Chassey-le-Camp, Burgundy
The Domaine Didon is yet another artisan domaine pointed to me by Aaron, it's nestled in such a beautiful and remote-looking valley between Santenay and Mercurey, feeling worlds away from the intensive vineyard landscape we're used to in Burgundy as well. Here is the village of Chassey-le-Camp, 361 inhabitants among them 4 vignerons. David who is one of them tends here with his wife Naïma a handful of hectares a few steps from their house on organic and biodynamic principles. David was born in Strasbourg, grew up there and after school started with studying
in the south of France with a BTS on nature protection,
still not sure if for working in forests or something else, he just knew it'd be related with nature and outdoor. afterthen he took a specialisation cursus focused on organic & biodynamic agriculture in Beaujeu (Beaujolais) at the Ecole d'Agrobiologie de Beaujeu (now closed). After that instead of doing his military time, as conscientious objector he chose to serve 20 months in the Mouvement de l'Agriculture Biodynamique in Alsace; his work there consisted in helping different farms, doing farm work, it furthered his practical knowledge in biodynamic farming.
Then he worked in the Côtes de Toul [a little-known northern Appellation located near Nancy in the Meurthe-et-Moselle département] at Domaine Michel Goujot where he worked in the vineyard (3,5 hectares of vineyard), the vigneron also had also 500 trees (mirabelles and quetsches, or plum, for dry fruits and spirits) . Then, until recently (2022) and for 20 years, David worked at Domaine de Montille, keeping it later as a side job while he was growing his own surface (Naïma still does have one, she's an accountant in a winery), he was chef de culture (vineyard manager) for the Chateau-de-Puligny part of the domaine, where he helped for the conversion to organic & biodynamic farming. I happen to have written a story on the domaine but it's quite old now.
The weather being on the brink of raining, we begin with a visit in the vineyard, the 3,7 hectares sit on the slope just next the village and under the trees, you can't imagine a surrounding closer to old-time viticulture, when farms had just a small surface of vineyard each, aside from farm animals and other crops, resulting in a landscape that was much more harmonious than nowadays intensive-viticulture we see in major wine regions. David says that the choice to start their domaine doesn't mean it made life easier for them, because actually he had to work much more compared to when he was only working as chef de culture at De Montille. But what is important for him in this move is to go deeper in the understanding of biodynamics and experiment things in the vineyard in a freer way than it would have been while employed. Not that they did not experiment at De Montille but he can go even further here and see the result in the wines. He won't aim at a larger surface in order precisely to be able to keep managing securely the biodynamic management on the whole surface.
You can see on the picture here that the rows are planted very close to each other, one meter actually, they were plowed initially by a horse but the farmer who owned the vineyards was one of the first around here to buy a straddle tractor.
They first found the house in 2015 with a side building fit for winemaking (each of them had their job then) and it's only in 2017 that they found vineyards here, beginning with 2 hectares, opening the possibility to start their thing while keeping their jobs. In this block they have Aligoté, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, and some of the surface has been recently planted with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The remaining vines are very old, some Aligoté here are 80 and still produce good yields. Depending of the groups of rows, plantings were done in 1947, 1948, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1961 & 1962. They took over this vineyard in 2017. They were lucky that the owner was ready to sell. But the parcels were old and they had some earthwork to do, check the walls, redo the embankments.
The whole surface is actually 3,77 hectares and there's also additional surface and more room for more plantings, they'll do some this spring and next year. In the end they'll have 4,5 hectares of producing vineyard which is something David still can handle by himself in terms of vineyard management, besides a bit of help for certain vineyard tasks and Naïma scaled down her day job so she can help in the domaine as well. David says they consider hiring a vineyard worker full time, they'll see. The goal with reaching this surface is also not to have to rely on purchased grapes. They started to buy grapes in 2021 when frost was terrible, when 100 % of Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay was lost, and same for 2/3 of the Aligoté and the Pinot Noir. And this even though with these slopes' configuration (from locals' memory it was the first time it ever froze here). This was an advection type of frost in 2021 (also known as black frost), which is much less uncommon that the radiation frost. In 2022 they kept buying some grapes as a complement as he quit his day job at Domaine de Montille (Chateau de Puligny) and as the targeted surface here was not yet met they neded this complement. They'll scale down the négoce part with as their productive surface grows. They buy here in Chassey-le-Camp, also in the Beaujolais and in Alsace, bringing most of the grapes here for the vinification, except for the Riesling/Muscat.
This parcel here was uprooted, the vines were planted in 1970, it will be replanted soon, this year or the next. It will be in massal selections and all their other parcels vineyards are planted with massale selection by the way, be it the old vines or even the youngest parcel they bought, a 35-year-old Aligoté or the ones they've replanted themselves. Speaking f the old vines, as said, they still have good yields, David says they were certainly well planted and the couple decades of conventional farming they went through didn't damage them too much. He uses compost, mostly cattle manure, a bit also of poultry droppings, they source the two in farms. He also plows every year, he follows the méthode Herody [document in French] with which you study the soil and determine the organic matter that you put in the soil. Herody (who still lives today) recommends using young compost/manure (between 4 to 8 weeks of fermentation) versus old manure where there's not much energy left, not much nitrogen and which are not good, especially on limestone soils. There's a narrative around saying that you need to put carbon in the soil but carbon is not what makes the soil work, it's a structural element of course but it's nitrogen that makes the soil work, and particularl
y nitrogen of animal origin which David says he feels being much more mobile. Plowing is important too (he does it in march), because at 10 000 vines per hectare [which I understand is the ratio here] the concurrence of the weeds is too much. This said, he still sowed until now oats, rye and clover between the rows, waiting that he sees in autumn enough of spontaneous weeds pop up, but it takes a while when you take over parcels that were previously sprayed with herbicide.
here's the straddle tractor he uses. Like the rest of the cellar and viticulture tools, he found that around by word of mouth. This Bobard M55 was made in 1978, it simple enough that he can fix things by himself, no computer things here of course, it's not too heavy and is not a gas guzzler. I love the unpretentious look of these old machines, like a cute old Citroën...
Here is the basket press, they use it for the red, he also bought it in the vicinity in a village not far from here; it was in working order but he made a few improvements on it and he will do some more. He can press 35 hectoliters of fruit in there, resulting at the end in 20 hectoliters of juice or a bit more. The bin on top of the cement vat (named a conquet in French) is used to transfer the grapes back to the press, it is positioned below the cement tank, the grapes are pushed/pulled into the bin and then moved up above the press with a forklift. Pressing a load with this basket press takes a day overall, including the reassembling of the wood parts. David says 4 people are need when emptying the cement tank and loading this press : one in the cement tank, two at the conquet and one on the press to spread the bunches evenly.
David found the two yellow Vaslin presses also in the area, second hand, he uses the two but only for the whites. They don't use any automatic program for the pressing, there's always someone near the press knowng when to stop or pause after say, one hour of pressing. Still, he adapted a system that stops the pressing when a certain pressure is met. he likes to press at night, starting a last pressing at 10 pm and then going to sleep while letting the press quiet but under pressure. 100 % whole bunches for the reds. It's important for him to have this kind of press for whole bunches because you don't stir the grapes when you use whole bunches, he'll not do pigeage as well, only pumping over, you need to keep the stems intact so as not extract bitter notes. Whole bunches help get refined extraction through the gas inside the berries that brings some substance outside, and while in the press, even when partially crushed by the pressure the inside of the grapes keep fermenting along the hours, yielding a type of extraction that is noble. For him, working with whole bunches allows at the same time a supple structure, fruit and refinement. For him, a wine don't need to wait a long élevage to be ready, and he says it's when winemakers work a lot on the winemaking that in return they need lots of time before being ready. This said, he adds that it's normal to wait twxo years to get the best of a given wine, but if you extract too much and also use new oak you'll need much more to get the stage of roundness and harmony.
These cement tanks have a 50-hectoliter capacity, he never fills them to the top considering the volume of his individual cuvées. This is here that the vinification, the fermentation takes place. The maceration in there is not very long, usually around 8 days, starting the fermentation with a pied de cuve, the fermentation is thus rather quick, which is important when you work without sulfur like here. These tanks are not self-emptying, so once the door is open you have to be inside to push the bunches out while being careful with the CO2 (he keeps the head out at the beginning).
These cuves de fibre like we say in French were bought second hand in the area as well, they're very common in France and can be moved very easily when empty. These tanks which have usually a floating lid are used for élevage and storage. He doesn't have many stainless-steel tanks, just a few small ones.
We speak a bout the natural yeast, are they mainly on the grapes' skins, brought from the vineyard, or in the cellar ? He's convinced the walls and chai host yeast life that help the winemaking, but on the other hand he noticed that when he makes the
The cellar is partly underground (along two sides). His estate Bourgogne reds and whites are made in barrels, and for the négoce
The maker brought here three different tanks in which they'd store the same wine. The first tank was neutral (no homeopathic information in the fabric of the egg), one with a sulfur information (making the wine "believe" there was sulfur) and one with the 7 planetary metals (Lead - Saturn, Tin - Jupiter, Iron - Mars, Gold - Sun, Copper - Venus, Mercury - Mercury, Silver - Moon), plus silica and limestone.
The homeopathic powder is blended to the fabric of the egg at the time of manufacturing, unaffecting its physical properties but affecting its informational capacity unto the wine or whatever liquid being stored there. The base formula of
David says of course he could recognize his wines in the three tastings, but in terms of precision, quality, cleanliness or openness the "planets" one (to sum it up) was the best. The sulfur one was always feeling closed, even though there was no sulfur or sulfites added to the wine, and it always as well gave the impression of a structure with vegetal charachter and tightness. And the neutral was inbetween. Apparently there is no other fiberglass tank maker using homeopathy like here. But David says that in another register, for example for the cement slabs that they poured when they renovated part of the facility, he took care to add an homeopathic information in the cement as well, having the concrete mixer behind the truck keep turning 10 minutes with the homeopathic thing so that it blends evenly. You can find informations on this page on the nature of this homeopathic treatment for concrete. In short, concrete has been burned very hard during the manufacturing process, which destroys the life forces, and because of this it is hungry for life forces. To remedy this we give it this homeopathic information which makes it more neutral toward the surrounding life.
David fills a glass from a large barrel (a demi muids which like the rest of the barrels is at least 10 years old), this is a Bourgogne Blanc 2023, a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc. Speaking of the barrels, he sourced many from the Domaine De Montille and he also bought elsewhere and he can see with nearby friends like Julien Altaber or Dominique Derain with whom he routinely exchange tools.
Here we taste from the barrel the Bourgogne Rouge 2023, will be racked somewhere between now and june/july and afterthen will have another year in tank. Will be unfined and unfiltered, and no sulfites added. Very delicate wine, with small red fruit notes. It's of course in its infancy but you envision already after a reazsonable élevage time. As said, the maceration lasts 8 days without foulage, only remontages, and the pressing is the important stage to get just the right type of extraction.
We go outside to taste the Bourgogne Rouge 2022 that has been racked and is presently in a fiberglass tank (will be bottled soon - may have been bottled since my visit took place a few weeks ago). Very neat Pinot with a fruity chew, very croquant.
David and Naïma gave me two samples in bottles, we opened this first one at home (I'll post later when we open the 2nd) :
wines also the Bourgogne reds and the Bourgogne whites stay in barrels but the rest is in tanks. His estate Aligoté stay in tanks for now but he plans to use barrels for the old-vines Aligoté. In the center you can see the lying eggs, the maker, which is CFMP in Mâcon (Burgundy), can make this eggs horizontal or vertical, David chose the horizontal model for his reds. they're not in clay or sandstone but in fiber (fiberglass reinforced polyester), thus very light when empty, one of the reason he chose them. The other reason for this choice is that in 2017 they made a trial here at Domaine Didon with the maker and they studied the results of homeopathy in the fiberglass.
the homeopathic input was made by biodynamic specialist Dominique Massenot who had already worked with this maker in Mäcon. The result was obvious, they tasted the wines (not only him and Naïma but other winemakers and specialists) all winter and everyone without a single exception (the tastings were blinds of course) wrote out the same order between the three wines : the wines with the planets plus silica & limestone was on top, the neutral next and the sulfur was the last.
The wine here is very neat, straight and with a saline touch. The mouth is precise and jubilant at the same time.
David says that nowadays, with the climate modifications, it's even more important to rely on biodynamics when you want to vinify without sulfur and if you want to retain a certain balance in the wines, especially regarding to acidity and freshness. Today everyone looks for freshness when making wine and that's what biodynamic farming allows, compensating climate excesses like wheather being too hot, to dry or too much rain, helping get a more precise aromatic precision compared to parcels not farmed this way. He says that even though biodynamic farming has been around for 100 years there's still room for progress to better the efficiency of preparations, and he is utmost interested to explore in this direction, not only regarding the farming but also with what can be done through homeopathy. For example when faced with reduction, mousiness or volatile issues he says that this could be studied through homeopathic ways and he'd like to explore and experiment, as well as exchange with colleagues who look also in this direction.
We're speaking of the biodynamic preparations, David says he makes almost one per week along the season. Speaking of the 500 hemakes at least 3 of them between now (early april) and july, 3 silica preparations as well, plus if the weather is hot or dry or he feels the vineyard suffers he sprays a fermented nettle extract, and with all these spraying, between mid-april to mid- or end of july it's one every week or every 10 days. He makes these sprayings with another old straddle tractor (not the one filmed above), one that is even smaller and lighter.
__ Bourgogne Aligoté 2022, the entry cuvée for the estate Aligoté. Nice reverberation feel on the palate. Aromas of white flowers. Nicely-structured white that makes only 11 % alcohol content. On the 2nd pour there's this little sort of tickling/energy on the tongue, lovely ! The label states contains sulfites but I think there was none.
Domaine Didon wines are exported for 70 to 80 % of the volume, to the United States (Offshore Wines -- Paris Wine Company -- Jeffrey alpert Selections), Japan (Terra Vert), Europe, Scandinavia, China, Singapore, Taiwan and a string of other countries.
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