Activities
November flew past, without the time for a newsletter, which I regret. It was not a question of laziness on my part, but just an unrealistic workload. I spent the month of October visiting well over 100 different producers in the Côte de Beaune. In November I needed to do the same for the Côte de Nuits as well as manage my consultancy role for the Hospices de Beaune Wine Auction, with Sotheby’s. It is not realistic to do both but I did manage it and we had a very successful auction, results inevitably a little behind the previous record-breaking year, but still earning valuable funds for the Hospices. After 8 years in this post, it is time to hand over and I am thrilled to say that Jeannie Cho-Lee MW has taken on this role from 2024.
November is also a time of gregarious wine activity in and around Beaune. I tried to avoid too many set piece events, but I did really enjoy a horizontal tasting of Grands crus from the 1985 vintage, on which I shall report in the New year. After the tasting we enjoyed a cheerful lunch, enhanced by a few older wines thanks to the generosity of a quietly distinguished member of the UK wine trade. The bottle pictured was an unexpected delight, the Hospices de Beaune’s Beaune Cuvée Dames Hospitalières from the 1954 vintage. It had no right to be any good at all, since 1954 was an almost uniformly filthy year in Burgundy, but the wine had more than just held up, it was a positive delight to drink. Now look more closely at the bottom of the label – it was originally acquired at the Hospices de Beaune auction by a legendary figure in Burgundian history – Canon Felix Kir, leading churchman, Mayor of Dijon, member of Parliament, shot by the Gestapo for his resistance activities, yet he survived for another 25 years. There is an artificial lake in Dijon named after him and of course a famous drink – the Crème Blanc Cassis, known as Kir!
Since last I wrote we have delivered reports from Steve Pritchard on Taittinger Comtes de Champagne, from Jane Skilton on an extraordinary 40 year retrospective from the amazing team at Ata Rangi, while my own contributions have included the 2019 Red Burgfest report, a retrospective vertical of Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé’s Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses back to the 1950s, and the first of my 2022 vintage reports, covering Chablis in depth and another looking at a few properties from the Côte Chalonnaise. These are appetisers for the main course, or courses, which will reach you over the next few weeks.
Forthcoming Activity
Here is the program for the rest of the month:
This week we shall deliver my introduction to the 2022 Burgundy vintage, to set the scene for the tasting reports which will follow. The introduction will give an overview of the wines (spoiler alert– it is a very fine and consistent vintage) and how they got to be the way they are. Immediately afterwards the first report from the Côte de Beaune, covering the villages of Maranges, Santenay, Chassagne-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet will appear on the site. The rest of the Côte de Beaune will be delivered between Christmas and the New Year, if all goes according to plan.
Why might it not? Well, I shall be spending the shortest day of the year, this Friday, in hospital in Dijon having an operation on my right hand which is suffering from an unusual ailment, Dupuytren’s disease. Roughly speaking, the surgery will stop my hand turning into a claw. It may or may not impair my ability to type: at worst I shall be reduced to typing with one finger instead of two for a few days. I shall still be able to hold a glass of wine and unwrap a Christmas present or two. Talking of which, my diary informs me that Christmas will indeed be celebrated on 25th December this year – in honour of which I leave you an image of our principal Christmas decoration, by day and by night.
