Learning from Burgundy - June 2023 Sojourn
For anyone fasinated by pinot noir there is still much to learn from Burgundy. The New World is gaining experience with the variety, 50 years' worth, which dates back to my first time there as a "stagière",
or trainee, in the 1970's. But compare that with 2,000 years of pinot-growing on the La Côte d’Or (Slope of Gold). Grand Cru vineyards such as Clos de Tart have sold recently, dizzingly, between €14 and €33M per hectare or up to €3,300 per vine ($A5,420). The wines from these top vineyards are selling at around $A500 per bottle at least and sky-rocketing.
In this photo above, taken recently in Gevrey Chambertin, I am near some of the most famous pinot noir vines in the World (Grand Cru le Chambertin). The vines were flowering and I was estimating the yield of the close plantings to see how they compared with the 6-8 t/ha yield target laid down by appellation law. They did, with even more prospective yield.
Since my first plantings of pinot noir in the Pipers Brook region in 1976 we have been optimising pinot noir viticulture for 'New World' conditions. Forty years later we are approaching a set of rules, which are working in our environment. In some ways we are ahead of Burgundy as climate change hits because we have had to understand how the Tassie levers of terroir work. To monitor our progress check out the APOGEE Alto 2021 Pinot Noir, ideally with some in the cellar to monitor its full development over the next 2-3 years.
