Benoit Delorme (Burgundy)

Benoit Delorme in his cellar/vatroomRosey, Côte Chalonnaise (Burgundy)
This bottle of Burgundy wine came on our table almost by accident : B.'s brother had met on a farmer's market somewhere in Burgundy one of his old-time acquaintances who had since become a vigneron. Benoit Delorme (that's his name) was selling his Côte-Chalonnaise red Burgundy wine and a couple of bottles landed on our table. The only thing we knew when we drank this wine in Paris is that the guy worked on 1,5 hectare in the Côte Chalonnaise; the simple design of the label and the type of paper hinted at someone considering wine with a certain ethic and philosophy. This label, which is so stretched that it goes almost round the bottle, has an enigmatic drawing on its left end. I liked his wine from the first sip, we both liked it, this Pinot Noir was generous, it was earthy, and it was alive. I didn't even have to know how the vigneron worked here, this wine had its own life, it spoke to me. There are wines like that, they are not necessarily the most perfect wines, but when a wine is true and hasn't been forced to be what it is, it has a personality of its own and an unmistakable charm. That's the difference between an interesting-but-ordinary wine and a wine where you just finish the bottle (at two, don't worry...) without even noticing.
The Côte Chalonnaise is a lesser-known Appellation of Burgundy, the vineyards are located on the slopes and hills west of Chalon-sur-Saone (which lies in the plain). With other Burgundy Appellations being priced in the high bracket, that's where you can find affordable Burgundies in the region, like in the Côtes du Couchois or in the Maconnais. There may be also (am I right ?) the feeling that the region kept a low-profile, family-estate style in comparison with more flamboyant parts of the region.
Benoit's grand-grandfather was both a vigneron and a baker (boulanger) in Mercurey, and part of this heritage sort of bounced back in his espousing the wimemaking life.

Benoit Delorme outside his cellar/wineryWe visited Benoit in his rented facility just outside of Rosey. the old building has been used to make wine for ages and sits near cow pastures, the nearest estate being Guy Chaumont, at only 200 meters from there and which is one of the oldest organic estate of Burgundy. Like much of the Chalonnais, the landscape is a mix of pastures, fields, woods and vineyards. Benoit explains also that there are geological particularities with the Morvan coming very close and granitic soils (allowing for example very nice Aligotés) bordererd by a fault opening on clay/limestone soil. Benoit's vineyards are located up there behind the houses in the far, on a very thin layer of soil, the stone table coming very quickly underneath.
Benoit felt as a teenager (in the seconde class, that is 2 years before the baccalauréat) that the life of vigneron was the one he wanted to live, he had always been in love with nature, climbing cliffs and mountains in his free time, and he needed this outdoor life close to nature. As he was living in Chalon-sur-Saône, he had friends who were sons of vignerons and got to know better this life. After the Bac, he got a BTS at the Viticulture school of Beaune (Lycée Viticole) and arrived in the wine world in 1986 (but he had already taken part many times to harvests in the region). Then he travelled, spent time in the Matanzas Creek winery in California for 4 months, then worked in Alscace at Kühn, a négociant, then at Olivier Merlin in the Maconnais, then at last at Verget, a Maison de Négoce of Burgundy. In the United States, he discovered the use of advanced technology and found that marvelous, it made the work very comfortable. He says that there is a country where there is even more technology and it's here in the old Europe, in Spain, where huge investments have been made, he says they can make three different wines from the same grape there, and also hard liquor, and he finds that fantastic...He had the opportunity both in Alsace and at Verget to work with great terroirs. He settled in the Beaujolais first, from 1995 to 1998, an episode which ended by personnal problems and a divorce (he also has two sons). After working some time in a speculative buy-and-sell company dealing with Bordeaux and other expensive bottles, he contacted Guy Chaumont to see if some vineyard plots were available around there. In 2003-2004, he found and rented these vineyards in this side of the Côte Chalonnaise.
The stone pressHe works now on 1,42 hectare of vineyards in a clos, that is a vineyard surrounded by a stone wall. The vines are between 30 and 60 years old. All the vineyard work is done by hand, he has no tractor but a self-propelled wheel-barrow sprayer for the organic treatments. He farms the vineyards organicly, he may apply biodynamy in the future but he needs more time and investment for that. He nonetheless uses decoctions for phytotherapeutic purposes. Actually when he found the vineyards to let in 2004, he hadn't any facility to make the wine, and that, as the harvest time was nearing dangerously. He found this building on the very last week and could pick and vinify his grapes in time. When he visited this old facility, it was a complete mess and he had to first put it in order and clean everything. He uses the old stone press that was in place in the vatroom : the base is a one-piece-stone sculpted stone, circular and flat, with a furrow all around to let the juice flow. This thing must weigh tons. It was probably made a couple of centuries ago, the stone coming from the upper side of the village where there is a quarry. The press by itself is made of wood and metal assembled over the stone base.
The vatroom and cellarNow, this type of traditional press is a lot of work. He needs the help of two friends to do the job, put the grapes into it, press, empty it, it's a whole day. The grapes are transferred from the vat to the press with buckets, which takes already some time. Then there is the press stage, manual of course here. At the beginning he used, after a first press, to take everything out and repress the grapes, but it did not yield a very qualitative additional juice (and it was more hard work), so he doesn't do it anymore.
Another thing he may not do anymore is selling to the Négoce because the prices for wine in bulk to the Négoce have been falling sharply lately : for example he heard recently that a cask (pièce) of Aligoté [he doesn't make any Aligoté but that's just for the information about the rates] which would have sold 500 Euro last year sells now 250 Euro. He didn't hear about the price rates for Burgundy reds in bulk but it follows probably the trend. There is really a problem here, maybe with this economic crisis and with his small surface he really must sell everything in bottles. The Négoce option is the easy way to get quick cash but it gest less interesting if the prices get too low Cellar sceneBenoit Delorme makes a single cuvée, a red Côte Chalonnaise, that he sells in bottles and in bulk (bib or other containers). The bottled wine goes through at least a 12 months elevage (may be 14 or 18) in casks. He still had his 2008 wines in the casks when we visited early september just before the harvest. The acidity was quite high in 2008, with an alcohol level at 12° instead of a usual 13° on these Côte Chalonnaise slopes. With the high acidity, the malolactic fermentation started very late, in july 2009, going through august. So the wine hasn't been racked yet but he will have to check them again in order to plan the bottling and have the casks ready for the 2009 juices. As the fermentation will start in vats, he still has enough time to make room in the casks but he must begin to plan ahead. He racks either by gravity or with an electric pump. It depends also of what he looks to do on the wine. Right now the 2008 have a lot of gas and very sensitive to the outside air. He doesn't want to violent his wine, he respects its natural pace and doesn't try to shorten the different stages of the vinification. His wines are made without lab yeasts or enzymes, he doesn't filter or fine. No SO2 at the harvest and no SO2 during the vinification. I tell him that it's probably because of that that you have this feeling of life with his wine. He says that an important thing for the wine expression is to take a lot of attention to the racking stages which are very central to the aromatic qualities of the wine. For example if the sky is clear and the moon is waning, the racking can yield very positive results. Repeated rackings help to keep the aromatic image of the wine and its aromatic balance and he puts a bit of SO2 then. He takes out the gross lees each time, obtaining a clearer time each time with the natural sedimentation. At bottling the SO2 adding is minimal, like 20,5 grams for an hectoliter, it disappears soon after. He has virtually never any free SO2 in his wines.
Cellar tastingSo sulphur is the only additive he uses, even if in very small amounts. He added sugar in 2004 on a year where he wanted to see how far the wine could go and reach some richness. 2004 was an odd vintage, from his two cuvées of that year he had one of them refused the Appellation status by the agrément commission. So the only thing he could do was destroy all this wine, he was not offered a way out, even with a bottling as Vin de Table, because of the 20 kilograms of sugar that he declared (it's legal for the Appellation wine), he couldn't pass the wine in Vin de Table (sugar addings are allowed for Appellation wines but not for Vin de Table...). The other cuvée was vinified the same way but it was tasted by another agreement panel and it went through and got the Appellation right. He could have pushed for a re-examining of the barred cuvée on the ground that the other one was accepted but opted to let go. Since then he didn't add any sugar. But as his wines are alive, they can disturb the standard taster as they stand out from the crowd of tightly formated wines. Years ago, the problem was evern worse, as the agreement commissions would taste the wines while they weren't yet finished, in january [pushing indirectly in the way the vignerons to speed their wines with additives in order to be "ready" for the agreement]. Of course in january the wines weren't ready and as the tasters were vignerons themselves and didn't want to risk to have their own wine refused the Appellation, they accepted all the wines as they tasted at that time. The rules have changed and it's now the second year that the agreement tasting takes place either one month before the bottling of the wine or when it's already bottled.
Benoit Delorme's vineyard above RoseyBenoit Delorme puts lots of emphasis in what surrounds the wine, the relation between the vigneron and the natural environment, but also the conditions in which the wine is sold to the consumer. He doesn't view his work as a business but as something like a life philosophy. There is an identity thing in the wine, it's not an ordinary product and he wants it to be accessible to everyone, not only to the upper tier of the society. He also explores all the mutualist ways to work, be it for the sales network or for the vineyard work, the tools ownership and other exchanges with samely-thinking vignerons. He believes in setting the base for different economic relations between people. He joined an AMAP, which is one of these artisan-minded French groups of farmers selling their goods directly to the consumers. One of their partularities is to organise the delivery of weekly baskets to the participating consumers. The buyer usually joins for several months, meaning he will be delivered every week a load of, say, vegetables, cheese etc, depending of the seasonal production and the farmer will benefit from this cash-flow.
Benoit Delorme showing the vineyardEven though his rented vineyard has a surface of only 1,4 hectare, part of it is fully exposed on the south, with a highly-productive clone while the rest is more eastward-oriented and planted with a lesser-productive type of Pinot-Noir. The soil is very thin with a limestone table right underneath, which makes it hard for the vines which must look for humidity and nutrients in the stone's faults.The qualitative side of these different Pinots Noirs depends also of the way he manages the maturation of the grapes on each exposition, and it's not necessarily the vineyard with the lowest yields that produces the best results here. Depending of the vintage, he will try to amplify the difference between these two plots, or not to. In 2008 he tried to play on this difference of terroir, having the most productive macerating for two weeks and the smaller-yields one during only 5 days. Now after this late malolactic fermentation he will decide how and if, to blend them. In 2004 the vintage had pushed him not to amplify the cuvées and the wine was homogenous on the two slopes. In 2005 he had worked on the difference of the two parts of the vineyard, making very differentiated wines. He sold the lighter of the wines to the Négoce and sold the rest in bottles.Checking the Pinot NoirBenoit Delorme grabs a bottle from 2005 and opens it in front of us.
__Bourgogne Côte Chalonnaise, Benoit Delorme 2005. Red. Bottled in 2007 after 24 months of elevage. I like this nose, even if there is a bit of gas here. Mouth with red fruits aromas. Benoit says that he prefers the mouth to the nose here. He says that the tradition among the grandpas of the Côte Chalonnaise around here was to bottle the wines after two years in casks and that they would be considered as tasting well after 5 years. He says that it may not work on all vintages but he finds this quite accurate on the whole. There's a density with the tannins and the harmony comes with time spent in the casks. He didn't destem at the beginning and now destems partially from 2006, like 20 boxes on a total of 80 boxes for a vat.He tried to fully destem on a vat in 2006 but was he not satisfied with the result even if it made the wine more easilly accessible. The stem brings savor and also some mineral elements and without any stems, something lacks. After a first year of elevage, he feels the positive side of the stems part, particularly on the aromatic complexity.In 2005 he sold one cuvée to the Négoce, then had some other wine bottled at the end of 2006, and the one that we taste now which was the most achieved and that he bottled later in august 2007. The different climats of his 1,4-hectare vineyard make their way separately in the casks and he blends them the way he feels it at the end of the cellar road. As often, as we take a sip again 5 or 10 minutes later of this same bottle, we feel more richness in terms of aromas and complexity. B. says that she feels now floral aromas like peony notes. The sad thing is that he has virtually no bottle left for this vintage 2005. Thank you so much for opening this bottle, Benoit.
Complanting : A cluster of Chardonnay lost among the Pinot Noir__Bourgogne Côte Chalonnaise, Benoit Delorme 2007. Red. Generous mouth, immediately approcheable without waiting several minutes for opening. Some tannins. A bit of gas on the nose. Benoit considers that this wine is not showing its best now, he opened a bottle in july which was so much more expressive, it went in a cycle or something, with less fruit than this previous tasting in july. He noticed that there are two times where wines are difficult to taste : the blossoming and the harvest seasons, like if the wine remembered these crucial stages for his very existence and he paused for remembrance... He still has 1100 bottles of this wine. Costs 5,9 Euro a bottle (public price, tax included).
__Bourgogne Côte Chalonnaise, Benoit Delorme 2008. Red. From a cask. Comes from the south-exposure plot, with the productive clone. This wine hasn't seen any SO2 since the beginning and no racking since the harvest. A bit perly in the mouth. Fineness. Lighter in alcohol. The malolactic fermentation is on the wane here. The year 2008 was cold and humid but the late season was good and the harvest weather was beautiful. The cold didn't bring a good maturation elsewhere but on his vineyard which is organicly farmed, he had kept a good foliage volume and all the weeds on the ground which helped a lot for the health of the grapes, just that the alcohol was lower this year (12° instead of 13°) and that the acidity was high.
__Bourgogne Côte Chalonnaise, Benoit Delorme 2008. Red. From a cask. Comes from the eastern-exposition plot with the low-yields clone. 3 weeks maceration here, compared with 5 or 6 days for the previous wine of the same year. Reduction notes on the nose. In the mouth, a feel of life, I like that. Benoit is suprised by the color because elsewhere for 2008 the wines have very clear and pale robes. He added some lees from 2007, one liter per cask for this cuvée, as if he wanted to say to the wine : here is your roots, stay connected.... He uses old casks, the oldest dating from 1993 and the newest from 2002/2003. He rotates usually 5/6 casks a year. He says after a moment that he is suprised, this wine tastes well.


Benoit DelormeCôte Chalonnaise (Burgundy)749, rue de la libérationCidex 411 - Germolles71390 Roseycell phone +33 6 64 29 58 72fixed line +33 3 85 98 05 47Webpage : benoitdelorme-bourgogne.frbionoitdelorme [at] gmail [dot] com