Back in the late 1990s, Walt and I wanted to come spend two or three weeks in France on vacation. We thought about going to Alsace, but then turned our attention to Burgundy and the Loire Valley. In many ways, along with Paris and Champagne, they are the heart of France. I bought two books in a series called Touring in Wine Country, which was edited by Hugn Johnson. One book focused on Burgundy and the other on the Loire Valley. Both were written by Hubrecht Duijker, a Dutch wine writer, and included a lot of beautiful photos.
In October of 2000, we ended up coming to spend three weeks in France — one week in Vouvray nears Tours in the Loire Valley, and then a day or two driving through Burgundy before spending three or four days in in Champagne. We capped it all off with a week in Paris. We were really taken with the Loire Valley, and ended up buying a house here in 2003 and re-locating from San Francisco to Saint-Aignan. In 2014, we finally went and spent a few days in the Chablis area. I re-discovered the book about Burgundy wine country that I had bought 15 years earlier and read this passage. It convinced me that it would be a good idea to go see the Irancy vineyard south of Chablis.
“...Bourgogne Irancy wine is made from Pinot Noir, but also contains a small amount of the little-known red grape César which, it is thought, may have originated here. The César contributes color, tannin, and backbone to the lighter Pinot-based wines, distinguishing Bourgogne Irancy from the mass of rather non-descript Bourgogne Rouges made all over the region. Irancy sits at the very center of a large amphitheatre of vineyards and is one of Burgundy's most beautifully located villages.” Here is a shortslide show made up of another 14 photos I took in Irancy in October 2014.
Another book I bought along the way is The New France: A Complete Guide to Contemporary French Wine. The author is Andrew Jefford, British wine writer. I'm not sure when or where I found it, but I re-discovered it a few days ago and have finally been reading it. In the section about the Chablis area, Jefford asserts: “Chablis does not belong in Burgundy.”
Jefford writes that the Chablis vineyard (and neighboring vineyards like Irancy and Saint-Bris-le-Vineux) is on land that is not at all geologically similar to the Burgundy wine region farther south. Burgundy forms part of the Rhône river basin, he says. Chablis, along with the Champagne wine region to the north, is located in the Seine river basin. The soil of the Chablis area is much more like the soils of Loire Valley wine areas including Reuilly and Quincy (two villages just 35 miles east of Saint-Aignan), and Sancerre and Pouilly-sur-Loire on the upper Loire, than like the soils of the Côte d'Or or Beaune, which are in the heart of Burgundy. “Chablis has more in common with the Upper Loire and the southern sector of Champagne than it does with Meursault and Mâcon,” Jefford says.
One similarity between Chablis and the rest of Burgundy is the grape varieties planted in the two areas. Those are Chardonnay for white wines and Pinot Noir for reds, with very few exceptions. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are also the mainstays of the Champagne vineyards north of Chablis. In contrast, the vineyards of the Upper Loire and Touraine wine regions are planted in Sauvignon Blanc and Gamay grapes (again with a few exceptions).
According to Jefford, similar soils explain why Sancerre, on the upper Loire, and Chablis, in northern Burgundy, produce two of the most distinctive and delicious white wines of France — but using different grapes. Here in Touraine, local wine-makers have told me that their goal is to produce Sauvignon Blanc wines that resemble the white wines of Sancerre as closely as possible. And several of the wine books I've been reading say that the white Chardonnays of the Mâcon area farther south in Burgundy don't compare to the best Chablis whites, because the land the grapes are grown on are so different from each other. Sorry if this is very nerdy and technical, but I'd never realized all this before.
Do I understand correctly that Chablis, Irancy and Sancerre make a wine island with Champagne to the North, Burgundy to the East and Touraine to the West, more or less like the Arbois region further East?
ReplyDeleteI suppose all the wine regions are islands of a sort, because they are surrounded by areas where grapes don't grow (or where different grapes grow). Jeffords says that the Chablis "island" is drained by the Yonne river, which meets up with the Seine 50 miles (80 km) north of Chablis at Montereau-Fault-Yonne. Therefore it is part of the Seine's drainage basin. The other great river basins in France are the Loire, the Rhône, and the Garenne/Dordogne.
DeleteSome argue that the river flowing through Paris and on to its mouth at Le Havre should be called l'Yonne and not la Seine. The Yonne is longer, has a larger drainage basin, and flows at greater volume than does the part of the Seine that is upriver from Montereau when the two rivers merge. Usually the river that is longer and contributes more water to the volume of the river it feeds would be the fleuve, and the other would be a rivière. The Seine in this case is the rivière (tributary), and the Yonne by all rights should be seen as the fleuve. It's a little bit like the Mississippi and the Missouri in the U.S.
I didn’t know that the Yonne was longer at the confluence than the Seine. One learn something new everyday!
Delete"several of the wine books I've been reading say that the white Chardonnays of the Mâcon area farther south in Burgundy don't compare to the best Chablis whites, because the land the grapes are grown on are so different from each other." I love wines from the Maconnais, so I might take issue with part of this comment. But what I do agree with is that the wines of Chablis are very different from the wins of the Maconnais, despite being made from the same grape variety.
ReplyDeleteI like the Mâcon Chardonnays too, but the ones from Chablis do have a dfferent quality to them.
DeleteAdding to the book list, here's a good look at Burgundy. (I mention it because I know the author.) https://www.nyrb.com/products/food-wine-burgundy?variant=6841836011572
ReplyDeleteI've seen that Terroir series of books mentioned recently. I think it was in Jefford's book but now I can't find it. I wonder if the reference to was to Downie's Burgundy book. I'll keep looking.
DeleteThe reference turned out to be to a book called Terroir by a man named James Wilson, a geologist and wine aficionado.
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