3.2 Burgundy Cote d'Or, Cote Chalonnaise, Maconnaise Flashcards
1
Q
Where is Burgundy, and relatively where is Chablis?
A
Burgundy
- is a narrow strip of land, north/south in direction
- between Dijon and Macon, about 130 km
- approximately 46-47 N longitude
Chablis is 110km NW of Dijon - makes it cooler than Burgundy.
2
Q
What is the climate of Cote d’Or, Cote Chalonnais, Macconais?
and what are the hazards?
A
Climate
Cote d’Or
- Cool Continental – cold winters and warm summers
- Suits early ripening PN & CH
- 700mm of rainfall can threaten harvest
- Morvan hills to the west protect from rainfall
- Vintage variation due to variability of weather yony
- Aspect, altitude, degree of slope, soil affects quality
- ripe fruit esp PN tannins priority in this area
Maconnais
- The Maconnais is slightly drier & warmer than Cote d’Or
Hazards:
- Spring frost - after budburst - agg by climate change & CH&PN early budding
-
Hail - (risk differs per timing)
- damage to early growth / total loss of crop
- later damage to berries which must be removed in case of rot (sorting tables critical to allev this)
- From June 2018 limited netting allowed
- most common prevention is shooting silver iodide into the clouds away from the VY
- as it is localised, hail can badly affect winemaking and commerce . Volnay, Pommard notably affected 2012-2015
-
Rain - timing!
- spring - flowering, fruit set reduces yields/uneven ripening
- growing season - fungal disease
- harvest - dilution / rot
-
Drought stress (climate change)
- irrigation not allowed
- recent vintages - shrivelled berries/vines shut down
- VY with clay cope better
3
Q
The topography of Cote d’Or, Chalonnaise, Maconnais
A
Topography
- Topography is a key factor in determining the quality outcome
-
Cote d’Or lies on a N-S orientated range
- Main ridge faces East BUT
- Side valleys running EW - provide SE or S aspects
- Slopes altitude 200 to 400 m
- The best vineyards are:
-
Mid slope (Best)
- Well drained shallow soils
- Good sunlight interception
- Comparative frost protection
- Better ripening potential due to central location (fruit concentration)
- Top of slope are:
- poor thin soils
- exposed to cooling winds
- Bottom of slope :
- Subject to frost risk
- Deeper soils, vigour, low concentr fruit
- Coolest sites are planted to Aligote/ Cremant de Bourgogne
-
Mid slope (Best)
-
Cote Chalonnaise - more varied than CdeO:
- Best south east slopes of Chalonnaise are in Bouzeron and Rully
-
Maconnais more varied than CdeO
- Pouilly-Fuisse on the slopes
- good quality dry Chardonnay.
- Best Pouilly-Fuisse vineyards are being considered for Premier Cru status to recog their sup Q
4
Q
What are the important factors in vineyard slope on the Cote d’Or?
A
Importance of vineyard/site slope:
- exposure
- drainage
- soil depth
- heat retention
- & mineral content
- Altitude:
- Mid-slope ideal 250m (forms a sun trap) = most 1ers & grands crus.
- Higher-> harsher climate & slow ripening.
- Lower: alluvial soils with valley mists + frost.
5
Q
The best Cote d’Or vineyards are on slopes, what geophysical feature provides these slopes?
A
The east side of the Massif Central, provides east and south east facing slopes
6
Q
The soils of Cote d’Or, Cote Chalonnaise and Maconnais
A
SOILS
- Mainly composed of limestone and clay, proportions vary
- Cote de Nuits
- high levels of limestone in soil
- best sites for Pinot Noir
- Cote de Beaune
- More clay in the soils and they are deeper
- Best sites for Chardonnay
- Chalonnaise and Maconnais have a mixture of limestone and clay
- Depth of soil to bedrock:
- Varies greatly, erosion moves soil down slope
- Thin soils at the top – low vigour, vines struggle to thrive
- Deeper at the bottom – fertle>high vigour >shade> less ripeness
7
Q
What 4 components make up the soils of Burgundy?
A
Chablis:
- Petit: Portlandian - hard limestone, less clay
- Chablis/Pr / Gr Cru : Kimmeridgian soils (excellent drainage, and water retention)
Cote de’Or
- Calcareous and clay: white wine (Montrachet) – Chardonnay
- Limestone and marl: red wine (Chambertin) – Pinot Noir
8
Q
Chardonnay
A
Chardonnay
- Versatile and adaptive to range of climates, soils
- Buds early and ripens early
- Rel high yields without loss of quality
- Susc/prone to:
- spring frost, grey rot, powdery mildew, millerandage and grapevine yellows
- Top quality in limestone/clay soils
- Burgundy (cool clim Chablis) flavours
- apple, pear, lemon, lime, wet stones, mineral
- l/m body, h acid,
- Burgundy & other (mod clim Cote d’Or)
- ripe citrus, melon, stone fr,
- m/m+ body, m+/h acid
- Main challenge is vigour mgmt, avoid excessive yield/shading that affects ripening
9
Q
Pinot Noir
A
Pinot Noir
- Buds early and ripens early
- Yields must be reduced in order to produce top quality
- thin skins
-
Delicate prone/susc to
- Millerandage
- D & P MD
- BBR
- Fan leaf and leaf roll viruses
- In warm climates can ripen too fast, berries shrivel / sunburn)
- Main issue in Burgundy is getting sufficient ripeness
-
Clone Usage
- In Burgundy Dijon clone families, dev by University of Burgundy, regarded as the best for quality PN
- Producers decide
- plant a variety of clones (diff yield/disease tol/ripening speed/fruit char) - leads to diversity
- or go for uniform profile and plant a single clone
- a no. of prod propagate own vines via selection massale
-
Typical profile
- strawberry, raspberry, red cherry
- Higher Q: light oak flavours(smoke, clove)
- l/m tannin (Gr Cru m+) m alc, hi acid.
- Dev earth, game, mushroom notes in bottle
10
Q
Aligote?
A
Aligoté 5%
- Less replanted post-phylloxera in favour of Chardonnay
- Mostly thin, high-acid wines
- For Bourgogne Aligoté & Crémant
- Bouzeron makes the best examples
11
Q
What are the Vy management methods used in Burgundy?
A
Pruning/training method
- Cordon de Royat
- limits yields by limiting vigour
- old wood might harbour disease, producers moving away from it.
- Guyot (replacement cane prune, with VSP)
- was traditionally used, prod now returning to this
- Poussard-Guyot’
- more gentle than Guyot - requires less cuts and hence lowers risk of trunk diseases like Esca
- requires more skilled VY workers
Planting
- 8 - 10000 v/ha (some have higher)
- Density>competition for resource>better Q fruit
Yield Mgmt
- Debudding
- Promotes balance, but
- i done early in season - later hail/rot may significantly impact final yield
- Green harvesting
- assess bunches before sacrificing before veraisson
- takes account of weather before acting
- vine may respond with excessive growth in remaining bunches and dilution
- *Maximum yields**
- (high variation of quality - rules for ind appellations can reflect local conditions)*
- regional appellations R 69 hl/ha W 75 hl/ha
- village R 40 - 45 hl/ha W 45 - 47 hl/ha
- some GR Crus R 35 hl/ha W 40 hl/ha
Organic/Biodynamic becoming more popular
- challenging in the climate of Burgundy
- causes grower aggro as VY are small/shared and some practices need a min area, to be successfully implemented
Disease/hazard management
- grape moths - pheremones
- Fungal disease - spray & can mgmt
- Trunk disease (Esca etc) serious issue
Harvest
- Critical - given the marginal climate/likelihood of storms
- Early? - better acidity, risk unripe fruit
- Later? - softer wine, but higher weather risk
- Majority hand-picked - availability of workforce is major consideration
12
Q
White wine making in Burgundy? Explain the process and its variations.
A
- Acidification or de-acidification is permitted (rare)
-
Chaptalisation if must has insuff sugar to reach min alc
- allowed 1.5 - 2% pot alc abv
- Sorting
-
Pressing
- Whole bunch pressed (with stem) (hand picked)
- Normally no skin contact
-
Clarification:
- HiQ - sedimentation
- Inexp/mid - quicker - flotation or centrifuging
- Hyperoxidation – so the final wine is not susceptible to premature oxidation (premox)
-
Fermentation:
- Ambient yeast
- cultured yeast for large vol regional wines
- Inexpensive/mid-priced wines
- stainless steel/concrete vessels/large oak vats
- temperature 16-18 degC - preserve fruit aroma
- avoids banana flav from low temp ferm
- aged in same vessels or in older barrels
- Expensive wines
- Typically ferment + age in barrel > creamier and rounder style
- Temp 16-20 degrees
- Ambient yeast
-
Malo C
- normal practice, but blocked if a fresher style is desired
-
Maturation
- 8-12 months in barrel with fine lees, battonage for texture, reduce reductive flav
- use of New oak
- Regional level wines – see little new oak
- Village level – 20-25% is common
- Premier Cru – 30-50% is common
- Grand Cru – 50% + and sometimes 100%
- 228 litre Burgundy barrel (a “piece” is the standard
- 500-600 litre barrels are used by some producers
- Stirring on lees (batonnage) may be carried out – reduces the reductive characters and adds creamier texture
-
Filter
- white more often than red> cloudiness visible to customer
13
Q
Cold soaking is commonly used for Pinot Noir in Burgundy - explain the technique and what it is done for
A
- Cold soaking (below 10 degrees, for 3 - 7 days (course notes states “few”) and maybe sulphured to stop oxidation and prevent the primary ferment kicking off
- Pinot Noir is low in anthocyanins
- So cold soaking is carried out to extract colour
- Plus it aids in picking up some more aromatics from the fruit
Internet:
Cold soaking is often a way to increase the contact time of wine in an aqueous phase, as opposed to extended maceration which results in more contact time in an ethanol-rich phase. Cold soaking extracts anthocyanin and skin tannin, but not much seed tannin (since efficient seed tannin extraction requires ethanol)
14
Q
Red winemaking (PN) in Burgundy? Explain the process and its variations.
A
- Pinot Noir - delicate/aromatic/light tannin> vinify carefully!
- Maintaining primary fruit is key
- Not overwhelming with oak flavours
-
Sorting
- common for all but the least exp.
-
Whole bunch fermentation - all or portion -depends on vintage & VY
- aids aeration, intro perfume, freshness and fine tannin
- Except: Unripe stems can introduce green astringent tannins to the wine
- Alt - some destem, following trend of Henri Jayer
-
Cold soaking
-
(below 10 degrees, for few days, and maybe sulphured to stop oxidation and prevent the primary ferment kicking off
- Pinot Noir is low in anthocyanins - this extracts more colour
-
(below 10 degrees, for few days, and maybe sulphured to stop oxidation and prevent the primary ferment kicking off
-
Fermentation
- Small open topped vessels
- Pump over – remontage/punch down – pigeage to:
- intro oxygen - nb for yeast metabolism
- Avoid prod of reductive sulfur compounds (PN prone to reduction)
- Avoid prod acetic acid
- Assist colour, tannin and flavour extraction
- Regulate must temp at ~ 30ºC
-
Post fermentation maceration
- depends on ripeness of fruit and wine style
- 2-3 weeks - for concentration and structure
-
Pressing
- pneumatic or basket press (gentle)
- Free run /press wine vinified sep, poss blended before bottling
- Racked into oak barrels 228l
-
Maturation
- Less expensive – less than one year
- Premium to super premium – 12 to 20 months
- Portion of new oak varies but generally higher in Premier Cru and Grand Cru
- Many varying opinions on new oak and oak maturation
-
MaloC
- Is normally spontaneous in Spring
-
Filtration
- Less expensive wines are fined and lightly filtered
- HiQ may not be
15
Q
Cote D’Or has classifcation from regional AOCs to the Grand Cru level - provide details on naming
A
4-tier Hierarchy Cote d’Or
- 7 regional or generic appellations (52% of vol prod)
- normally a geog area*
- Bourgogne AOC,
- Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Beaune AOC,
- Bougogne Cote d’Or AOC (intro 2017)
- Bourgogne Chitry AOC (where Chitry is a village)
-
44 commune /village appellations (47% tog with the prem crus)
- Meursault AOC,
- Gevery-Chambertine AOC
- premier cru >
- normally featured only together with a village appell. if wine is from more than 1 PC then neither on the lable - only the village*
- Pomard Premier Cru Les Rugiens AOC,
- Vosne Romanee Premier Cru Aux Malconsorts AOC
- 33 grand cru > 1% Vol
- are appellations in themselves only Gr Cru name on label*
- Richebourg Grand Cru AOC,
- Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru AOC
- *
