Salisbury Vineyards

August 2007

BONJOUR! We just returned from a week on a boat through the canals and rivers of Southern Burgundy in France. It was our first vacation in 5 years. Six of us rented a neat 33 foot Penichette (barge) with a flying bridge, three private rooms, galley, bicycles, and a large eating area. It was a fantastic trip through the home of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. What an eye opener for me to see a completely different way of growing grapes. I can’t imagine growing winegrapes with rain most of the summer – one day of rain in the growing season around here and we all panic!

We spent a couple of days in Paris and then took a train to the south of Dijon to boarded our boat at St. Leger on the Canal du Centre. On the first day, we were heading towards Chagny, and I thought it would be fun to tie off and ride the bikes into the small village of Santanay. This is the home of the Chateau de Santanay winery, which was just what you would expect for an Old World Pinot Noir/Chardonnay producer. The rock fences surrounded meticulously groomed vineyards on a meter by meter (3.3 ft. x 3.3 ft.) planting versus our 5’ x 8’ spacing, a beautiful centuries-old castle, and grounds perfectly landscaped.

The tasting room manager could not speak a word of English, but through a little Spanish, hand signals, and my Salisbury Vineyards brochure, I was able to communicate that I was also a grower of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. So, he brought out a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir that had taken top honors at the Paris show and it was for me like finding the “Holy Grail”. They were dry with great fruit flavors, very elegant with only 12.5% alcohol. These were wines that you could drink all day and not get tipsy. He then invited us on a half hour tour of the most incredibly modern winery in an ancient setting…that I could only dream of replicating here in Avila.

We docked that night near the ancient town of Chagny after going through 12 locks that day (42 in all), which were fun and easy once you got the hang of it. The next day, we again tied off in the Canal and biked into Rully, and toured the even older Chateau de Rully. Every day was a new adventure to include stops at Chalone and Gigny on the la Saone River, Cuisery, and our final destination at Loisy on the la Seille River. But the most exciting thing happened when we were tied up at the dock in Tournas. A man knocked on the window of our boat and asked if we wanted to taste his wines. We brought him onboard, and after tasting and talking about wine and winegrapes, he invited us to tour his vineyard and have dinner at his house. So here he is hawking wine by the bottle on the dock and I am thinking he must have only around 5 acres, which is the norm in Burgundy, with probably a small cottage. He just invited six strangers to dinner without talking to his wife! Not something I would ever dare do. So we took off for a 50 mile trip to his home in Leynes, southwest of Macon.

Sure enough, he stopped and showed us a 5 acre Chardonnay vineyard, but then had us hike up a hill that looked over an incredibly beautiful vineyard-laden valley with a couple of ancient picture-book villages. He then pointed out his “cottage” – a 300 year old Chateau which housed his winery that produces over 17,000 cases a year surrounded by 150 acres of his vineyards. After a barrel tasting and a beautiful dinner, he lamented the sorry state of the wine business in France. He said the glut is so big (Google - France, wine, glut to get an idea) that he has to be out everyday and sell his wine on the street to survive. He produces Chardonnay, Gamay, and Beaujolais to include a sparkling Gamay, all excellent wines that would fit nicely into our program. Therefore, we have a tentative agreement to try to import his wines and sell with ours as soon as we can figure out the logistics. So we may be having a “Beaujolais Nouveau” party in November! If you have ever thought of doing a boat trip in Europe, check out locaboat.com or give me a call. We saw our first color in the Pinot Noir in Mid-July, which is only a little behind schedule.