Domaine Leflaive - Puligny Montrachet


Mysterys of Chardonnay




On Chardonnay By Vincent Leflaive 19 October 1992 What a delightful title for a talk on wine! But I am not Sherlock Holmes, trying to solve in its entirety this enigma that is due to both nature's mysteries and the vigneron's qualities. I will simply try, in a few words, to provide you with three reference points that characterise this grape variety and the wine it produces. Burgundy is made up of four "departements": Côte d'Or, Saône et Loire, Yonne and Rhône. We will be talking only about the Cote-d'Or, where Chardonnay is the sole grape variety used to produce great white wines. Three factors are essential in ensuring typicity: • the terroir, • the grape variety, • the vigneron's know-how. The terroir This is a limited geographical space on the land registers, defining an "Appellation d'Origine contrôlée " (AOC) : village wines, premiers crus and grands crus, according to the AOC law of July 1935. These are ancient geological formation, since they date back to the secondary Jurassic cra. Geologists define the soils by esoteric names, such as Oxfordian for Corton Charlemagne, Bathonian for Le Montrachet, and Argovian for Meursault. All we really need to remember is that soil analyses in the different terroirs, which are on the whole clay-limostone, vary in terms of the percentage of clay and limestone with in additi6n trace elements such as iron, magnesium and boron, ensuring that the grape variety receives differing nutrition via the plant's roots. As an example: an analysis of the Montrachet terroir has revealed the presence of manganese, whereas this element is present in neither Chevalier-Montrachet, located above it, nar in Bâtard-Montrachet below. Another example: if we take a line on the same levcl running from Meursault to Chassagne, we find the following appellations: Genevrieres, Charmes, Perrieres, La Mouches, Clavaillon, Pucelles, Batard-Montrachet and Ruchottes; the wines produced in these parcels all show different typicity on tasting. Finally, we should point out that the village of Puligny-Montrachet is located over water, and this high water table definitely has its importance according to the way it is spread out underground in Puligny's various AOCs. The grape variety A single variety, the Chardonnay plant is made up of two parts: the rootstock ond the graft. The rootstock comes from American vine, found in specialised plantings in the Var, Vaucluse and Ardèche. This rootstock comes from a large family, acquired through selection over the year. In the Côte-d'Or the most frequently used is thc 161-49, as well as the 5 BB, a bit of 3309, and soon Riparia Gloire de Montpellier. The grafts are inventoried before the harvest on particularly healthy plants, and in the autumn are gathered by the A.T.V.H. and passed on to specialised nursery personnel so thce can join graft to rootstock. The Grafted vine will be delivered to the vignerons for planting, usually in February-March. On the other hand, more than 40 years ago a degenerating malady appeared, caused by a virus called "court-noué " (fan-leaf). In order to combat this disease, Monsieur Raymond Bernard, an agronomist and Director of the ONIVIN organisation, established clonal selection; this is now widely ussed in vinceard replanting. However, there is no guarantee that "Court-Noué " has been abolished, and other rootstock production methods are currently being used - such as rootstocks produced in air-conditioned Greenhouses under ultraviolet lighting. These rootstocks are not yet available to vignerons, but they will provide a 100% guarantee against "court-noué " and Eutypiose. Finally, the production of in-vitro rootsocks is now under way. The vigneron's know-how The vigneron has a double job: that of vine-grower, i.e. cultivating the vine and winemaker, that is, looking after the wine. Cultivating the vine is a job requiring skill and good sense. ·Pruning in order to control production ·Treating the vines so as to combat diseases such as downy mildew, powdery mildew, and destructive insects such as red spiders, etc. It also means cultivating the soil by incorporating the necessary fertilisers. These techniques have evolved over the last few years, since it has become clear that the use of herbicides, fungicides and pesticides has caused deterioration in the quality of the soil and the plant, and hence the grape. For the last several years, a return to the past has occurred through biological cultivation (for example, suppression of synthetic chemical fertilisers, replacing them with organic products such as compost; and more recently still, biodynamic cultivation, which blends biological cultivation of the soil with cosmic influences. Is man not stellar dust, as astrophysicist Hubert Reeves wrote? At the domaine, we apply biodynamic techniques over a surface of 5 hectares. Then there is the winemaker. After the harvest, whose date has to be well chosen, the wine must be raised. This means ensuring the best conditions for alcoholic and malolaotic fermentation. Racking, fining, filtering and bottling follow. Two principles are imperative for us: allowing nature to do its work, and maintaining a clinical cleanliness in the equipment used to stock and transport the wine.




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