Fixin, a bit of Morey and a Gevrey: the geographical anarchy edition
It isn't long since Burgundy was one of the last places you would have looked for vignerons with a world view. People didn't travel much but roll on to the nineties and we see a region gradually increasing in popularity and cashflow. Kids are staying in school much longer and often travelling to other regions for stages. This email groups four exemplars of this change. From north to south, Amelie Berthaut of Berthaut-Gerbet has transformed her family's estate in many ways, first in uniting her parents' holdings for the first time and secondly in deploying her formidable farming and cellar skills. She is still embarked on a programme of improvements to the wines and is surely already Fixin's flagship producer. Amelie's wines from more famous postcodes impress the illuminati of Vosne-Romanée.
Domaine Philippe Livera is a welcome new Domaine for us in Gevrey-Chambertin and still fairly new as wine producers. From its formation in 1920 until current incumbent Damien (the founder's great grandson) took over in 2007, they've always sold fruit to the big negociants. But they have great vineyards and huge efforts have been ploughed into improving them, stopping herbicides and much reducing other chemical inputs and generally working the soil manually. Particularly look out for the Clos Village, right below Clos St-Jacques and with mostly 1940s vines and older. The results are suave and concentrated with purity and elegance.
Cyprien Arlaud works with his sister Berthille to grow not just the renown of the home domaine, but now more rented vineyards on which he has contracts both to farm and also to buy the grapes. This legalese apparently helps to ensure the longevity of the agreements. We hope. Cyprien used to come across as slightly tentative, now he exudes understated authority and as Jancis Robinson says, is like the chair of the Morey-St-Denis board. He is certainly hugely influential.
Romain Taupenot is one of our Burgundy favourites and now gaining the plaudits he has deserved for ages. Extremely intelligent, he brings a world view from his financial services career while respecting tradition and striving for quality. He is very human, but also a machine when it comes to details and having been in the vines since he was 4 (not missed a harvest in all that time) knows his vines inside out. /CW
Offered subject to remaining unsold; for shipment 2018/19
