Burgundy Today No. 150

Vincent Rapet, Laurent Cognard, the domaine Ambroise, Philippe Bouzereau , THE domaine Barraud… They come from different wine regions of Burgundy and are our Burgundians of the Year 2019. You'll find out all about them in issue 150 of Bourgogne Aujourd'hui, which has just been released. This "awards" section also presents our "rising stars of the year," as well as the best bottles tasted throughout the year by our judges. Below are some excerpts from the discussions between our winners, who met on October 24th at Vincent Rapet's estate. Pernand-Vergelesses (21), to share their views on the profession.
"After a quick round of introductions where everyone
presented his domaine (the winegrowers gathered for the occasion did not
(not all knew, editor's note), the
The tasting begins with the white wines, from the youngest to the oldest. Philippe Bouzereau
opens the ball with a Meursault
Old Clos of Château of Cîteaux 2018. The discussions then shifted towards
towards working in the vineyards and François Ambroise's choice to have abandoned
Organic. "We're not going to embark on another certification process."
Organic. Like Vincent, we turned to the HVE label. Organic is
It's complicated; we need staff and we have a real labor shortage.
"Today, we're even having our employees poached." A shared observation.
by everyone at the table, often resulting in a communication problem
as Laurent Cognard points out, "The administration is not helping us on
the subject. To get back to our winemaking practices, we must first have
a dialogue with the neighborhood. It is often through a lack of knowledge that the
People are overreacting. We've never been so clean in our work.
than today! There is life in the soil, we find little
beasts in the vineyards…”. While serving a Montagny Premier Cru The Bassets 2017, Laurent
Cognard specifies that his white wines are aged in 500-liter barrels, which he has
preferred to the traditional 228-liter Burgundy barrel. Vincent Rapet, too, chose a
a larger container, 350 liters, while François Ambroise opted for barrels of
400 liters. "Since 2015,
We are also experimenting with wooden casks, with a capacity of ten casks.” The objective
shared by all these producers, less oak influence on the wines and less oak influence.
The local character expresses itself first. "There's also the way of eating which has
"changed," Philippe points out Bouzereau "We adapt our wines by
function. Consumers primarily seek freshness,
"Elegance and finesse. Overly buttery white wines are no longer in vogue," adds Laurent Cognard. (...)