2019 Burgundy – Further Additions
BY NEAL MARTIN |
After a taxing day’s tasting and heated discussion about the 2017s at Burgfest, I should have retired to my hotel room to reflect on the wines. That’s not really my style. Instead, I jumped in my car and visited two or three producers that I was unable to visit last year after my autumn trip was curtailed by the lockdown.
One of my first ports of call was in Santenay to visit Domaine Jean-Marc Vincent. I have enjoyed his wines for several years but never managed to visit. Time to put that right! Together with his wife Anne-Marie, he greeted me outside their winery on a rather drizzly Tuesday afternoon. We immediately set about an instructive tasting of his latest bottled releases and one or two mature examples that were cleaved away for my Mature Burgundy article.
Anne-Marie and Jean-March Vincent at their home in Santenay.
I had been forewarned that Jean-Marc Vincent is the garrulous type. That was dead right. After five minutes, he apologised in advance for talking too much, but personally I welcome that when he has so many interesting things to say. “It is a family estate,” he explained. “My grandfather [André Bardollet-Bravard] had no successor, and so it was rented for 30 years when my father worked as a chemist. I felt that I had to take back the Domaine. I started with my wife in 1998 after my grandfather passed away the previous year. I knew nothing about this job so I taught myself, plus I was lucky to meet winemakers such as Olivier Lamy."
Like many, Vincent did not immediately convert his vineyards to organic and initially continued using chemicals, converting them towards organic viticulture incrementally. “I am close to organic, even though I do not have certification,” he told me. “From time-to-time I use one harmless spray.” One innovation that he used was a small caterpillar tractor rather than an overhead tractor to reduce soil compaction and introduced higher trellising. Also, inspired by Olivier Lamy, he has adopted high density plantings so that inter-vine competition can encourage growth of smaller berries and clusters. His self-explanatory Santenay “Les Vignes Denses” is planted at 14,000 vines per hectare. There have also been changes in the winery. “I use native yeasts with no SO2, which is added after 10 to 12 months for both white and red. I have managed to halve the amount of SO2.” He partially destems his reds, between 30 and 60%, eschews racking with modest new oak, around 20-25%. Vincent also told me that he is gradually moving towards greater use of demi-muids.
