Alain Burguet (Burgundy)

Alain Burguet in his Cask CellarGevrey-Chambertin, Burgundy.
Alain Burguet's winery and cellars are located in the middle of the village. This is the delivery season and he is busy these days. Plus, summer was very short this summer and the harvest started september 6. He actually began to harvest sep 8 himself. Asked about his reputation for harvesting much later than other growers, he says that he doesn't consider the 100-day (between the blossom and the harvest) rule as compulsory and this year for example it was more like 108 days. 100 days are not enough for phenolic maturity, a maturity which needs time, he says. You can have the right sugar level and no phenolic maturity, and starting to harvest just because the sugar is there is sometimes a mistake. What really matters before starting to harvest is to get ripe tanins and good phenols.

Alain Burguet with his Son Jean-Luc Alain Burguet's two son, Jean-Luc and Eric, work with him and they do as well the vineyard management as the vinification and cellar side of the job. Alain's own father also had a grower activity but he created himself his own estate 32 years ago. His total vineyard surface is 7,8 hectare today, plus some purchased grapes in Chambertin Village and Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru, for an equivalent of 0,8 hectare.
As you may know, his vineyard is organicly farmed but he doen't trumpet it. He actually never fell in the trap of the viticultural chemical treatments, even during the intensive-spraying era of the 1970s' ans 1980s', when everyone around was dumping tons of this and that between the rows. It was in his genes, he says, he never trusted the chemical way to tend his vineyard. He remembers that in these years there were only 3 vignerons like himself and they were looked down on. He even clearly recalls an Agriculture-Council representative in Beaune saying flatly at that time that the weedkillers were not dangerous and were totally biodegradable in the soil. He would be very interested to know what the same person says today...Gevrey-Chambertin Mes Favorites 2007Back then his grass-growing practice between the rows was considred strange, to say the least. Now the knowledge about the interaction of soil quality and grape quality has become mainstream and many growers have joined the bandwagon. His soil have always had a good acidity because of his non-chemical approach. The acidity factor of the soil has been noticed by growers who went from heavy-spraying to organic : they usually see a jump in the acidity after two consecutive years of organic farming. The high acidity of the soil comes from the weeds and the decomposing grass buried into the ground after plowing. This all enriches the soil with a microbian activity that will translate into the grape acidity and a better phenolic maturity.Alain Burguet, Withdrawing some Wine from a CaskThey are three people for the work in the vineyards year-around, Jean-Luc and Eric, the two sons, and Julien, plus an occasional team for special tasks and for the harvest. 15 pickers in the vineyard at harvest, plus 15 people at the winery to sort the grapes : This is a very important step of the harvest that they put in place in 2004 with two successive vibrating sorting-tables. On the first one, the clusters go through a first sorting, then after a very soft destemming, the bare grapes go through a second sorting table, the goal being of course to let in only the best grapes. The wine is vinified with the natural yeasts which are present on the skin, no enzymes or any other additive added. No fining, no filtration. Very long elevage, 20 months in casks. Minimal SO2 dosage. They want the wine to express both the fruit and the millesime and they let the wine vinify without forcing it into a mold. An important detail : no temperature control during the vinification.
We follow Alain Burguet in the cellar which is divided into two large cask rooms, one for the 2006 wines and the other for the 2007. One of these rooms has been dug last year to augment the cellar capacity. His wine range consists of 10 different wines year after year.
__Alain Burguet Gevrey-Chambertin Mes Favorites 2006. From a cask. Very aromatic nose. Ripe cherry, some raspberry. Light fizziness in the mouth. Nice balance.
__Alain Burguet Gevrey-Chambertin Mes Favorites 2007 [picture above]. A bit pearly. The cask has been topped-up recently and you can literally see the bubbles coming out of the wine [pic on left]. The malolactic fermentation has started here, making the fruit less prominent. Still, nice dark cherry aromas. His 2007 wines will resemble to his own 2005 millesime. Some of his neighbors has lots of roten grapes probably because they plowed in august which set off untimely strength in the vines, which in turn translated into roting grapes. He brought less grapes in in 2007 (30% less than in 2006) because of a heavy hailstorm july 9th.Cane Burning (Not Alain Burguet's Vineyard)This is the beginning of the cane-burning season in Burgundy, and you can spot the white smoke coming out the vineyard all over the region, like here on Pernand-Vergelesses, on a slope facing the Corton-Charlemagne hill. I love these custom-made wheeled stoves that the workers move like here between the rows to burn the canes and get some heat.Alain Burguet18 rue de L'Eglise21220 Gevrey-ChambertinPhone +33 3 80 34 36 35Fax +33 3 80 58 50 45