Second edition of Bourgogne Week Tokyo: Shining the spotlight on Bourgogne wines
For this second edition of the event in Japan, the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) is inviting everyone involved, including importers, wine store owners, restaurants, and wine bars, to take part in the Bourgogne Week Tokyo, from 3-7 June. Japan is the third-biggest export market for Bourgogne wines and a long-standing, committed partner. The free-trade deal agreed between Europe and Japan, which came into force in early February, should breathe new life into this market.
Local market influencers are invited to host their own Bourgogne wine events for their customers, to offer them the chance to taste Bourgogne wines, meet industry players, and enjoy some convivial events including tastings, meet-and-greets with the producers, and interesting food-wine pairing events.
The BIVB is also organizing a range of events throughout the week to create additional buzz. 3 June sees Chablis wines opening #BourgogneWeek with an exceptional curtain-raiser (by invitation only), dedicated to food and wine combinations.
6 June is a special day for industry players who will be invited to two events:
A major tasting is being organized under the aegis of the Chamber of Commerce of the Bourgogne Franche-Comté region, featuring a delegation of producers and négociants from around Bourgogne.
An original masterclass will introduce participants to a different side of Bourgogne wines through the tasting of several surprising appellations that reflect the terroir, the expertise, and the history of the men and women who produce them.
A winemaker and spokesperson for Bourgogne wines will attend the Bourgogne Week Japan to meet with journalists throughout the week. He will offer a perspective on a range of subjects including current events and recurring themes. We hope that the Bourgogne Week Japan will meet the same success as similar events in London and Hong Kong.
The BIVB will be running a marketing campaign to maximize the exposure of Bourgogne Week Japan, in particular through a dedicated website.
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Bootcamp USA and Canada: A new kind of training on Bourgogne wines!
Bourgogne wines will be in Montreal and Los Angeles on 13 and 15 May respectively for a new kind of learning experience inspired by the bootcamp concept.
Bootcamps are short, high-intensity sports training sessions, and this style of training is already well-known to students at sommelier schools. This new kind of learning offered by the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) is targeting young sommeliers in particular.
The BIVB is seeking to place Bourgogne wines at the heart of the curriculum for young American and Canadian sommeliers, thanks to an exciting experience that aims to create a memorable connection with these rising stars.
These one-day sessions are divided into four modules. Each one explores different themes unique to the region, such as Crémant de Bourgogne wines, Régionale and Village appellations, the Climats, etc.
The training sessions are organized in partnership with the SOMM360 organization.
The Climats Month 2019 is bursting with surprises!
The Climats Month will include 80 events entirely dedicated to the Climats across the Bourgogne winegrowing region!
A whole month of exhibitions, walks in the vines, guided tours, conferences, performances, and tastings – this is what the Climats Month 2019 has in store from 7 June to 7 July. All the events take place in cellars, estates, and villages, from Dijon to south of Beaune. You simply won’t know which one to choose from!
This annual event, celebrating its fourth edition this year, will be shining a spotlight on the heritage and history of the Climats of Bourgogne, whose exceptional universal value was recognized by UNESCO in 2015.
An added bonus: Most of the events have been created by non-profits, trade bodies, and companies in the region. Together, they are like a gold mine of wonderful ideas and original concepts.
Reasonable rates and original events are behind the success of the event, with a highpoint on 6 July when the anniversary of the inclusion of the Climats on the UNESCO World Heritage List will be celebrated with the Climats en Fête event.
The association of the Climats of the Bourgogne winegrowing region and all its volunteers are inviting the general public to Cheilly-les-Maranges for a rustic paulée, comprising a giant picnic, concert, walks, and plenty more for young and old alike.
The Cité des Vins et des Climats de Bourgogne: A new stage begins
After the selection of the architects and scenographer, the agency responsible for the museography of Beaune, Chablis, and Mâcon, has just been appointed.
The Paris-based agency Ame en Science has been selected to manage the museography for the Cité des Vins sites in Chablis, Beaune, and Mâcon. It was selected for its many references (14 exhibitions in 10 years), the quality of its team, and editorial qualities.
The agency’s main mission will be to write the communication material on the wines and Climats of Bourgogne and provide content for the visitor experiences in the three sites.
The agency and the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) are working in close cooperation with the Association for the Climats of the Bourgogne winegrowing region. A small-scale scientific committee comprising professionals from the industry and scientists will also be contributing to creating this rich content.
The museography phase is one of the central parts of the project. It is a distillation of the requirements and expectations of all stakeholders. As such, it is a task that requires many hands, with the aim of creating a tailored project with strong appeal for future visitors.
Agenda
13 May - Montreal
Bootcamp in Montreal, an intensive day of training on Bourgogne wines (see above)
15 May - Los Angeles
Bootcamp in Los Angeles, an intensive day of training on Bourgogne wines (see above)
3-7 June - Tokyo
Bourgogne Week Tokyo 2019 (see above)
7 June - 7 July
The Climats Month (see above)
10 June - Shanghai
Masterclass on Régionale AOCs with a geographic denomination, followed by a press conference
3 July – Beaune
The BIVB General Assembly (30th anniversary of the organization)
Bourgogne Côtes d’Auxerre
You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the wines from this appellation from the northern part of Bourgogne, in both red and white.
The Auxerre wine region (pronounced “ausserre”) is a very ancient one, established by the Abbey of Saint-Germain and its proximity to Paris. In 1321, wines from Auxerre were served at the coronation of Charles VI.
It wasn’t until much later, in 1993, that some villages in the department, including Auxerre, Vaux, Augy, and Saint-Bris-le-Vineux, were granted the right to give their wines the additional Côtes d’Auxerre denomination within the Bourgogne appellation. Located on either side of the Yonne, the river that gives the department its name, these vineyards give real personality to the wines produced there.
The reds have a pronounced cherry red color with hints of ruby. In the mouth, the attack is smooth and forthright, with good fruit and silky tannins. They offer aromas of cherry, licorice, and spice.
Its fruity freshness makes this wine a pertinent companion for jambon persillé, a salad with bacon, or sea bass with a veal reduction. Its delicate tannins make it a great match for coq au vin, rabbit with mustard, or roast chicken.
The whites are pale yellow in color with a satin sheen and hints of green or straw yellow. In the mouth, they are zesty, with touches of fleshy fruit like peach or yellow fruit. A light, melting finish offers salinity, with a spicier register at times.
The fruity aromas call for light dishes; these are wines that can be enjoyed as an aperitif. With cheese, opt for fresh types with herbs, or light and creamy styles.
With winemakers, traders, restaurateurs, sommeliers, representatives of cooperative cellars, presidents of winegrowing unions, partners from the wine industry, and journalists, 300 elite jurors were brought together in the Great Cellar of the Château du Clos de Vougeot for this grand blind tasting of Bourgogne wines.
The wines presented come from across the region, from the Chablisien to the Mâconnais, from Régionale appellations to Grand Crus, and included both still and sparkling wines. The selection is rigorous, and the percentage of wines selected for the Tastevin label bears witness to the rigor of the challenge. Of all the wines tasted, 229 were awarded the Tastevinage label: 127 reds and 102 whites and Crémant de Bourgognes, a total of 33% of all the wines presented.
The 104th Tastevinage will be held in November, when the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin will name the best wines of the year that will sport the Majors du Tastevinage denomination.
This event invites the general public to discover the Yonne, its villages, and its winemakers. On Saturday 18 May, they will welcome you free of charge to their cellars from 10am to 6pm, to introduce you to their work and their production.
These tastings at the heart of the various appellations will allow you to explore the different winemaking villages and their heritage. This is a universe that offers some surprising riches.
This event is a variation on “Fleurs de Vigne” when a huge tasting event takes place on the quaysides of the capital of the Yonne. Organized every two years in Auxerre, the next edition of Fleurs de Vigne will run in 2020.
For more than a year, the “Paroles Vigneronnes” sound exhibition has been moving around the region inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. A series of testimonies from female winegrowers and vine and wine workers help visitors understand the evolution of these trades. Looking back over a period of 50 years, a wide range of issues are tackled.
Many of these are already well-known to the general public, including adapting to climate change, the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next, and the role of women in the vineyards and the cellar.
Located around a central listening point, three panels provide an explanation to visitors. Based on an initiative from the Association for the Climats of the Bourgogne winegrowing region and the Maison du Patrimoine Oral de Bourgogne, the aim of this exhibition was both to gather oral testimony, which is by definition ephemeral, and to reinvest in that oral culture (in French only).
The wines of Mâcon are making a name for themselves!
More than 280 samples of the Mâcon, Mâcon-Villages, and Mâcon with an additional geographical denomination AOCs were sampled by 110 jurors, with 19% winning awards.
On 28 March at the Château d'Hurigny, around 100 tasters came together to elect the next cuvées to sport the “Distinction Saint-Vincent des Vins Mâcon” label. There were 280 samples in the running, submitted by 58 businesses, including nine cooperative cellars and 49 estates.
To deserve this distinction and be able to bear the labels, the wines must fulfil the following two conditions:
- They must rank among the first third of wines tasted
- They must have scored 15 or more out of 20
In the end, 53 cuvées won awards, corresponding to 19% of the samples presented. Excellence was the order of the day for these wines that will be ambassadors for Mâcon wines at many events both for the general public and the industry.
The program promises two hours to stroll around and chat with the proprietors about the craft of winegrowing and the passion that drives them.
Suitable for all, this experience offered by the estate calls upon every sense: Hearing, touch, taste… Humor and risk-taking are also on the menu. In the space of two hours, all the key stages in winemaking will be touched upon.
A blind tasting of four of the estates wines comes at the end of the visit, to make sure your sense of tasted doesn’t feel left out!
Available from 1 April from the cellars at Prissé and Sologny, and then during April in stores, restaurants, and hotels, the Terres Secrètes range has a whole new appeal.
This new visual identity will allow the cooperative to reaffirm its aims and cement its strong identity. It draws upon its close ties with Bourgogne whilst enabling it to maintain its Mâconnais values.
In parallel, it is upselling its range, anticipating the arrival of future Village Premier Cru from the Saint-Véran AOC.
In 2015, Sylvaine and Alain Normand decided to open up their estate to the French market while working to boost their image.
They decided to construct their own vinification and storage facilities in a single place. Beyond the practical aspects, this change would allow them to better control the quality of their wines.
With its style that is relatively avant-garde for the region, this new building combines functionality with esthetics and an innovative design. In particular, the cellars were designed to evoke the five rocks in the Mâconnais, in order to pay homage to the natural heritage and the villages where the vines used to make the estate’s wines are grown.
This VR experience, created in collaboration with the Côte Chalonnaise start-up ViniTIC, was recently tested out at the ProWein trade show in Germany.
Visitors at the event were treated to a 360° immersion into the winery. This is a fun way to visit the estate, without having to leave the room!
This experience will be offered again at future trade shows, for professionals and the general public. Visitors at the premises in Beaune will also be able to use this technology to explore the cellars, which are otherwise closed to the public.
New guest accommodation for Les Maisons de Chamirey
A new house for guests in the heart of the Côte Chalonnaise, perfect for discovering Bourgogne.
At the heart of the hamlet of Chamirey just close to Mercurey is where the Maison du Grand Four is located.
This traditional stone house dating from 1733 has just been fully renovated. With three bedrooms and three bathrooms, a fully-fitted kitchen, garden, cellar, and sauna, this house has undergone a radical makeover and is now perfect for a trip amongst friends or family to the heart of Bourgogne.
Several services are also on offer, including breakfast, guided tours, hot-air-balloon flights, private chef services, and an introduction to wine tasting.
Bourgogne vs. Burgundy: to re-affirm their identity, the region and the producers are reverting back to the original French iteration of the name, Bourgogne.
EN DIRECT 9 issues per year, published by
Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne
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Tel. 00 33 (0)3 80 25 04 80
DIRECTOR: SYLVAIN NAULIN
EDITOR IN CHIEF: CECILE MATHIAUD – cecile.mathiaud@bivb.com
TRANSLATOR: SARAH JACKSON
For access to our press release archive and thousands of rights-free photos,
go to our on-line pressroom at: www.bourgogne-wines.com
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