This time last year the final week of March felt like summer had come – only to be followed by a severe frost in early April. The last week of March 2022 feels like Spring has well and truly sprung: delightful sunny days, getting warm in the afternoons, but cool nights have stopped the vines from advancing too quickly. Which is just as well, since they are forecasting snow on Friday 1st April!
I managed a quick trip to Singapore to spend a long weekend talking and tasting Burgundy with the members of the newly opened 67 Pall Mall Club on the top floors of the Shaw centre. Magnificent! And booked out solidly for the weeks to come, I understand. Many thanks to the whole team there and my other hosts over the weekend (one of whom hosted lunch for five of us before nipping off to hospital to have her baby daughter!)
While sitting in my hotel room at Charles de Gaulle airport the night before heading out to Singapore, we also got the exciting news that the second edition of Inside Burgundy had won the André Simon award – which I really had not expected given the strength of the field in 2021. Thank you judges!
Last week was exceptionally busy with the return of the Grands Jours de Bourgogne, last held in full as long ago as 2018. It is a fascinating event which starts in Chablis on Monday and continues through to the Côte de Beaune on Friday by way of the Côte de Nuits, Mâconnais and Côte Chalonnais on the days between. It is both fascinating and frustrating – so many wines to taste, producers to meet, colleagues to communicate with, along with the feeling that there is always that little bit more that one could have done. For example, after spending the day in the Côte de Nuits, I attended an evening session devoted to the new 1ers crus of Pouilly Fuissé and during the two hours I had available only managed 70 or so of the 80+ wines on show.
My modus operandi at most of the events was to search out producers with a good reputation whose wines I did not know nearly well enough. These will feature in a ‘discovery’ report to emerge in the next few weeks, alongside reports on the Pouilly-Fuissé 1ers crus, a tasting of mature vintages of Clos de Vougeot and selection of Grands Crus put forward by the Grandes Maisons negociant houses.
I have also been catching up on further 2020 tastings at the domaines. Featuring in particular the Côte Chalonnaise and the Côte de Nuits Villages appellations. Never a dull moment! Next week I head down to the Beaujolais to catch up on the latest vintages at their Bien Boire en Beaujolais festival.
Keep well and drink sensibly!
Jasper
