Domaine David Clark

David Clark is a youngish vignéron in Burgundy based in Morey-St-Denis. I dropped by recently to learn a little more of what he is doing.

David picked up his first vines while a student at the Lycée in Beaune. His first purchase was of Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire (BGO), an appellation rarely seen in France let alone overseas. Essentially BGO is for vineyards that don’t qualify for Bourgogne status. Red wines can be made of Pinot Noir, Gamay, César and/or Tressot. David’s is made of 100% Pinot Noir. He purchased the 0.3 hectares to get practical experience in the vineyards as quickly as possible. He has since added Bourgogne Passetoutgrains, Côte de Nuits-Villages and Morey-St-Denis.

The Domaine practices organic viticulture and keeps yields extremely low, generally between 25~30 hl/ha. This is on par with the some of the best in Bourgogne, Leroy, DRC, etc. David’s former occupation is as a Formula One engineer. He traveled the world with his team. Like most second-career vignéron, his focus is on quality.

While it is difficult say much at this stage, we tasted through his ’07s in barrel. They hadn’t started malo-lactic fermentation and were quite cold as a winter cellar would be. Yet they show potential. The Côte de Nuits-Villages was well-structured with firm tannin and acid, a Gevrey-like wine in style. The vineyard is actually in Brochon, the village just north of Gevrey. The Morey-St-Denis village has more density, was prettier, more feminine. These are wines to be followed. The 2006s were just bottled and will be released in Fall.

David plans on acquiring more vineyards of village or better quality. While David farms all his vineyards to the same level of quality, ironically the better appellation vineyards require less work than the lesser appellation vineyards. Apparently, it is in the vignéron’s best interest to acquire the best vineyards possible.

Domaine David Clark
17 Grande Rue
21220 Morey-Saint-Denis
Tel: +33(0)3 80 34 37 72
Mob: +33(0)6 32 20 21 72
e-mail: david@domainedavidclark.com

Happy New Year

Well it’s the New Year. It’s been a couple years now that I’ve thought about getting a site off the ground. I’ve just resisted. If I’m going to do it, I want it to be done right. Frankly, I see so many blogs out there that just seem to ramble and not say very much. Or others where the author is just ranting. I would like to create a site that is of use.

Ideally, anyone who spends any time on this site should leave it feeling like they’ve know more that they do before visiting. I hope to achieve that. That is what I expect (or hope for) when I visit a site.

My bent. Well I am not extremist but I expect a lot from wine. I prefer length over size, complexity over brute strength. Balance, length, complexity, intensity…that is what I’m looking for. More than that, I’m looking for representation of place and producer. I’d rather pay a little more for a wine that represents a producer/place than a little less for a wine that is technically just as good but from nowhere and from no one.

I’m interested in what makes a wine what it is. I’m interested in what makes a cuisine what it is or what makes a cheese what it is.

I hope you will enjoy what’s coming here in the New Year.

Best,

Eric LECOURS

When to Harvest

I met with Etienne Grivot earlier this week to discuss his approach to deciding the date of harvest. One thing that is remarkable to me is that he uses no technical analysis of his fruit in deciding when to harvest. I pressed the point two or three times.

He is convinced that you can’t take samples that are representative of a vineyard. The only way you could truly do this would be to sample from each vine, which is practically-speaking impossible. His general guideline is the date of flowering. Harvest is roughly 100 days later. There are a number of factors but primarily he tastes through the vineyards, chews the skins, seeds, looks at how the skins color his saliva. He watches the barometer, temperature. Observes the health of the grapes.

He tries to pick during the waning moon. 100 days landed around August 24th. He waited to start picking until the 4th. Many started picking on the 25th or 26th, Saturday and Sunday. He chose to start on the 4th to ripen the grapes further and to pick with the waning moon. Further, he chose to start picking on a Tuesday to prepare the team, the cuverie, etc. on Monday. He doesn’t like to start on the weekend as each year there is a learning curve. It is better to start slow and steady.

The order of picking is generally the order of quality of the parcels. Thus he starts with the white, then the bourgogne red, the village, etc. Richebourg was picked on the last day, September 10. It was perfect. It hung to achieve 13.4% potential alcohol and a pH of 3.3. There is a general order of picking as I noted but if clouds were on the horizon, the order would shift with the Grand Crus coming in first. Regarding the picking date, he avoids hearing what his neighbors are doing. His decision is made by him and him alone. (This reminds me of wine tasting. I can’t truly evaluate a wine if I hear the judgments of others first.) The last day of picking quality wines was September 10. There was a new moon on the 11th. He finished with some Gamay he sells in bulk.

Regarding 2007, this is a vintage of the vignéron. In 2005, everyone in Vosne made great wine. In 2007 if you farmed right, timed the harvest correctly, there is no reason why you couldn’t have had long hang time, physiological and phenolic ripeness. In fact, without the overripeness found in some of the very hot years, the wines can truly represent their terroir with no lack of density. After exhausting him with questions, we tasted through the 2007’s and the 2006’s gc’s. The Richebourg and Clos Vougeot are quite different. The Richebourg is aristocratic while the Vougeot overtly shows its GC power and spicy character. It’s hard not to like the wine. The Suchot is a stand out as well, wow.

We finished off with a lunch in Chambolle and ran into Bernard Gros there. We had the 02 Echezeaux. Etienne asked me what I thought. I answered, that I thought the food was great. He was referring to the wine!

Values

Burgundy has always been considered a wine for the wealthy. It’s been highly sought after by the aristocracy, the bourgeois, the rich. Yet it is a region of great value. Values abound. Wines of character and finesse can be found for under $ 50/bottle. One has to compare that to New World wines and Bordeaux for example.

Burgundy buying requires work though. Quantities are low; but there is a multitude of wines available. If you like looking for rare finds, Burgundy is for you. You have to look though. Anne Gros Bourgogne can be found for under 20 euros here and around $ 30 in the US. Jean Grivot’s Vosne Romanée is amazing and available here for 35 euros and $ 50 in the US. When you consider both are elite producer’s in Burgundy’s most respected village, these are true values. The list is endless.