Just north of Beaune in a former tracter barn is Domaine DUBLÉRE where Blair Pethel, a North Carolinian transplant, runs his operation all by himself (with some extra help around the harvest, of course). As he opened the doors to his cuverie to welcome the group, "Walking in Memphis" was blasting throughout the winery. Good times, cool dude.
His winemaking is nearly all organic/bio, save for a little fungicide in the spring, which he deems necessary. Working with 5 hectares worth of grapes from Chassagne-Montrachet to Gevrey-Chambertin, with a bit of Chablis as well, he keeps things natural: only natural yeasts, no fining/filtering, no racking, etc. In what appears to be an effective approach to preventing TCA (aka. cork taint or 2,4,6-trichloroanisole), he has a fancy water filter which removes the chlorine from the water that is used to clean all of the equipment that comes into contact with the juice. Chlorine is responsible for the "C" in TCA and eliminating it from the wine-making process prevents the development of cork taint. Alex Gambal is another proud owner of the water filter. So far, Blair Pethel has received no reports of corked bottles...so consumers can buy his wines with confidence!
Wines ready for export.
We tasted Blair's 2007 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru "Les Chaumes" - a solid wine.
Blair Pethel: a one-man show
The cave at DUBLÉRE
Next up, a quick drive down the Cote de Beaune to Chateau de Meursault. Honestly, the tour of the cave felt a little bit like something at Disneyworld - contrived and a little lame. This was actually the first property in Burgundy to admit visitors without the letter of recommendation that was once a requisite for appointments at caves in the Cote d'Or 20 or 30 years ago. This was essentially the pioneer in vineyard hospitality, which is quite clear, and for me it was a little too contrived, especially when juxtaposed to the authenticity and excitement of yesterday's tasting in the mouldy cellar at Domaine Jacob. We were fortunate enough to get a tour of the large-production (by Burgundian standards) cuverie, a separate structure from the tour-guided caves.
Chateau de Meursault
15 ton fermenters
The new-world winemakers in the group seemed to know their way around this larger facility.
Checking out some of the smaller tanks
Jane- love following your great adventure.. we spent some time in the region- loved Meursault and agree on tour of the cave-- Celia had her first tasting there at the age of 7 ( behind my back of course, I was too involved in my own tasting!). We stayed at the lovely Hotel Les Charmes and were directed to a fabulous restaurant connected to a motel.. we knew this would never happen in the US, but we drove up the road and had one of the best meals ever- overlooking the vineyards complete with the hot air balloons flying over. Thank you for letting me relive that wonderful week.. see you soon... bon chance... xoxoxoxobeth
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