Burgundians favor low hanging fruit

In Burgundy, the fruit hangs low.

This is a First Growth (premier cru) vineyard just above the village of Gevrey Chambertin, the namesake of the largest appellation in Burgundy Cote de Nuits.

This is that same First Growth vineyard above Gevrey Chambertin. The vines stand just above the hips of that good looking Latvian-American, who at 5'7" and shrinking, is no giant.

On the plus side, growing the fruit so low to the ground allows the rocky soil to give off ripening heat during the cool nights.

On the negative side, moist soil could provide the perfect culture for grape diseases and rot.

With the fruit hanging so low, harvesting is no easy task in this Village Level vineyard just outside of Gevrey Chambertin. Notice the pickers in the foreground stooped over and on their knees. They are so relieved to stand up to dump their grapes into the carrier's bin.

The variety of characters seen during harvest in Givrey Chambertin provide visual entertainment.

For the most part, in 2012, the rain and moisture held off long enough so that the fungal spores did not get a chance to develop until after harvest. So low hanging fruit was a plus.

After a glass of Pinot, I apologized to Ansel Adams

Over Thanksgiving I struggled with perfection. 

Visiting friends and relatives wanted to see photographs from the September France trip my wife and I took. Groaning, I gave my all too often reply, "the photos are not optimized."

To me, that meant the photos are not ready for Ansel Adams-level show time.

Things haven't changed all that much since the film days of Ansel. A photograph from any digital camera is just raw material used to make the final image. In fact, I shoot in RAW format, which provides a pile of digital data that need to be interpreted. That interpretation is like Adams' idea of "the negative is the score, the print is the performance."

But creating a performance is a lot of work. After making a dozen or so big adjustments in the RAW file converter, I literally paint minute adjustments with Photoshop layers. Check out the screen capture of my layers palette for this simple photograph of the Gevrey Chambertin Chateau (recently bought by a Chinese businessman).

Photo as it came from RAW File Converter with about 6 basic adjustments.

Notice the addition of a sky layer with a stack of adjustment layers on top.

The final photograph has much more drama.

 The image becomes a painting, a visual performance.

But, if each France-trip image took 5 to 15 minutes to optimize, it would require at least 60 hours of painting to create a simple 100-image Holiday "slide show." (Add to that, first, I had to edit the 11,000 or so images I took during the three-week trip.)

I had to let go of perfection.

That's where wine came to the rescue.  After a glass of Oregon Pinot from White Rose Winery, I "optimized/painted" some key images—three hours—and used the JPGs straight out of the camera for the rest of the show—one hour. The show was done. Simple. No perfection.

Sorry, Ansel, it wasn't a stunning performance. But it was good enough.





 

Chinese buying France, French buying China

 

Chinese buy France:  A Chinese business man recently bought this chateau, the only one in Gevrey Chambertin appellation, which is home to some of the world’s most prestigious (and most expensive) red wines with 26 Premier Cru and 9 Grand Cru vineyards.

French buy China: French wine and spirits maker Moet Hennessy earlier this year partnered with Shangrila Winery (a subsidiary of Chinese liquor maker VATS Group) to develop vineyards and produce a super-premium red wine in this remote region of China's Yunnan province bordering Tibet.

We discovered Chandonnay with the bones of Mary Magdalene

My wife Eddi and I decided to take the back roads from Gevrey-Chambertin to Chinon in the Loire Valley. We got lost winding through small villages, found huge chateaux not listed on any guide books and stumbled upon the bones of Mary Magdalene.

The hilltop Abby and community of Vézelay.

According to legend, near the end of the first millennium a monk brought bones of Mary Magdalene to Vézelay, France from Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume. In 1058, the Pope confirmed the genuineness of the relics, leading to an influx of pilgrims that has continued to this day.

Vézelay Abbey was also a major starting point for pilgrims on the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela, one of the most important of all medieval pilgrimage centers. 










In the 9th century the Benedictines were given land to build a monastery. The current Basilica was built in the 11th century. The town and the Basilica of St Magdelene are designated UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Bernard of Clairvaux preached the Second Crusade at Vézelay in 1146. In 1189, the Frankish and English factions of the Third Crusade met at Vézelay before officially departing for the Holy Land.

Today, Vézelay is a commune in the Yonne department in Burgundy.  Bourgogne Vézelay is the local wine appellation. Vineyards descend to the edge of the town and produce a range of mostly white wines, mainly on the Chardonnay, Melon de Bourgogne  and, of course, Pinot Noir.

Today the town is swarming with pilgrims—some would call them tourists—still seeking. Seeking what?  Well, I'm not exactly sure what they are seeking as they sit in the outdoor cafes sipping local Chardonnay. Surely this could not be the beginning of a new Crusade?

Reflection on history and my cousin's death

A few days after we arrived in France, we get a i-Phone call at 2:34 in the morning. The caller ID said it was my cousin John in Napa. He only emails. He never calls. So I answered even though I knew it would cost me $19.95 per minute.  Cousin Dave answered. Dave's news: his brother, my cousin, had just died. Didn't know the cause. Cousin John was 58; I'm 64. He's dead. I'm in France.

His death colored my thoughts through the rest of France. When visiting the large chateaus, I thought about how most of us live simple lives which will be forgotten in a generation or two. Most of us will never become famous. Even though we live the best we can, history will quickly erase us.

Somehow I found myself photographing lots of cemeteries for the rest of the trip. Was that my meditation on history and death?

Gevrey Chambertin village cemetery seen across Premier Crus Petits Cazetiers vineyard. I like the idea that there has been a vineyard and village here for at least a 1000 years, probably longer.

French peek inside Chinese-owned Burgundy chateau

This is the group that could not be accommodated  at the 16:30 (4:30PM for USAers) tour and had to wait for one and one-half hours to peek inside the Chateau. The cheerful guide was accommodating enough to take us in, even though the last scheduled tour went in ahead of us stragglers. You should have seen the 8:30 Sunday line.

The lines at the upper part of Gevrey-Chambretin village were surprisingly long this past weekend, September 15 and 16, for peek-inside tours of the newly Chinese-owned Chateau Gevrey Chambertin. Casual me, I miscalculated the local interest. I waited until Saturday afternoon to find the lines stretching 50-people long and had to wait until a later tour as the guide could not accommodate all the French locals ahead of me. 

Finally, got in for the surprise inside.  Tours were scheduled every one and one-half hours. Even the Sunday 8:30 am tour was crowded.

Will Chinese investors cause a Great Wall in Burgundy?

Overlooking the village of Gevrey-Chambertin, parts of Chateau de Gevrey Chambertin date from the 12th century. Along with the Chateau, Ng's purchase includes two hectares (five acres) of vines which include small plots of the Grand Cru and Premier Cru ‘Chambertin’ vineyards, with the rest generic Gevrey-Chambertin.

When it was reported last month that Macau businessman Louis Ng Chi Sing bought Burgundy’s rundown Chateau de Gevrey Chambertin, some locals declared it a national travesty. 

Jean-Michel Guillon, president of the union of Gevrey-Chambertin wine producers, reportedly asked: "How would the Chinese feel if a French investor bought 10 metres, or 50 metres, of the Great Wall of China?"

Actually, this isn't the first sale of Burgundy to Asians. Ten years ago, a Japanese sommelier, Koji Nakada, set up Maison Lou Dumont in Burgundy's Nuits-Saint-Georges area, and more recently, 28-year-old Chinese businessman Shi Yi bought 2 Burgundian hectars. And, at last count, Chinese have bought about 20 Bordeaux properties.  

Regardless, patriotic Guillon led a syndicate to buy the chateau for €5m. Opps, the Chinese foreigner Louis Ng paid €8m. 

The bigger long term concern is: there go the property values, but not down as in the past few years, rather sky-high up.

Realistically the sale price will affect inheritance taxes. France has complex inheritance laws dating from Napoleon's time and also is desperately strapped for Euros. The high sales price will affect future inheritances. Many worry that foreigners buying properties for these high prices will leave French families with no option but to sell, as they can't afford the taxes to pass it on to younger generations.

So, as property prices go up and inheritance taxes force Burgundians not to be able to pass property down to children, will Burgundy become a clos—the French term for a walled vineyard used to protect the grapes from theft as well as improving the micro-climate—surrounded by a Great Wall to the French? 

 

Obviously, the chateau is in poor condition. Ng has mentioned that he plans to restore it starting in a couple of years.

Farmers are Told to Begin Harvest in Alsace, France

On Monday, September 10, harvest began in Alsace, France. (You know that area where I got to speak German because ownership of the strip of land went back and forth between the Germans and French. The French won the last skirmish.) This is the regulated earliest date that harvest can begin for Crémant (translate to bubbly) in Alsace part of France. That Monday morning was like a floodgate opening of workers pouring into certain vineyards. Harvest of grapes for still wines will begin on Sept 24, per regulations.  

Wine history here is ancient. The Alsacian vineyard is one of the oldest ones of France. There were 108 wine-producing villages in 800, 160 in 900 and 430 in 1400. By this time, Alsacian wine, red or white, was one of the most famous wines of Europe and one of the most expensive. Today, prices for wine are more reasonable, but the land is among the most expensive in France.

Near the little village of Eguisheim, Alsace, France, these happy guys are harvesting Pinot noir, destined to become Crémant d'Alsace (which means bubbly).

Just in case you didn't know what the Alsace wine region looks like, here is Husseren les Chateaux (to the best of my non-French ability, that means "Husseren the Chateaus" for the nearby ancient castles.)