Your feedback wanted on my wine writing attempt (Volnay in the spotlight)

Dear Wineberserkers!

My name is Stas and I am the wine enthusiast from a tiny country of Latvia hidden in the Eastern Europe. I am passionate about wine and have been blogging for a while. Mostly tasting notes, some quirky rankings and occasional winemakers profiles. Like many of you here, I read a lot of wine related texts. And it always fascinated me how one can tell the story that resonates with you and sticks for a long time in the memory. There is an entire universe of wine reference materials, but there are much less good wine stories.

This is my first attempt to tell the story. I feel unconfident as an amateur writer, and your honest feedback should help develop my voice. Here is the deal. I invite you to read the first sentence below and follow the link if you want to learn more.

No need to eat the whole egg if your first spoon shows its rotten. ))

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On a gloomy day of November 5, 2020, when all of Europe rushed into the new lockdown, I uncorked 6 bottles of fine Volnays and found myself just off the Beaune-Chagny highway (D974 road) facing the vineyards of this famous village in Côte de Beaune…

Continue to read Walking Volnay vineyards during the lockdown

Stas–keep up the good work. nice detail. I’m a sucker for any in depth reports on Volnay.

By coincidence, we had a 1999 Vincent Girardin Volnay Les Santenots this evening, with roast chicken.

I enjoyed the read.

Excellent, Stas. You’re lucky to be able to be in Burgundy now.

Thank you John for your kind words. Will do my best. And yes, Volnay is a great village, my favourite reds of Cote de Beaune. Also love the finesse of Chassagne-Montrachet Pinot Noirs.

Thank you, Peter, for reading through my story. And yes, what a coincidence, indeed!! Funny point is that I shared some tasting notes on 4 out of 6 bottles I opened that day. The remaining 2 were also Vincent Girardins. One was Champans 2015 and another one - Les Santenots 2014. 15 years in between our wines!!

Not sure if you know the story of Vincent Girardin, but maybe still worth sharing it here.

Vincent Girardin, originally from Santenay, started with only 2 ha and over time built up to an impressive 35 ha. In late 1980s - early 1990s he was famous for quite big white wines. Such style was in fashion back then. In early 00s he hired Eric Germain as the winemaker, who gradually then took over all the operations from Vincent. The style of the wines transformed dramatically. Eric loves to say that he just holds the grape by the hand to accompany from the vineyard to the bottle. Low interventions and the focus on showing the terroir. In 2012, Vincent stepped out of business and sold it to the group who had been supporting him financially for a long time. He also sold his vineyard holdings separately. Eric and the team stayed in the domaine and had to start over almost from zero to acquire vineyards. As of now they operate 65 ha with over half own vineyards. Most of the land they own is in lesser appellations, including Bourgogne. As for the selection of the top sites, they have contracts which allow them to control the respective vineyard management.

Winemaking remains the same. For reds, they prefer to partially destem. I notice this stem character across all of their reds. Their reds are quite light, with a good grip of tannins and layered complexity.

In my improvised tasting I matched each Vincent Girardin with a wine from the same appellation/vineyard and the vintage. I favoured other wines in each flight. It doesn’t say VG wines are not good, just other wines were superior.

Thank you, Jerry! Actually I was not in Burgundy. That was all virtual tour, which was the key idea of the story.

If you need any help with translating to English feel free to reach out.

Thank you, Greg! Is my English so bad that it needs translation from English to English?
Or do you mean something else?

Thanks Stas, keep it up!

I wondered this myself. I thought it was a good piece of easy-to-read writing.

Hi Stas

Terrific article. Very well written and obviously well researched, very informative to the point that you have piqued my interest to learning even more about Volnay as well as trying it. Keep up the great work.

As Jerry Hey’s mistake indicates, the writing is not entirely in the vernacular and not always clear. Even Stan’s response is slightly off. The tour is not virtual but an imaginary extrapolation from the wines. If Stan’s desire is to post a blog for readers of English, this is probably fine. If his goal is to submit it somewhere for publication, it could use some editing.

Well, I know next to nothing (actually, less) about Volnay, but I certainly enjoyed it anyway! I found it fun to read, a lot more than many pieces I have waded through in professional publications. I think the idea is an excellent one which you would do well, Stas, to repeat. So there!!

RUSSIAN to English. Not questioning your English, simply saying that if need be…

I got it now! I should have figured it out… Thank you for offering help, appreciate that! It appears that I do need some editing help, indeed.
Very well noted