Controversy in Beaujolais and Burgundy

The wine industry is waiting to see what will come of the ongoing disagreements between the BIVB (Burgundy’s representative generic body) and the Syndicat des Bourgognes (as reported by Jancis Robinson and Decanter). I have for years been campaigning for the anomaly, by which the Beaujolais crus can be declassified into Bourgogne Rouge, to be […]

French feasts

I have just been taking a small group of customers round Burgundy on one of our scheduled trips and, as you might imagine, we tried out a few of the area’s better restaurants as well as tasting wines and walking the vineyards. Here’s an update on some of them:

Burgundy in bloom

It looks as if 2009 will be an early harvest in Burgundy. The flowering has just taken place in very good sunny conditions during the last week in May, which suggests that the grapes should be ripe around 10th September. Too early to be sure of anything yet, of course, but the year has started […]

Biodynamics – Do We Believe?

More and more of our producers have been experimenting with biodynamic methods of viticulture in recent years. Some go the whole hog and have achieved biodynamic certification;  others are experimenting with certain aspects only.  A third group is fully committed but not certified. Of course another viewpoint is that these producers are certifiable and should […]