WineInk: A tribute to Burgundy
Vignerons at the Nell Wine Bar
Courtesy photo
Amongst those who love the wines of France, there are many options to choose from. Some seek the bubbles of Champagne while others opt for collectables from Bordeaux. Some people crave the earthy red blends of the Northern Rhône and some prefer the delicate Rosé wines from sun-splashed Provence. And let’s not forget the floral white wines of Alsace.
But everybody loves Burgundy.
The Burgundy region, in the east-central portion of what many proclaim the world’s most important wine nation, produces wines, mostly from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grape varieties, that instill passion amongst its proponents. Wines have been grown and made in the limestone soils of the region since Roman times, over 2,000 years ago, and Burgundy has evolved over the millennia to become the most impactful wine region on earth.
The wines of Burgundy were the headliners this past week at an intimate dinner in The Wine Bar at The Little Nell Hotel touted as “A Tribute to Burgundy.” The Nell’s wine director, Chris Dunaway, and his esteemed team of sommeliers, including Rachael Liggett-Draper and the Nell’s newest sommelier, Adam Darlington, welcomed a pair of Burgundy’s most revered and talented vignerons (wine producers), Guillaume Lavollée of Domaine Génot-Boulanger and Thibaud Clerget of Domaine Y. Clerget, to the Nell, which has long been a bastion for Burgundy.
Guests at the dinner tasted through a range of nine wines from the two domaines’ top Grand Cru and Premier Cru selections accompanied by a four-course meal prepared by The Little Nell culinary team.
The two winemakers were at the hotel as part of a trip across the U.S., where they poured their wines and promoted their domaines in major cities. It is a testament to the wine bona fides of Aspen that Lavollée and Clerget made a stop here on their tour to introduce their wines. But it seems, naturally, that winemakers love Aspen and the winemakers enjoyed epic powder ski days during their visit.
Both wineries are represented in America by sommelier and wine entrepreneur Robert Bohr’s Grand Cru Selections out of NYC. Bohr has a long history with the Nell’s wine program, including much time spent in Montagna (the precursor of Element 47) drinking wine with past legendary Nell somms Bobby Stuckey and Richard Betts amongst other wine luminaries. Grand Cru Selections’ national sales manager, Jay Latham, who helped host the event, even noted that Bohr celebrated his wedding at the Nell.
While Guillaume Lavollée and Thibaud Clerget live within just a few kilometers of each other outside of Beaune, the most famous wine town in Burgundy and the hub of the region, their wine stories are very different.
The modern origins of Domaine Génot-Boulanger go back four generations. In 1974, Charles-Henri and Marie Génot-Boulanger left careers in the pharmacy business in Paris for Burgundy and created an eponymous estate in the white wine village of Meursault, opposite the Château de Cîteaux. They spent years acquiring vineyard plots in the region in top sites, including the villages of Mercurey, Meursault, Volnay, and Pommard.
In 2008, Guillaume and his wife Aude (Charles-Henri and Marie’s granddaughter) became the proprietors of the family estate and set out on a journey to improve the quality of the estate vineyards. Since 2010, they have farmed their vineyards organically and were certified organic in 2018. Today, they own 22 hectares of vineyards (about 55 acres) spread throughout Burgundy and produce wines from around 30 different appellations. While they make both red and white wines, Domaine Génot-Boulanger may be better known for their production of exquisite Grand Cru and Premier Cru white wines from some of the most renowned sites in Burgundy.
Indeed, the tribute dinner began with three wines that meet that description as Guillaume Lavollée poured a trio of his estate wines from the 2021 vintage to accompany an entre of White Asparagus. As diners compared and contrasted the white wines of Génot-Boulanger Premier Cru from Puligny Montrachet La Garenne and Les Folatières vineyards, and a Grand Cru Corton-Charlemagne, Lavollée explained the travails of the 2021 vintage in Burgundy. One of the most difficult in recent history, he told of the heartbreak that occurred in early April of that year as Arctic temperatures and snow arrived with Easter Sunday.
The cold front damaged as much as 80% of the region’s crops and reduced the yields precipitously. While the production of wines dropped dramatically, the quality of those that were produced is exceptional. The Génot-Boulanger Grand Cru Corton-Charlemagne 2021 was a beautiful wine with elegance and complexity that belied the difficulty of its birth.
The second course, a Tortellini en Brodo with Hedgehog mushrooms and ham, was accompanied by a trio of red wines from Domaine Y. Clerget, also produced from the 2021 vintage. The Clerget wines, including a pair of Grand Crus from Corton-Le Rogent and Clos de Vougeot, were young vibrant and impressive. Much like their 32-year-old winemaker.
Thibaud Clerget was raised in Burgundy and is the 28th generation of his family to produce wines from vineyards in Volnay. You read that right. The roots of the Clerget family in Burgundy go back to the 13th century – 1268 to be exact. Thibaud took over the family Domaine at the age of 24 years old in 2015 after traveling internships in Oregon at Domaine Drouhin and Giesen in New Zealand. In less than a decade, he has created a passionate following among Burg-ophiles and the wine press who have been impressed with his modern views and respect for traditions of the past.
The evening closed with a presentation of three more red wines, these from Génot-Boulanger and the 2017 vintage to accompany the Duck Confit. They, too, were representative of the best of Burgundy’s Grand Cru terroir and the skills of Guillaume Lavollée, who is just 42 years old himself.
While often we think of France, and Burgundy in particular, as the “old world,” the “Tribute to Burgundy” dinner predicted a bright future for the region as much as it celebrated its historic past. May the vignerons of Burgundy long make Aspen a preferred destination for the allocation of their wines.
Grand Cru Clos de Vougeot
Both of Aspen’s visitors from Burgundy are blessed to have vines in the Clos de Vougeot vineyard, one of the most historic wine locations in the world. I dare say it is to the wines of the Côte de Nuits as Aspen is to the ski hills of the Rockies. Established in 1336 by Cistercian monks with a walled vineyard and later, a château, the “clos” as it is called has gone through centuries of religious, political, and social changes while remaining a producer of some of the world’s finest Pinot Noir. Today, there are over 80 owners of the rows of vines that make up the 117 acres of the vineyard. Many have just a few rows. Drinking wines from the Clos de Vougeot is like taking a sip of history. It was an honor to taste both Guillaume Lavollée and Thibaud Clerget’s iterations of these wines.
