Detox to Retox

I’m back!

I needed a moment to catch my breath following the past weeks of travel, harvest and time with one VIP before I enter the final stretch of birthmonth—detox to retox, as it were.

Harvest was awesome. It’s difficult to capture in any succinct manner what it is like, although I will endeavor to try. Today, I will share some observations as well as some recommendations for a delightful, if unexpected, discovery I made in Burgundy: Bourgogne Aligoté.

BTW for a more comprehensive recap with photos and videos, I’ve created two “Harvest ‘23” highlights on Instagram for you to check out. (The highlights reels below attempt to but can’t capture all the photos/videos.) Bottom line, if joining a harvest is something you’ve ever been curious about, find a winemaker you respect and then just do what you can to make it happen.

Big thanks to William and his “cellar rats” for a memorable harvest! ❤️

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Some thoughts…

Harvest is a once-a-year shot with a lot of moving parts, and not just for picking. Needless to say, time and timing is of utmost importance. For me this year, that meant that although I had originally planned to help both William Kelley and Chanterêves (it’s not uncommon for people to help more than one winemaker), unfortunately the timing only worked out to assist William.

Throughout summer, harvest dates were pretty locked in to span the first three weeks of September—with my week smack in the middle. But with the weather changing so much as September drew near (heat wave, rain), everything got pulled up and shortened more or less at the last minute. Reading the updates tick by in the group chat made me feel like I had a front row seat to watch everyone else get to do the stuff I had been planning to do. I worried it would all be over before I could even arrive. Fortunately, my week ended up being the last week of harvest—just in time!

Unlike larger operations who have to dial in their contracted labor in advance, William assembled a group of wine enthusiasts from around the world who descended upon Burgundy to help. This not only brought a nice, social energy to things but also flexibility. Flexibility with harvest labor is a boon to a winemaker who otherwise would have to pay contractors to do nothing if the picking dates need to change (or to accept less-than-optimal fruit if he is unable to). Thanks to having a motivated motley crew, flexibility was not a problem—we were happy to entertain ourselves whenever our assistance was not required.

Having worked previously in fashion, it was hard not to notice some similarities between wine and fashion people. If harvest is like Fashion Week in terms of importance, outside of the winemaker and his/her “cellar rat” entourage of assistants, you have those who help out for the love, students/interns, other young winemakers, agent types, VIP clients and—dare I say?—poseurs.

Furthermore, similar to a talented designer, I could see how important it is as a promising winemaker to not only be competent but to also have a good head on one’s shoulders. I got the feeling there are few who would be willing to tell the emperor about his new clothes, if he were to acquire any. From what I can observe, this shouldn’t be an issue though for William, who seems to have his head on straight. Aside from being a kind and generous man, he is justifiably confident in his talent and vision, diligent and astute. (NB: I appreciated the number of women “cellar rats”.)

That said, it was a wonderful—if not exhausting—whirlwind of a time (yours truly also worked her day job) learning, meeting new people, discovering new places and wines—a LOT of wines. It was heartwarming, really, to share this experience with such a friendly and generous group of people.

…and a delightful discovery

The first day we picked Pinot Noir in Gevrey-Chambertin lieu-dit “Aux Etelois”. We did selection in the vineyard which means making sure that whatever makes it into the bins is only the best and ready to roll when it arrives at the winery. That means cutting out any rot, raisins, or otherwise undesirable material as well as MOG (“Material Other than Grape”). If you wouldn’t eat it right there in the vineyard, you wouldn’t keep it to make wine with it. Selection in the vineyard takes a lot more time and is way more meticulous than at a sorting table. All things being equal, the resulting wine is of a higher quality.

The remaining days we picked we picked Aligoté, which is one of the official, if less prestigious, white grapes of Burgundy. Its appellations Bourgogne Aligoté AOC (Aligoté from anywhere in Burgundy) and Bouzeron AOC (only Aligoté from Bouzeron) are also less prestigious.

There were a total of three passes across two vineyards in Meursault to pick at different degrees of ripeness. Unlike the Pinot, we did not do selection in vineyard—we just made sure that there was no rot in the bunches—so it was a relatively “quick” pick. We did quick picks because the plan for the Aligoté was to quickly press after a very short, gentle foot crushing and barrel down immediately for fermentation. With such a process, there’s just not as much time for undesirable flavors to develop from otherwise undesirable material as there would be during the longer red wine fermentation/extraction/maceration processes.

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Every day we picked, we started at sunrise and finished a little before noon. At noon there was a “casse croûte” which is a light lunch of sorts at the winery with bread and charcuterie. People bring bottles to share (I brought a line up of Chateau Pauqué), and it is not uncommon for the winemaker to open up some of his/her own bottles.

Among the bottles William opened during my first casse croûte was his 2021 Bourgogne Aligoté, and it completely changed my mind about Aligoté and its potential to make great wine.

As a less-sexy grape, Aligoté is treated less seriously—like a stepchild to Chardonnay. It’s usually built to drink young, and is often simple, fresh and easy-drinking. I had heard here and there that there are some producers who are doing interesting things with it, but I had just never come across them (to be fair, I also hadn’t been looking).

William’s Aligoté reminded me of this fact, and over the course of the week, I got to try some other excellent examples which I’ll share below. One distinguishing factor I would point out in William’s compared to the others is how reduced it is—not to preserve fruitiness (which it will and is a typical reason to vint reductively) but rather to build it to age long enough to develop more complexity. These Aligoté are not ready to drink now (although technically you could), they are meant to age about 10 years to allow everything to integrate, then drink. It will be interesting to see how things evolve. If you can get your hands on one of his 2021s, do it and hold on.

Below are four other bottles I got to try thanks to the generosity of my fellow pickers. Try to get your grubby little fingers on one—if you can!

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