2.4  Grand Cru Breakdown with Raj + Échezeaux 

 

Brenna (Narrates): It was difficult to decide how to approach the grand crus of Vosne Romanée. These wines are so rare and so expensive they often seem they don’t belong to us mortals. How do we describe wines of such importance without first hand experience, and how do we explain their purpose knowing many of us may never have the opportunity to taste them. I asked a few friends to describe what a ‘grand cru’ is and what it means in the world today. 

 

Rajat Parr: A grand cru always speaks back to you, you know? It’s like you taste it and then you think about it, and it says something to you. Usually it's the little voice who comes back to you that’s like, “this is where I am”. And no place more than Vosne Romanée defines that. A Grand Cru always has that layer – it has that extra dimension.

 

Brenna (Narrates): Here’s Jasper Morris, author of Inside Burgundy.

 

Jasper Morris: You have your appellations, and then the Grand Crus are their own individual appellations. So if we go back just to the village level, we have a view, roughly, of what the characteristics are supposed to be in taste terms. So you get this idea of a flavor. The 1er Cru vineyards are those that express that flavor better, and you also get this feeling wine goes into your mouth and there it is, and then it sort of takes off, the airplane has left the ground and you get an extra lift and punch and just delivers more. The Grand Crus should have a strong enough personality of their own, which though it may be linked to the appellation, it sort of transcends it. So that’s my idea, a Grand Cru should have enough of its own personality that it self-defines.

 

Rajat Parr: Now they just stand as benchmarks, you know? I mean, the thing is that even back in the day, when you were drawing a grand cru, a village wine would just seem so light and not as complex. It’s the same today. A grand cru is just so profound; it’s like the person who wants to tell you a story, you know? A village wine will just say one word;  a premier cru might give you a sentence, but the grand cru really talks back to you. They are the benchmark. They define each place. Yeah, too bad we can’t taste them more often and discuss them. But yeah, it’s there to tell you a story.

 

[Raj trails off...]

 

[Car continues to drive and casual navigation directions are overhead.]

 

Marie-Andrée Mugneret: Nuits-Saint-Georges – Vosne Romanée; it’s different here! 

 

Female Voice: Yeah, the road changes!

 

Marie-Andrée Mugneret: In order to explore these distinct, yet hard to reach wines, Marie Andre Mugneret has kindly agreed to give us a little driving tour; and Raj and Paul will help to illuminate the wines as we go.

 

Brenna (Narrates): We begin our tour where we started this morning – in the south, arriving in Vosne from Nuits Saint George.

 

Marie-Andrée Mugneret: And of course, La Tache… 

 

Brenna (Narrates): La Tache is on our left, marked by an ancient cross that sits upon the ostrea acuminata marle, one of the key monopoles of Domaine de la Romanee Conti. Yet the vineyards boundaries and ownership were under flux until 1933. The six hectare vineyard has distinctly variable yet mysterious geologic zones.

 

Paul: La Tache in one word is spectacular. It’s such a giving wine, both aromatically and texturally, it almost never has a bad day and sometimes wines that are this giving and generous can be a little dumb, but La Tache is never dumb and never vulgar. It’s just a gloriously expressive, beautiful, embracing wine, probably the closest thing to unconditional love you’ll ever receive from a grand cru in Burgundy and because of this I think of it as the most maternal of all the grand Cru. 

 

Marie-Andrée Mugneret: It’s the road of adventure.

 

Brenna (Narrates): We slink along the outskirts of the village, looking toward the narrow La Grand Rue, climbing the gentle slope ahead of us, and hugging the northern border of La Tache.

 

Marie-Andrée Mugneret: *observing the landscape* The birds are ready to go to the south. 

 

Brenna: Wow, yeah. They’re gathering.

 

Marie-Andrée Mugneret: Of course you know here, Romanée Saint Vivant, La Grand Rue, Domaine Lamarche.

 

Brenna: Romanée Saint Vivant is on our right. It lies nearly at the bottom of the  slope, even touching a corner of the village. The slope is flat with calcareous clay soils nearly a meter deep.

 

Paul: There’s a lot of talent in this vineyard. Lachaux for example Cathiard and Leroy. It’s pretty delicate. Much more delicate than La Tache or Richebourg.

Rajat Parr: It’s hard to talk about Vosne Romanee and not talk about Richebourg and Romanee St Vivant. Romanee St Vivant, the wines are much more ethereal, like they could be tannic but not very tannic.

 

Paul adds: It’s sort of built like a long distance runner. Sometimes, to the point of wondering if it has enough meat on its bones, but I personally love the more profile, sleeker, more graceful terroirs. And actually, in its discretion, Romanée St Vivant, is the little cousin of Romanee Conti.

 

[Marie continues to point out landmarks as the car tour continues. You can hear the tires rumble over the uneven road]

 

Marie-Andrée: …Richebourg. We’ve crossed the Richebourg.

 

Brenna (Narrates): The road comes to a crossroads and we turn right. Romanee St Vivant is now below us on our right; Romanee Conti and Richebourg on our left. 

 

Paul, emphasis in his voice: First of all you don’t pronounce the ‘g’. It’s REESHBOOR, not RICH-BORG.

 

Rajat Parr: Richebourg is always, has been known to make bigger wines, tannic wines, chewier wines, for pinot noir levels, but they are definitely more firmer wines than Romanee St Vivant. And I guess that would probably kind of be because of the more ‘clay-ier’ soils at the bottom of the hill, and as you go up you get more limestone and a good mix I guess. It just gets gluey. The limestone clay is so sticky. And that probably the same happens at the bottom part of Richebourg and the middle part of Romanee St Vivant. Just sticky. But much redder, much more iron soil.

 

Paul: And it tastes sort of like its name, rich. It’s a flamboyant, showy wine, full of fruit with a powerful structure. Not just complete, but with a whole lot of everything in it. It makes it one of the most beloved grand Crus, not just in Vosne Romanée but in all of Burgundy. And it’s often named as the wine that gave people their Burgundy epiphany. 

 

Paul continues: When it’s young, it can be a little bruttish. For me it it’s sort of like the jock of the grand crus of Vosne. It is unquestionably a brilliant Grand Cru and one of the very very very best, just slightly big and in your face for me. But it is brilliant.

 

Rajat Parr: Richebourg is maybe someone who is muscular and dense, right? So that makes the wine more tannic. Maybe Richebourg is a 300lb muscle person and Romanée St Vivant is a 220lb muscle person.

 

Marie-Andrée navigates aloud: …on the left…

​

Brenna (Narrates): We pause at the intersection.

 

Rajat Parr: When you go further south, you come upon, next to Richebourg, above Saint Vivant, is Romanee Conti, which is kind of midslope. It’s hard to see the slope until you’re standing below it. 

 

[The car has come to a stop to observe the slope. Church bells ring in the background]

 

[Marie mumbles: wine tour maybe…]

 

[Marie is observing what’s happening in the town, or what the bells indicate]

 

Brenna: Oh yeah, wow.

 

Rajat Parr: It’s a pretty extraordinary gentle slope going up.

 

Brenna (Narrates): Although the road is always a rugged mess, there are always a few cars parked here. Pilgrims have made their way to the sanctuary of La Romanée Conti

 

Marie-Andrée: La Romanee Conti of course! 

 

Brenna: …with the rainbow over it.

 

Marie-Andrée: Ah yes!!

 

[Church bells still ringing]

 

Marie-Andrée: It’s perfect.

 

Brenna (Narrates): It’s hard to believe at first, that this humble piece of the slope creates the greatest wines in the world, and yet, that perfectly embodies the glory of Burgundy. The vineyard does not shout at you, but encourages stillness; forces you to listen. 

 

Paul: So is Romanee Conti the greatest? Is it ‘the one ring to rule them all?’ Without a doubt for me, absolutely, yes. But the thing is, it is not a flamboyant wine. In fact, when you first taste it, it’s a really small thing and you can be utterly disappointed. It often loses in blind tastings to La Tache or Richebourg and you really have to focus on it to see why it’s so great. You have to work up to it, it’s not going to perform for you even though you’ve spent a huge amount of money on it. However, if you do give it your full attention, it’s like putting a slide under a microscope and suddenly discovering an incredibly detailed universe with everything in the most absolute perfect proportions. There’s no other wine in Burgundy that most fits what people think of Burgundy intensity without weight.  And, there’s another thing people love about Burgundy is the layer trick. You know you go back to the glass and there’s another layer, and you go back and there’s another layer, and another layer. And Romanée Conti does this more agonizingly slower than any other Grand Cru and goes on for hours doing this. Your glass is always empty before we’ve seen the full thing; but it is the most glorious, discreet, elegant, complex, slow reveal. It’s just absolutely stunning. 

 

Brenna (Narrates): Just above Romanée Conti is La Romanée, a monopole of the regal and historic Domaine de la Comte Liger-Belair.

 

Rajat Parr: Above it is La Romanée, which is, you know, they’re planted on differently because the slope changes as you go up. You walk up Romanee Conti and you literally just walk into La Romanée and you see the slope is just slightly more North-South, so it’s planted that way versus Romanée Conti planted East-West.

 

Paul: …and there’s questions whether it was once one vineyard that got split into two. So La Romanée… Makes it a very similar wine, yet it’s not exactly the same. Romanée Conti is spherical; everything is contained in this little ball. And I suppose because of its position on the slope, La Romanée is a more linear wine, but they share this incredible grace, this beautiful elegance. La Romanée because of its linearity can age a very long time. I was blessed once in one evening to have both 1906 and 1865 La Romanée, and I didn’t find that they had peaked, which is berzerk, but that was the case; there was still this trace of edge in absolutely spectacular graceful Burgundy.  

 

[Car sounds, and Marie is cautiously trying to navigate the hillside aloud] 

 

Marie-Andrée: And normally we will take the left, the first left, but we will see if we don’t have too much water on the…

 

[slow symbol/high hat drum tapping sounds in anticipation]

 

Marie continues: No! No, too much water. Not a good idea. We will take the next.  

 

[car continues]

 

Marie Andrée: We are able to send people in the space. But to find a good *inaudible* is another question

 

[Understanding chuckles from Brenna & Marie]

 

Brenna (Narrates): We continue on the bumpy road, trying our best to avoid puddles and potholes of ominously unknown depths. 

 

*slow symbol/high hat drum tapping sounds resume in the background*  

 

Brenna (Narrates): We pass the Suchot and its gentle dip beneath the Combe Brulee before arriving at the Grand Cru beheamonth, Echezeaux. 

 

Marie-Andrée: So just here, we have our parcel of Echezeaux…

 

Paul Wasserman: So, Echezeaux is very much the elephant in the room, that is Vosne Romanee and Flage Suchot. The question is, should all 11 of these climats have been included in the Grand Cru? And the answer is probably not. It’s one of the few exaggerations of the Burgundy hierarchy, much like Vougeot, its northern neighbor. A great Echezeaux is different on the slope than it is on the flatlands. It’s still beautiful; it still has all the beautiful spice of Vosne, especially with age. The structure is a little square, but it’s never grippy or austere. On the bottom of the slope, you have much more delicate wines, maybe lacking a little in size but with super texture that can be enjoyed much younger and really, really, really pretty. 

 

Rajat Parr: So Echezeaux is kind of – a very – maybe the most complicated Grand Cru of all Grand Crus because the soils at the bottom is more water and there’s more clay. It also kind of a little convex situation happening at the bottom of Echezeaux, which produces kind of, like, good Echezeaux, you know… could pass off as Premier Cru. And if you keep walking up Echezeaux and you see it's ah.. a slope, it's like you’re walking up a hill. So it’s very, very…, depends on the lieu dits. That’s why some people blend the Echezeaux; some keep them separate. You won’t find that many Echezeaux that says, ‘oh that wine is tannic’ or’ firm’ or ‘hard’. They are more kind of silky in texture.

 

[Brief piano music]

 

Brenna (Narrates): Both Echezeaux and Echezeaux technically lie within the village of Flage Echezeaux; however this village doesn’t have its own ‘villages’ status. So the few Premier Cru and ‘villages’ vineyards are labeled as Romanee. Grand Cru vineyards transcend village and so never claim one on their labels. 

 

[Brief piano music]

 

Marie-Andrée: Grand Echezeaux, here….

 

Brenna (Narrates): Grand Echezeaux lies at the same elevation as Romanee St Vivant, and just below it is the Grand Cru Clos De Vougeot, which extends all the way down to the D974. 

 

Rajat Parr: Then when you come to Grand Echezeaux, you see it’s like, similar silky – a little more grittier tannins – slightly more gritty. It’s just more broad, so it’s basically taking Echezeaux and super-sizing it in length on your palate, but it has a profound texture. That’s what makes Grand Echezeaux so unique. 

 

Paul: It’s very complete. There’s beautiful fruit that’s lush but not too rich; and, it also has impressive structure, so we can age it extraordinarily well. At Domaine de La Romanée Conti, it’s often the wine that ages the longest.

 

Brenna (Narrates): Now at the end of our tour, Marie Andree drives us to her favorite parcel of Echezeaux so we can see the Grand Cru soils for ourselves. 

 

Marie-Andrée: The soil is really different. So we can stop here, yes.

 

[car rolls to a stop and sound of a door opening as the group exits the vehicle and steps onto vineyard soil]

 

[2 car doors shutting, and you can hear the swish of rain jacket material as they move onto the vineyard site]

 

Brenna: It’s very special to be here, thank you.

 

Brenna (Narrates): Our minds spinning, we make our way make into the center of the little village of  Vosne Romanee.

​

Part III: History and Significance

3.1 Deep Human History of Vosne, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Intro

 

Brenna: So… where are we headed?

 

Paul Wasserman: We are headed to Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in Vosne-Romanée.

 

[Driving sounds…]

 

Brenna (Narration): Even just the name Vosne-Romanée is draped in sounds of mystery and mysticism… As we drive into the village, I’m startled by how quiet it is. It seems like in Vosne, you never see a big gathering, or people bustling in the cobblestone streets. There’s a small church in the center, of course, but I’ve never personally been to a restaurant or cafe of any sort… Jasper Morris lists no less than 36 producers of note in the Village, so with a population of only 350 you imagine that every building must be filled with brilliant winemakers…

 

Today, Vosne-Romanée is without a doubt, the most famous wine producing village of the Côte d’Or – but we want to know how, and why this became the case…

 

[Rising music]

 

The name Vosne, or Voanna, was first recorded in the mid 7th C – . The Romanée addendum of course refers to the virtually undisputed greatest vineyard in the world – La Romanée-Conti, with the word Romanée alluding to a mythical acknowledgement of this spot of land by the Romans circa the first century AD – and while there is evidence that the Romans did indeed grow vines in and cherish the wines of Burgundy, there is no documentation that connects them specifically to Vosne or to Romanée Conti itself…

 

The prestige of Vosne-Romanée has always been intrinsically linked to Romanée-Conti, even long before that was it’s name…

 

Paul Wasserman: It was It was originally called the Cru des Clous, and the Saint Vivant vineyard was named after the priory the Clous de Saint Vivant

 

Brenna (Narration): The priory of St Vivant was located in the village of Curtil de Vergy, located in the modern day Hautes Cotes de Nuits. In 1241 the priory purchased what would become Romanée-Conti from Alix de Vergy.

 

Paul Wasserman: The first lords, if you want, of Vosne-Romanée were the Vergy family… who had their chateau near where the priory was founded, and in the 12C they start giving the priory, Saint Vivant a lot of land. So, it gets donations of lands, it creates this sort of little cuverie in Vosne-Romanée, and then it gets wealthy enough that it can buy vineyards and it increases holding.

 

Brenna (Narration): It’s unclear exactly when or how the vineyards in Vosne developed their fame and reputation, but over the next 500 years, the wines became legendary… local lore tells us they were favorites of the French court.

 

Sometime in the 17th C the Cru des Clos becomes, confusingly, La Romanee – and 

was purchased by Louis Francois de Bourbon the Prince of Conti in 1760 — for an unprecedented price. The prince of Conti, known for his love of art and extravagant lifestyle… finally added the Conti to Romanée Conti.

 

Paul Wasserman: As legend goes, he actually fought over it by Marquis de Pompadour another famous French aristocrat just goes to attest to how famous the wines had become, when the French revolution happen, almost all the vineyards are confiscated and sold off at auction, for the most part they went down to a very rich merchant class or lawyers, but a fairly well off class, and that’s when you see gradually appearing the very important families in Vosne-Romanée. At first though, Romanée-Conti was sold off to Nicolas de Fer and he’s listed as a gardener in Paris which is kind of amusing, eventually Romanée-Conti went to the Ouvrard family and eventually, in 1869 it was sold to another important Burgundy land holder - the Deblouchey and the DeVillaine family are descendants of the Duvault-Blochet family. And it’s really not until, Phylloxera that you start seeing all the names of the Vosne people we see today. So by the late 19th C you see Grivot, Méo-Camuzet, Gibourg, Gros, Faiveley… (continues…)

 

Brenna (Narration): On a quiet, foggy morning, Paul and I arrive at the legendary Domaine de la Romanee Conti –  hidden in plain sight in the center of the village, next to the church along the Rue du Temps Perdu… The Road of Lost Time…

​

3.2 Aubert de Villaine 

 

[Footsteps as entering the property. Church bells chime deeply, nearby.]

 

Paul: How are you!?

 

Man: Fine, thank you!

 

[Quiet, peaceful discussion, total focus on what he has to say.]

 

Paul: Not a bad morning for either of us!

 

Brenna (Narrates): In Burgundy, the name Aubert de Villaine, is spoken with true reverence. Domaine de la Romanee Conti is basically royalty, but in the most sincere, most generous sense. In the years I’ve spent traveling here, I’ve never once the Domaine referenced with anything short of genuine admiration.

 

Brenna (Narrates): In preparation of our visit, I asked Jasper Morris how to prepare for this rare and intimidating opportunity. 

 

Jasper Morris: I mean, it’s always fascinated me. You meet Aubert de Villaine, and he’s the most charming, delightful, mostly relaxed – sort of ordinary in one sense – human being. And he’s totally humble for himself. And then, just completely, absolutely nuts about the business, the company, the vineyards, and all the rest of it. So yes, you just have to go there and let it wash over you and not be intimidated by the glory…  *continues with his gushing about the sense of magic at the winery*

 

Brenna (Narrates): Aubert, who has recently retired as co-director, has always embodied and reflected a deep sense of respect and devotion to all of Burgundy.

 

[Car sounds as it  pulls up to an entrance.]

 

Paul (Speaking in French to announce their arrival): Oui, bonjour… continues in French… Monsieur de Villaine… 

 

Brenna (Narrates): Paul Wasserman has known Aubert nearly his entire life.

 

Paul: My parents moved  in 1968, and very, very quickly they met winemakers. They become friends with mostly Hubert Demontille, Jacques Seysses, and Aubert de Villaine. So in ‘68, ‘69, they meet Aubert, he’s just turned 30; he’s not working at the Domaine yet, his father is the co-director. He’s very literate. I believe he studied literature in school; he’s very tall and skinny, as he still is; he's already very graceful and dignified but also very funny. So they start hanging out a lot together, and our house is one of the places they like to come. Becky was cooking at the time. And so all these people are at the house, so they’re loud, opinionated, super coverations because they’re all very passionate and very bright.  

 

[Staccato string music begins, as Paul continues the story of his personal relationship with Aubert]

 

Paul: As children, my brother and I would have to sit through the dinner, but I don’t remember ever being bored. …and they were all tasting it, and every five minutes one of them would go ‘oh no! NOW it’s good!’ And there  would be five minutes of silence and conversation and someone says “oh, taste now! NOW it’s good!” And this conversation would go on for two or three hours and they would finally finish their glasses. But I was always allowed to sip. And I waited for like 10 minutes and I had some left  in my glass and I got their attention, took a sip and I told them all, “NO, NOW it’s good!” I was like 12 years old and they laughed. Aubert actually started running for my glass. I took it and we started chasing each other around the table. It was actually all super fun, but also he’s a very dear friend. When my mom started her business, it was to be financially independent from my father so she didn’t want to go to him but she needed somebody to co-sign at the bank and Aubert did it without even thinking about it two seconds. So they were close. 

 

Paul, continues: You know, Romanee Conti is such an institution, I don’t think there could have been anybody better during those years where it went from not the most sought after Domaine in the world to this greatly prestigious place, that it was run by somebody with such dignity. It’s the first word that comes to mind when I think of Aubert.

 

Brenna (Narrates): Though Romanee Conti has been famous and precious for possibly thousands of years, it hasn’t always benefited from the world renown it has today. Jasper once told me that the first time the Domaine broke even was in 1972, and Aubert himself remembers a time when he had to go out into the market to sell the wines. 

 

Aubert: The vineyard Romanee Conti is small. Makes a wine that doesn’t taste like any other wine. A powerful wine, but on the contrary, a wine all in finesse and transparence. The wines had to be sold and I remember traveling to England or the United States. At the time there was no regulation like today, and with a bag full of bottles that I would put in the …*laughs at himself and the memory*  … and the bottles to be tasted, and the wines had to be sold, and Romanee Conti was revered by a certain number of people, connoisseurs, but most people didn’t know about Romanee Conti.

 

Brenna (Narrates): Aubert arrived at the Domaine in 1965 and began managing in 1974 in partnership with the brilliant and eccentric, though often controversial, Madame Bize Leroy, who left the Domaine in the early 90s.

 

Aubert: When I was hired at the Domaine, I was able to taste very rarely, but very few times, and once or twice to taste old Romanee Conti made from the vineyard before it was grafted. Because Romanee Conti, there was so much respect around the vineyard that the owners, my family at the time, didn’t dare to tear it out and replace it, so it was kept on these old vines until ‘45. 

 

[Revelatory ambient music]

 

Aubert, continues: With a density of about 30,000 vines per hectare. Our, there was this perpetuation of the vineyard by provinage, which is when the vine would give good grapes.  You wish for 30 or 40 years, it would be bent into the soil and you will have one, two, or three new vines coming out from buds, from shoots. So the vineyard, which at the beginning was not so dense, became little by little very dense. And Romanee Conti, when it was torn out in ‘45 had no age. I mean, nobody knew the age! Nobody knew. It was perhaps 200, 300 years old. Nobody knew.

 

Brenna (Narrates): Jasper writes, “the whole vineyard became a knot of underground vine stocks. It has been speculated that in this way some vines may have dated back to the replantation of 1585.”

 

Aubert: Each vine would produce very little. And it continued to produce in spite of phylloxera. It produced really great wines until it was torn out in ‘45. It produced in ‘45 two barrels only, 600 bottles for almost 2 hectares. So they decided to tear it out and replace it completely. But the wines that were left – unfortunately there are very, very few now. We have perhaps 5 or 6 bottles left of this – were very impressive. I remember with your father and mother [referring to Paul], I remember we tasted, we drank at least two occasions, these wines and it was religious. Yes, it was religious. What was interesting also is that this Romanee Conti that was kept and grafted, supplied graftings for the replantations of all the other vineyards. Replantations started in the domaine around 1910 and it lasted, I mean, until almost second world war. And these graftings from Romanee Conti were used for all these vineyards, which gives us today the chance to select, still, some types coming from the old La Romanee Conti. 

 

[The whole room is silent in awe]

 

Brenna (Narrates): In discussing wines at this level, with this amount of history tied to them, and this amount of care given to every step of the process, I wonder how do you even begin discussing terroir. How do you begin to unravel the ‘how’ or the ‘why’ when we have a difficult enough time expressing the ‘what’. 

 

Aubert: When everything is in conjunction, in other words, if the soil has been well-taken are of, if the vines, have the height quality, the ripeness, it certainly can make a wine that can be called (if there is an existence of perfection - it’s always in comparison with other things)... and it’s true that Romanée Conti can have something perfect in comparison with all the other wines in the sense that there is something that is not at all powerful but it shows a balance, a perfect balance …voila! 

 

Brenna (Narrates): There is a science in terroir just as there is a science to geology, viticulture and enology.

 

[Ambient interlude music]

 

Brenna, narration continues: …but the sheer number of factors that go into creating the uniqueness of a place over thousands of years of human history and 170 million years of geologic history seems to approach infinity; and perhaps with infinite variables comes magic. 

 

Aubert: Tasting recently the Richebourg ‘78… this bottle was perfect and when I tasted this elegance, this grace – can you say grace? – this texture, which is really silky compared to other wines that are perhaps very soft also but velvety, more velvety. This one was so silky, that I really wondered what was the molecule? I don’t know. Something that happens, that it is completely mysterious because we hide the reports, we try to link the wine made with what happened during the year with the microbiology which is right, but it’s not an answer. We don’t know where it comes from. What is the mystery that makes this wine so ageable, ‘78, first so great and so different from the others? Frankly, I am eighty-two now and I have the impression to know much less the more we go, the less we know. 

 

Brenna: How do you do that now?  When do you think techinical and when do you think magic?

 

Aubert: To make wine is a technique of course, very technical. The manner in everything we do is very important and it’s part of the terroir. The terroir, the cilmat, is not something that exists by itself; it does command in a way,  but we command also. And this is the thing: we have to navigate between what to think the vineyard can do by itself and what you have to bring yourself for the vineyard. Le Tache is a vineyard of 6 hectare – more than 6 hectare – all in one hand, and from the bottom to the top you have 4, 5 different types of soil. And of course the top of Le Tache and the bottom are separated by the road. And obviously if you made Le Tache, the bottom, separately, you would make two different types of wines; but, it wouldn’t be Le Tache. Ah! And this is the thing that is interesting and it shows that it’s not only nature, it’s man. Sometimes, people tell me “oh why don’t you make two Le Tache?! It would be interesting to see!”  …I don’t see any point because we would go against what history as built.

 

Brenna (Narrates): Recognizing both the significance and the vulnerability of this history, Aubert formed a committee that would petition to protect this uniquely Burgundian feature.  And in July of 2015 the climat of Burgundy were officially inscribed on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. 

 

Brenna: It seems like that is the biggest key in understanding the difference and the definition between a terroir and a climat. It seems like the climat has human history attached to it. 

 

Aubert: So it’s completely right. With a team that I put together we decided to become candidates for world treasures UNESCO. To be on this list of the world treasure you need to show that you possess something that nowhere else exists in the world. Something that is really precious, and it would be a pity if it was damaged or lost. And so in Burgundy it was, obviously, the idea of terroir that has been carried from the very beginnings.  And in Burgundy, in the notary documents, in many books, the words that was used to designate a parcel with a special designation and with a name was ‘climat’. So we chose to put our list candidacy under the banner of ‘climat’.  And ‘climat’ is as you said is much more than terroir. Terroir is a great word but as you said it can designate any production in the world. ‘Climat’ is something typically Burgundy. I’m sure it can be extended to other parts of the world but it’s very Burgundian in the sense that it designates a piece of land that has been delineated by history with a name that very often comes from the middle ages, which makes a wine where everybody agrees that there is a special character. Even if it takes different faces with the vintages, it has a special character, a personality.

 

Brenna (Narration): There ‘s lots of terms that we use to describe individual vineyards in Burgundy, which sometimes seem unnecessarily confusing. But, put this way, the different terms start to make a bit more sense: A terroir is the complete set of natural factors that go into making a growing area unique, including the geology, soil, slope, aspect, climate and weather. According to Sylvian Pedio’s Atlas of the Great Vineyards of Burgundy, a lieu dit literally refers to a place with a name. These are historic names given to a piece of land according to traditional usage, often referring to particularities of the site. For example, Le Clos de Duke refers to historic ownership. Genevrier refers to juniper bushes, and Aux Croix refers to chalky, calcareous soils. The term ‘climat’ is a bit more elusive, and a bit more holistic. Each climat has its own natural conditions, its own name, its own history, and its own taste. There are over 1000 climat within the Cote d’Or from Dijon to Santennay. A climat seems to marry the ideas of terroir to lieu dit. It’s a terroir that has been shaped by human civilization. 

 

Aubert de Villaine: It’s a thing that comes from the roots of history in Burgundy so it’s something that is not a production of one year; it’s a production of centuries. It’s something very muchr icher than the idea of just terroir

 

[pregnant pause]

 

[Ambient sounds and sounds of liquid pouring.] 

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Part IV: Closing

4.1 Pascal Tasting / Philosopher

 

Brenna (Narration): With a new appreciation of the history and meaning of this village, we head just down the road to Domaine Gerard Mugneret, to complete our day with a tasting of wines from the vineyards we have just seen…

 

[Sounds of glasses clinking, wine being poured]

 

Paul Wasserman: Very fresh minerality… 

 

Brenna (Narration): We begin with Nuits-Saint-George 1er Cru Les Cras…

 

Paul Wasserman: Almost white wine…

 

Brenna (Narration): And compare it to its neighbor La Richemone…

 

Paul Wasserman: It behaves like it’s superior - you know, it carries itself like it’s superior. And it knows it… *laughing*

 

Pascal: And now you know where the parcels are, you can say they are very close to each other.

 

Brenna: *agreeing*

 

Paul Wasserman: It’s not the same minerality as Les Cras.

​

Pascal: Completely.

 

Paul Wasserman: It’s darker, I’d like to hang out with Les Cras more, as a person. But that’s the better wine.

 

Brenna (Narration): I find that the minerality is finer than Les Cras.

 

Paul Wasserman: Yes, yes yes yes - it’s posher - it’s like it went to ballet school, it’s got good manners, it’s superior in every… It’s the prettier of the two sisters, or brothers. It’s… [continues in French…]

 

Pascal: It’s a case for which the concentration does not decrease elegance or accuracy of the wine, it’s the most concentrated wine of the cellar, and it’s probably one of the most accurate. One of the he most mineral. 

 

[Light piano music]

 

Brenna (Narration): We then continue with the Vosne Romanee 1er Crus: Les Suchots and Brulées…

 

Paul Wasserman: Everybody needs a little Suchots in their lives, sometimes. It’s so embracing. 

 

Pascal: Exactly, you can imagine two arms. But no body, no head, just arms. But if we had to compare the personality… I used to say that Suchots… imagine someone is knocking on your door, and you open the door and you have no time to see who is knocking, he’s already on your sofa. And if, you consider Aux Brulee is knocking on your door, you open the door and Brulee is already going out. 

 

Brenna (Narration): So he changed his mind?

 

Pascal: So you say it’s a mistake. First impression and you close the door. If this guy came and knocked on my door, probably he has something to say, so I have to go outside to go and see him and ask him what he wanted. I would say more discreet, more introvertée?

 

Paul: Yeah, same word…

 

Pascal: Suchots is more extra. But of course when you taste both just one after another, you can compare, and even if you don’t want to compare, you do it. But people, generally speaking, do not open two or three bottles from the same Domaine or the same vintage, and the most important is the pleasure you can have with the wine at the moment that you drink the wine. Like at a restaurant, you can’t eat in a three star everyday,if it would be the case, it would become normal.

 

Paul: And therefore boring.

 

Pascal: And the most interesting thing, the passionate thing you wanted to eat, would be a pizza! ANd depending the people you’ve got, you’ve got to share the wine. It’s a wine for after dinner. I would say, with friends… with very few friends. And here it’s for the party. It’s very joyful.

 

Paul Wasserman: That’s a nice party - I’ll come to your party! *laughing*

 

Pascal: But yeah, if it’s very joyful - big ambiance and you have Aux Brulee it’s uh… there is something wrong.

 

Paul: Yeah, Aux Brulée is for wine people and food…

 

Pascal: Yeah, yeah yeah and I would say a very quiet atmosphere. You know it’s very… cerebrale?

 

Paul: Cerebral. It needs to be quiet.

​

Paul: La Richemoine is very cerberal too. And even though Les Cras has minerality - it’s not that cerebral. It’s crunchy.

 

Pascal: And even a not very famous wine can be the greatest wine of the evening if it’s at the moment for the wine, and a good moment for you. With the good people. You can have the greatest wine on earth with very boring people, you have a lot of problems - unfortunately. It will stay just a good wine. So this is something very important to have the maximum amount of emotion it requires two things - good quality wine, but it needs from people to be open to accueillir?

 

Paul: Welcome.

 

Pascal: To welcome the wine. Continues in French… 

 

Paul: I don’t know, she asks the questions, I’m just the chauffeur.

 

*laughing*

 

Pascal: I just wanted to know… sorry.

 

Brenna: I’m also driving.

 

Paul: She’s also the chauffeur.

 

Pascal: If you wanted to know something else or…? To see something else?

 

Paul: Do you want a sip of Echezeaux?

 

**laughing**

 

Brenna: That’s what you’re really here for…

 

[Sounds of getting wine from barrel]

 

Paul: But you never know, maybe we’ve already had the greatest wine in the cellar…

 

Pascal: Speaking in French

 

Paul: Ah, another cuddler.

 

Brenna [Narration]: In the vineyards Pascal is all engineer…but in the cellar he reveals another side of his personality…the philosopher…especially while tasting Grand Cru…

 

Pascal: I understood that we are not able to write the situation in equation. It’s not possible… When I was an engineer it was the trail to try to be able to write this equation with these parameters and da da da, and in the end you’ve done it. And, the first time when I started here, my first idea was to try to produce a wine everybody would like. It’s like an equation, but I think quite quickly it appeared to me that it was completely silly, because when you produce something everybody like there’s two possibility, but more in ninety nine percent of cases people will say not too bad. It’s okay, but nobody will be astonished by the wine. Or very emotionally touched. The one percent remaining it’s something magic and I think it’s not human being creation. And you can imagine when you collect the grapes, it exists best approach with these grapes in order to obtain the highest potential of these grapes and when something is magic it’s probably when your actions suit perfectly the divine plan, which you have no consciousness of. But you’re perfectly in the right movement, but we’re not able to reproduce and do again. I call the grace - you know, it’s a grace. But most of the time we are not conscious of what it is exactly.

 

Brenna (Narration): When tasting great wines, it seems almost inevitable that the conversation shifts to the intangible – scientific terms seem insufficient to describe how a few drops of fermented grape juice can be so transportive.

 

And…the wines themselves force you to contemplate… the boundaries between the physical and the metaphysical…

 

Pascal: And uh, these magic wines we’re talking about.I remember it was one of the most magic wines I ever tasted - it was La Tache ‘45. The first taste, we didn’t know but he said, just taste once and after I will tell you. It was in February 2010, and I thought the wine was 15 years old, so fresh, so sensual.

 

Paul Wasserman: Was it in Vosne?

 

Pascal: Oh oui, c’etait au Domaine de la Romanée Conti. C’etait La Tache directement chez eux.

 

And uh, he said it can’t be completely human… there’s something divine in this. You can’t explain it - human being is not able for me, because I’m Chrisitian - it’s probably why I think this. I think human being is not able to be so magic. Without something else - I believe in that.

 

[Light drumming music]

​

Outro

 

Thank you to our guests: Marie-Andrée Mugneret, Pascal Mugneret, Charles Lachaux, and Aubert de Villaine…

 

Thank you to Rajat Parr, Paul Wasserman, Daniel Johnnes, Jasper Morris, and Francoise Vannier for your commentary, guidance and expertise.

 

Our main source for historical and technical information is Inside Burgundy, by Jasper Morris. For further detail on Vosne Romanée we look to The Pearl of the Cote by Allen Meadows, and for a history of Domaine de la Romanée Conti we look to Richard Olney’s book Romanee Conti

 

This episode is made possible by our Season 2 partners: Becky Wasserman & Co, La Paulee, and Acker Wines…

 

Remember, you can now get 15% off of your first order of $350 or more by entering the code ROADSIDE at check out. Check out their website, ackerwines.com for details.

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CREDITS

 

Roadside Terroir is hosted and produced by me, Brenna Quigley

​

Recording and sound engineering by Nick Canepa and original music and sound design by Jeff Alvarez

 

This season wouldn’t be possible without the support from all of you – Check out our website roadsideterroir.com to learn how you can stay in touch, and how to help support this season by donating, sponsoring, or becoming a Roadside Insider.

 

We would like to extend a special thank you to our Grand Cru patron Steven Lipin – thank you for making this episode possible!

 

Thank you to Esa Eslami, Jerusha Frost, Ali Massie, Summer Staeb, Michael Sager, and everyone else who helped make this episode a reality.

 

BLOOPER

 

Pascal: Nuits Saint George 1er Cru, very close to Vosne Romanée.

 

**Camera clicking agressively**

 

Pascal: Blind tasting, I’m not sure you would be able to identify Nuits-Saint-Geroge from Vosne-Romanée

 

**Camera sounds clicking**

 

Brenna: Yeah *agreeing*

 

Brenna: Sorry will turn your camera volume off!

 

Esa: Oh is it really loud? Sorry, I can’t hear it with the headphones.

 

Brenna: Yeah! It’s like paparazzi! 

 

Pascal: C’etait chient?

 

Paul: Non non, on rigole parce que la volume pour prendre des photos sur la camera…

 

Pascal: Ah oui! 

 

*laughing*