Aubert de Villaine: The Guardian of the Temple (Part One)!

Looking back at issue 149 of Bourgogne Aujourd'hui "25 years" (of the magazine and in Burgundy) published in October 2019.

Aubert de Villaine, the emblematic co-manager of Domaine Romanée- Conti A key figure in the UNESCO classification of Burgundy's climats, he had agreed to be the guest editor of this issue; he granted us an interview in which he reflects, as an attentive, benevolent, and insightful observer, on all the changes that have occurred in Burgundy over the past 50 years. Find the first part of this interview today, and the rest tomorrow… As a reminder, issue 152 of Bourgogne Aujourd'hui is on sale on this website, and issue 153 is currently in preparation. Subscribe, life goes on!

 

Burgundy is currently experiencing a prosperous period. You have arrived at Domaine of La Romanée- Conti in the mid-1960s. What was the situation at that time?

It was nothing like today! Burgundy was just emerging from a long and difficult period marked by phylloxera, the 1929 crisis, and the two World Wars. It began to recover in 1959, a great year for quality that coincided with a market that was starting to bounce back. Around the same time, Burgundians discovered the possibility of protecting and therefore preserving their harvests thanks to synthetic pesticides, which, it must be said, were a godsend. Then, straddle tractors improved, and mechanization progressed. So, it truly was a new era that dawned for everyone in the 1960s, even if, in retrospect, we can question this period when the watchwords were often productivity and crop protection, sometimes at the expense of quality. Moreover, traces of this period can still be found on our hillsides. Indeed, while the first post-phylloxera replanting appears to have been of high quality, using grafts taken from old, pro-vines, the replantings of the 1960s and 1970s were driven by more quantitative objectives and often lacked any selective breeding. These vines are gradually being replaced, but some remain, and this legacy has not yet been fully addressed.

 

1959 was therefore a pivotal year. And the same was true in Domaine of La Romanée- Conti ?

Absolutely yes. When I wrote to the managers of the domaine in 1964 to tell them that I wanted to come and work at domaine He was coming out of years where it was difficult to make a living solely from selling wines in a domaine winegrowing, and that was true everywhere in Burgundy.

 

It's hard to imagine, but a little over half a century ago, La Tâche and La Romanée- Conti were hard to sell…

The wines were selling, but prices were low and nothing was easy. And even though things improved from the 1960s onward, the difficulties persisted well beyond that. I remember the 1970s and even the 1980s, when I would travel by train or plane with bottles in my luggage to take to distributors for tastings.

 

So the real period of prosperity actually started 25-30 years ago?

Yes, for many reasons. Market demand exploded in many countries during this period, while quality also improved; the two are linked. Estate bottling was initiated, notably, I recall, by foreign importers who readily sent contractors to the vineyards. These estates quickly realized that bottling their wine was also about putting their name on the label, committing to their product, and therefore offering wines of the required quality to succeed, and all of this contributed to higher quality. This momentum was subsequently encouraged and developed by well-trained young winemakers who traveled and realized that excellence was the only possible path for Burgundy.

And then, in the early 1990s, the fact that the American critic Robert Parker decided to no longer come to Burgundy in person following a high-profile lawsuit brought by François Faiveley , for which we can never thank enough, has been, in my opinion, very positive. The Burgundians have retained their freedom; they have not been forced, like other regions, to produce wines to please a prescriber, however competent Mr. Parker may have been, and they have been able to live their own life and develop their own genius without being under the influence of any guru.

 

This did not, however, prevent the so-called "modern" style – those rich, coloured, extracted red wines that Robert Parker loved – from enjoying great success in the 1980s and 1990s…

It's true, some wines are modern, sometimes overly so, where the immense progress of being able to produce "cold" fermentation in the winery has led to its share of exaggerations. But the winemakers involved have often, and even always, quickly reverted to more traditional methods; I think that no one today practices these "modern," extractive winemaking techniques anymore, quite the contrary. The current general consensus, it seems to me, is resolutely oriented towards the pursuit of finesse and the expression of terroir. This is achieved through methods that respect the grapes and are natural, in which sorting the harvest plays a crucial role, both in the vineyard and in the winery—a quality-focused practice that has gradually spread and is now used by virtually all producers.

 

How do you explain, moreover, that this triumphant oenology did not ultimately last as long as expected and that it too quickly gave way to what could be called the return to terroir in the 2000s and especially the 2010s?

Simply because the truth always prevails, and the "truth"—even if that word isn't part of the winemaking vocabulary—is that the quality of wine depends solely on the quality of the grapes produced by the vine; the winemaker, whoever they may be, can succeed or fail. vinification But it can never offer more than what is already present in the harvested grapes. That's why it's essential to bring "great" grapes to the winery, grapes produced according to best practices, including naturally controlled yields and careful sorting. I believe many winemakers have realized this. Various extraction techniques exist, and one can always employ them, but this proves to be a mistake that is generally paid for quite quickly. The wine will impress at first, but a few years later, the mask slips. This illustrates the crucial importance of choosing the right vines from the vast array of plant material available. question The quality of the plant material is essential, and I believe you address this in this issue. There is a millennia-old marriage between our grape varieties and our climates. This is what has made Burgundy famous. We must defend it and continually refine it.

 

Burgundy today has a very strong image, almost unique as a region in the world of wine. How do you explain this?

I believe it's seen as an extreme form, even a model, of the concept of terroir. In Burgundy, wines are great when they express the place, and Burgundy has been endowed by nature with a multitude of such places. Each of these places produces a different wine with a unique character. These are the climats. And Burgundy has remained true to this philosophy because it's its very soul, its DNA.

 

You mention a model, but isn't Burgundy exaggerating a bit? There are true terroir wines in many other wine regions in France and around the world…

Of course, but in our societies, symbolism is very important, and Burgundy is the symbol, the standard-bearer, of this type of wine production and even more generally of agriculture. That's just the way it is!

How do you define "the soul of Burgundy"?

Difficult question I'm quite incapable of giving a definition, but I'll try to come close with what we might call the 3 Ts. First, tradition, which is extremely important. The strength of tradition impresses me greatly; throughout the ages in Burgundy, there has always been a shared vision and a unwavering commitment to the pursuit of high quality, among the dukes, local lords, members of parliament, and large landowners, but also, and perhaps most importantly, among the winemakers, those who worked the vines and made the wine, who have managed to preserve, through the centuries, from generation to generation, the importance of maintaining good practices and know-how. Then there's transformation, modernization, which is constantly progressing, but is only effective and justified if it takes place within the framework of tradition, and finally, the transmission of all this culture that has been created and enriched over time. But to these three Ts, we must add an R: reception. For the transmission of this culture must be received and assimilated by people who understand it in order to be passed on again. This is perhaps the most important point. If this culture is not "received" and understood, it can only die. This idea of ​​raising awareness of this culture, both in Burgundy and beyond, greatly motivated me and those around me in the application to have the Burgundy vineyard climats inscribed on the World Heritage List. A climat does not only have an economic value, which is easily measurable; it also has a cultural and human value without which the natural factors would be nothing. We hold in our hands a precious heritage, the legacy of a very long history that must absolutely be passed on and preserved.

 

Do you think that the Burgundians were not sufficiently aware of this ancient culture when the UNESCO application was launched?

Many winegrowers were aware of this, but not all. I would like the entire region to be aware of it and do what is necessary to ensure its survival. When you see people crushing and grinding the soil with enormous machines to make planting easier, I might not make any friends saying this, but I think they are completely unaware of the consequences!
But the land has always been transformed by humans over time… Of course, but the transformation consisted of removing, with immense effort, the rock found two spadefuls deep, which has nothing to do with what today's super-powerful construction equipment does. Without going back to the endless toil of our ancestors, there are more respectful methods of soil preparation. These crushing and grinding operations, which are thankfully rare, include certain ODG have already taken firm stances, but not all. I sincerely hope that the ban on crushing and grinding will extend to the whole of Burgundy and that such brutal attacks on the natural order will no longer be tolerated. Similarly, on another note, I strongly hope that more and more ODG are inspired by what has been done on the hill of Corton by the association Paysage de Corton and take "soft" measures to protect their ecosystem.

 

Interview by Christophe Tupinier

Photographs: Thierry Gaudillère