Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - 32
"We have
always thought of
gamay and pinot
noir as brothers."
-Frédéric
Barnier, Maison
Louis Jadot
32
WINE & SPIRITS
Bourgogne Rouge.
What began in the 1990s accelerated after Burgundy began to expand international markets following the recession that started in 2008. As LouisFabrice Latour, head of Maison Louis Latour, put
it in 2012, when he addressed his fellow merchants
assembled at the annual Hospices de Beaune: "I
have a concern that we don't have enough entrylevel Burgundies at under ten euros, ten dollars, ten
yen or ten pounds per bottle."
To meet that goal, regulations have been changed
to incorporate more Beaujolais-grown gamay in
regional wines labeled "Bourgogne," such as Côteaux
Bourguignons, an appellation created six years ago,
which allows unlimited amounts of gamay. Entrylevel Bourgogne Rouge can contain up to 30 percent
gamay. And Burgundy sparkling wine can contain
up to 15 percent gamay.
In addition to having more gamay in wines
labeled Bourgogne, there is also a growing trend to
produce less Beaujolais in the fruitier style yielded
by carbonic maceration and more in the pinot-noir
style of Burgundy-by both Beaune producers and
Beaujolais vintners.
"We have always thought of gamay and pinot noir
as brothers," says Frédéric Barnier, technical director of Maison Louis Jadot, which purchased Château
des Jacques, an estate based in Beaujolais's Moulinà-Vent, in 1996. The relationship between pinot noir
and gamay has indeed led many experts to observe
that aged gamay and aged pinot noir often taste
quite similar, more so than when they are young.
At Château de la Chaize in Brouilly, owner Caroline von Klitzing tells the story about a ten-year-old
bottle of her Réserve de La Marquise, made from
old-vine gamay, that stumped a panel of specialists
in a blind tasting. "They 'knew' it was Burgundy,"
von Klitzing relates, "but couldn't figure out whereabouts in Burgundy it was from."
The most visible changes are in the vineyards,
where winemakers are converting vines once used
for everyday Beaujolais to instead yield grapes for
regional Burgundies. Jean-Charles Boisset, whose
family's firm, Boisset, is one of Burgundy's largest
OCTOBER 2017
wine producers, explains that his team has changed
traditional gobelet trellising to a higher trellis that
protects the fruit against frost and encourages slower
ripening. Vinification is different as well, with longer macerations, cold soaks for two or three days
and long fermentation periods to bring out earthier,
more complex flavors.
And growers are planting more pinot noir in what
has traditionally been gamay territory. Seven years
ago, Maison Louis Latour planted 180,000 pinot
noir vines in Les Pierres Dorées, in the southern
reaches of Beaujolais. Having launched its first pinot
noir wines from the region last year, Louis-Fabrice
Latour says, "I'm a great believer that there is room
for expansion of pinot noir in the area."
Objections to this invasion of Beaujolais by outsiders have been somewhat muted, since Burgundy
sells better than Beaujolais in international markets. Meanwhile, independent gamay producers in
the ten designated crus have been seeking to elevate
their wines to "premier cru" status within the Burgundy hierarchy, an elevation most négociants are
supporting, as they, too, own vines in the Beaujolais crus.
The annexation is also taking some surprising
terms.
Boisset, who is known to think outside the box,
has begun planting varieties that are "outside the
appellation." "Rather than plant pinot noir in southern Beaujolais, I would look in the other direction,"
he says, "taking syrah from the northern Rhone and
planting it in Beaujolais. The blue and pink granite
soils would be perfect for syrah."
Accordingly Mommessin, a négociant owned by
Boisset, established a new syrah vineyard in Beaujolais in 1999, using mostly modern clones, while
planting one-third of the site to sérine, a local variant of syrah in the northern Rhône, the massale
selection taken from a vineyard dating to 1936 in
St-Joseph. Currently, Mommessin markets the wine
as "Grand Granite Sirane" under the generic appellation "Produit de France."
"Perhaps syrah would become the Super Beaujolais of Burgundy!" Boisset asserts. n
photo of Jean-Charles Boisset by Moanalani Jeffrey
"Rather than plant pinot noir in southern
Beaujolais, I would look in the other direction,
taking syrah from the northern Rhone and
planting it in Beaujolais. The blue and pink
granite soils would be perfect for syrah."
-Jean-Charles Boisset
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - October 2017
Contents
Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - Cover1
Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - Cover2
Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - 1
Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - 2
Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - 3
Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - 4
Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - Contents
Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - 6
Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - 7
Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - 8
Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - 9
Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - 10
Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - 11
Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - 12
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Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - Cover3
Wine & Spirits - October 2017 - Cover4
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