News from the Vineyard 10/20/20

by Max Goldberg Liu
October 20, 2020

The Gold in the Golden Slope

It’s a bit of an odd time of year in Burgundy - the harvest is in (historically early this year), the wines are safely slumbering, and there is little for vignerons to manage in their cellars right now other than topping-off barrels.

Some wines have already gone through their malolactic fermentations (a secondary fermentation where sharper, more pointed malic acid - the same acid in tart apples - is converted into softer, creamier lactic acid - as the name implies, the same acid as in milk) while others have not yet. As is the philosophy in many aspects of winemaking these days, this is a mostly hands-off process for many vignerons, preferring to allow their wines to develop on their own schedule.

Some vignerons take this time to tear out dead or non-productive vines to replant, but there are scant other tasks to accomplish in the vineyard, as in the cellar.

What to do, then?

Well, in a “normal year” (it can be argued that there is no more “normal”) harvest would have finished around 3-4 weeks later than it did in 2020, which would leave much less dead time before Les Trois Glorieuses - the famous trilogy of the Hospices de Beaune wine auction, the dinner at Clos Vougeot, and, of course, La Paulée de Meursault, which always takes place the 3rd weekend of November. While the auction will be held mostly virtually, the other two events have been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With everything looking a bit different this year, many vignerons are simply enjoying life in Burgundy after a successful harvest. Côte d’Or means “Golden Slope,” and while that is certainly evoked by the current cost of land in Burgundy, the spectacular colors of the vineyards in autumn show a less metaphorical, yet equally accurate origin of the name.