Three adjacent parcels of Meursault Perrières this Spring (updated!)

WINE TALK
21

Clear and convincing evidence. Thanks so much.

22

yes. There’s a classic story about the battles between Anne-Claude Leflaive and Niellon. She was ultra-organic to the point that she felt that bar codes on the bottles disturbed their equilibrium. But Niellon’s pesticide sprays would carry to Leflaive’s vines (adjacent in Chevalier) and I’m told the arguments were legendary.

As for the wine differences, I think the market speaks pretty well . . . look at what Colin-Morey and Coche’s MP sell for versus Matrot and a few others.

23

Great post. I’ll never forget walking up to Montrachet for the first time and being shocked to see the very different farming practices seemingly every row or two.

24

Yes, this is really useful information. Not so easy to come by otherwise. Thanks much, William.

Let’s hope you start a trend. After all, any vineyard could post pictures like this if they wanted to, though admittedly it’s not a completely trivial amount of work and one would need some way of keeping fake photos from being posted.

25

I vote…William Kelley/Raphael Coche for next Zoom event! [worship.gif] [dance-clap.gif]

26

pops Jean-François is still kicking . . .

27

I think we have a better chance with son!

28

son has to work. Dad is retired.

29

Thanks for the photos William! Perfect time to capture the difference it seems.

30

Thanks for doing this William! It is, as others have said, incredibly illuminating :slight_smile:

31

  1. I don’t know diddly squat about Darviot-Perrin, but Lafon is a rather important house for a professional critic to get himself dis-invited from.

  2. I also don’t know diddly squat about Old World farming, but in the New World, those yellowed vines would be early-onset Pierce’s Disease.

If I were Coche, I’d be there at sunrise tomorrow morning, trying to figure out WTH was going on with that Darviot-Perrin plot, and whether or not it was communicable.

32

Great post - all from the ‘Aux Perrières’ section I think.

The yellow vines are very prevalent in Perrières, particularly the upper slopes - court-noué, Nathan and yes the worms carry the virus, travelling about one metre per year - many parcels have them. It’s hard to eradicate; one vigneron told me 8 years without vines or full chemical warfare - now that’s a big investment. You can see some of the bare patches of yellow vines here.

The Jobard family up-rooted a big area in Genevrières to try to do that - where the classic Genevrières cabotte stands - no vines for 3-4 years but growing tall grass with roots that are (theoretically!) aggressive to the nematode virus carriers - you can see this grass more and more in fallow sites. The young vines look fine for now but let’s see in another 10 years…

33

Great post , William . Fwiw , Darviot does sell Meursault Perrieres . ( With my wine-club , we are collecting a lot of Perrieres to do a blind tasting of Meursault Perrieres 2014 , later this year ; that is how I discovered it ) .
Papa Jean-Francois may be retired but he still works in the vineyards .
It’s indeed from the Aux Perrieres section . There are only 4 owners , the fourth is Bouchard .

34

Hi Herwig! Nice to hear from you. I heard that D-P might now be selling the fruit. But I see that they did produce a 2017 Perrières. I guess we will see if there is a 2018 or not.

35

Okay, here are two short clips so you can all take a virtual walk along the track at the bottom of the vineyard…

36

Any similar pictures of the Bouchard section. Interested because it is the one I buy.

37

Not to hand, but it’s nicely farmed. This was really just an off-the-cuff exercise, but I’m encouraged to repeat it more seriously. Any other plots folks would be curious to virtually check out?

38

There could be so many interesting ones. GC Clos St. Jacques would be interesting given the few owners and the high quality of the wine from there. Alternatively, Ruchottes Chambertin, esp. the three owners of the plot purchased from Domaine Thomas-Bossot years ago (Rousseau, M-G, and Roumier, as I understand it). Or a comparison of DRC farmed plots with other owners in the same vineyard (say Richebourg or Romanee St. Vivant, for example).

39

Clos St Jacques is a nice one - different practices clearly visible although all vines looked good. Fourrier vines much “wilder”. Also, in rainier weather, you can see very well that the Rousseau part, which goes further to the bottom of the vineyard that its neighbors, has more propensity to be very wet / muddy (the lower part I mean).

40

What a fascinating study - thanks William, great work!