. Since grape seed oil has a moderately high smoke point, it is ideal for all the high temperature stir-frying cooking done in China.

And these little things actually have health benefits. Grape seeds contain antioxidants and sufficiently high amounts of resveratrol to be extracted commercially. Unfortunately, when cold pressed into an oil, negligible of these other biologically active compound remain.

Photographing concrete eggs in the winery?

Concrete eggs, new/old way to ferment wine in Napa wineries.

How Wine Spectator made a photographer feel better

Without Kitri McGuire, Marketing Communications Director at Sokol Blosser Winery, I would never have known.

Wine Spectator magazine voted my latest book "One of the Best New Reads for wine lovers". Surprise, a photography book voted as a Best Read. I guess a picture is worth eight thousand well-crafted words after all. Makes me feel better about being a lowly photographer.

This is a revised blog. Wine Spectator suggested that if I wanted to continue working with them–which I do, I take down the entire reprint I had on this blog. Here is a small clip and link to their site. You will need to be a member to read the entire article. Sorry.

Oregon: The Taste of Wine
 by Jānis Miglavs, with an introduction by Jim Bernau (Graphic Arts Books, 128 pages, $24.95)


Travel photographer J¯anis Miglavs definitely has an eye for something other than typical vineyard and winery shots. - Harvey Steiman