BURGUNDY EXCHANGE - Rogers report
During September instead of working away on my computer keeping up to date with the Central Otago wine world in the post pruning/pre budburst lull I escaped for a month in France for a training exchange learing how it is that Burgundian's make their great wines. I was not alone - two others from the Central Otago wine industry - viticulturalist Nick Paulin of Felton Rd Wines and Rippon assistant wine maker Brett Reddington also took part in the exchange which saw us spend a week in Beaune taking part in a week-long course at the CFPPA, a viticultural technical institute in Beaune, and then 3 weeks of work in established wineries around the region.
Our week with the CFPPA taught how it is the Burgundians manage their vineyards and run their wineries. Each day we visited facilities around Burgundy - the barrel factory of Francois Frere, great vineyards such as Romanee Conti, cellars of some of the best known domaine such as Domaine Latour at Corton and and Domaine Prieur at Mersault. Of course there were the inevitable tastings at least 2 signficant sessions a day - and they didn't pull their punches - out came the full range of wines from those still in the barrel to 30 year old Grand Cru's, wines with no new oak to those with 100% and of course it included comparisons of wine from the different terroirs to be found in Burgundy.
Tasting some of the grand cru's in the cellar of Capitain-Gagnerot with Patrice Capitain 7th Generation family winemaker |
After the course I headed to the village of Ladoix-Serrigny to the Domaine of Capitain-Gagnerot - a domaine established over 200 hundred years and ago now on to its 7th generation family winemaker (Patrice Capitain) with the 8th currently in training. My remaining time I spent here learning the ropes of Burgundian winemaking from Patrice and his friendly team in the winery and of course sampling the fruits of the labour from the years gone by. I was very impressed with the wines from this domaine the highlight amongst many of the notable wines I tried was a 1976 Clos Vougeot which I thought to be still drinking very well. None of the well aged wines I tried during this time showed any signs of oxidation and were still drinking fresh retaining fruit characters despite their age. It was interesting to look at the high quality of the corks coming out of bottles twenty and thirty years old and compare them to what is available today - no wonder the world is moving to alternative systems of closure.
Perhaps the thing I will remember the longest about the trip to Burgundy is the friendliness of all the people I met and without exception we were made to feel welcome wherever we went. This of course included a wonderful journey through fine french cuisine with Patrice and Getty Capitain whilst I stayed at the Domaine Capitain-Gagnerot accompanied of course by the great wines made there. You can find out more about Domaine Capitian-Gagnerot at this web address ( http://www.capitain-gagnerot.com ).
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