interview

<p><em>This interview with Thomas Morey took place in his </em><glossary title="275"><em>Chassagne-Montrachet</em></glossary><em> tasting room in July, 2012.</em></p> <p><strong>Tell us about&nbsp;Domaine<em>&nbsp;</em>Thomas Morey.&nbsp;</strong><br /> <br /> We are located in <glossary title="275">Chassagne-Montrachet</glossary>&nbsp;and work on 13 <glossary title="523">hectares</glossary> of vines spread across six&nbsp;villages:&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="1374">Les Maranges</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="915">Santenay</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="275">Chassagne-Montrachet</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="840">Puligny-Montrachet</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary title="891">Saint-Aubin</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="154">Beaune</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> I work with my wife Sylvie and&nbsp;four full time employees. We produce about 45, 000 bottles of white and 15, 000 bottles of red.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> I used to work with my father, Bernard. A big part of my <glossary title="427">estate</glossary> is historically in the family, as we&#39;ve inherited many&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="760">parcels</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Others I&#39;ve purchased rather recently, and on top of that we also rent some land. Proportionally, eight&nbsp;<glossary title="523">hectares</glossary> are ours, and we rent the other five, some in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="652">metayage</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> others in traditional rental agreements.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> <strong>What kind of new&nbsp;parcels&nbsp;are you working with?</strong><br /> <br /> Starting with the 2011&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="1109">vintage</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> we were offered to work with three&nbsp;supplemental <glossary title="523">hectares</glossary> of vines in <glossary title="275">Chassagne-Montrachet</glossary> which featured some new <glossary title="113">appellations</glossary> we hadn&#39;t yet worked with. Knowing how difficult it is to purchase vines nowadays, it was hard to refuse a rental opportunity. These vines are owned by my closest neighbor, who&#39;d inherited the land from his in-laws but was never a&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="1089">vigneron</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> He was renting them to someone else, but they retired so he offered them to me. And I accepted!<br /> <br /> <strong>How old are the vines?&nbsp;</strong><br /> <br /> It varies a lot, but most of the vines I work with were planted between the mid 1950&#39;s and mid 1960&#39;s. 90% of the <glossary title="427">estate</glossary> is in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="941">selection massale</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;<br /> <br /> <strong>You are in the midst of converting to organic viticulture. Can we talk about this decision?</strong><br /> <br /> I was always attracted to this type of&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="78">agriculture</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> which I don&#39;t consider to be &quot;<glossary title="746">organic</glossary>&quot; at all. Even though that&#39;s the modern name for it, my idea was to revive a work tradition my grandparents had followed their entire lives. They worked with basic products (<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="333">copper</glossary> </span></span> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="993">sulfur</glossary></span></span>) that remain the least harmful available. I&#39;m very aware of the environmental impact of our work, especially as a producer on the front-line of <glossary title="279">chemical</glossary> use that is unhealthy for human beings. It just seems like the reasonable thing to do.<br /> <br /> And again, it was a bit of an homage to our grandparents. If they could do it, why not us? Mine passed away not too long ago, and a lot of imagery came back to me. I started reconstructing the story of their lives: they provided us with such beautiful wines, and by taking this old-school approach, I hope to do the same. And honestly, in the first two years working on my own, I felt like the products I was using were filthy. I wasn&#39;t comfortable using them. Who knows what impact this will have on our health in 25 years...&nbsp;<br /> <br /> So I started in 2011, and this was a good year to start since it was easy weather-wise. And when you start strong with a good year, it gives you a lot of confidence. In the case of 2012, it&#39;s a lot tougher and requires a lot more personal investment, but once you&#39;ve started in this direction, you really don&#39;t want to go back.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> <strong>You mentioned during our visit in the vines that&nbsp;Burgundy&nbsp;is becoming more beautiful&hellip;</strong><br /> <br /> I believe this is also linked to people becoming more conscious of their rich past. In the 1980&#39;s, if there was a tree amongst the vines, you&#39;d cut it right down because it&#39;s&nbsp;in the way. Nowadays, if some nature grows around the vines, people let it be. I think that we are becoming more and more conscious of our environmental impact; little by little we are getting over this functionality-first mentality with this new generation. People are planting fruit trees again, and creating diversity around the vineyards.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> <glossary title="734">Oeno-tourism</glossary> might also be part of this. It&#39;s progressed a lot, and now you see tons of tourists on bikes and in their cars. It&#39;s up to us to offer them something worthwhile to see when they visit. It&#39;s not only vines over here, it&#39;s the whole environment: the vines, the murals, the trees&hellip; Once the horses disappeared in the 1950&#39;s, people started focusing more&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="645">mechanization</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> We needed more room, everything had to be faster and more productive.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> <strong>What&#39;s the work in the&nbsp;cellar?</strong><br /> <br /> Nothing revolutionary in the<strong>&nbsp;<glossary title="254">cellar</glossary></strong>. I only work with<span class="zalup"><span>&nbsp;<glossary title="538">indigenous yeasts</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> and I&#39;m very strict about not using <glossary title="993">sulfur</glossary> during the&nbsp;<glossary title="1104">vinification</glossary> of the wines. Other than that, it&#39;s very traditional <glossary title="210">Burgundian</glossary> winemaking. We do soft <glossary title="447">filtrations</glossary> for the whites, because I don&#39;t <glossary title="74">age</glossary> them that long. Maybe if I <glossary title="74">aged</glossary> the wines an extra six&nbsp;months, I could pass on<span class="zalup"><span>&nbsp;<glossary title="447">filtration</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> but this isn&#39;t the case today.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> <strong>You have an interesting way of&nbsp;dosing&nbsp;sulfur&nbsp;that I&#39;ve never heard anyone else use. Can you talk about that?</strong><br /> <br /> The goal is that when the wine is&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="185">bottled</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> I&#39;m at about 35 mg of free <glossary title="993">SO2</glossary> per liter. If I want it to be that low, it requires regular&nbsp;doses&nbsp;over the course of the year. I only <glossary title="74">age</glossary> the wines 11 months before <glossary title="185">bottling</glossary> them, which encourages me to work with fast <glossary title="87">alcoholic</glossary> and <glossary title="622">malolactic</glossary> <span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="441">fermentations</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> These are usually done by late December (late January at the very latest). I then take advantage of the winter cold to naturally lower the temperature in my&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="254">cellar</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> and from March through August, I will regularly add tiny amounts of <glossary title="993">S02</glossary> instead of adding one or several huge doses&nbsp;over a more spaced out period of time. This way, the <glossary title="993">S02</glossary> incorporates itself more smoothly with the wine, and that way I don&#39;t have to add any more at&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="185">bottling</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;<br /> <br /> <strong>What do you like to drink?</strong><br /> <br /> It&#39;s a long list! Locally I like&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="293">Ch&acirc;teau-Chalon</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> It might worry some that a guy who makes <glossary title="271">Chardonnay</glossary> in <glossary title="212">Burgundy</glossary> admits to liking this style, and as my grandpa said: &quot;<em>it&#39;s messed up wine!</em>&quot; But I disagree and I love the <glossary title="754">oxidized</glossary> style of the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="560">Jura</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> I love <glossary title="1001">Syrah</glossary> and stuff from the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="372">Rh&ocirc;ne</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> I&#39;m a huge fan of German&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="858">Riesling</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> but also enjoy&nbsp;<glossary title="95">Alsacian</glossary> ones. And I really like&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="267">Champagne</glossary><span>!</span></span></span> I even like California <glossary title="927">Sauvignon Blanc</glossary> and <glossary title="828">Zinfandel.</glossary>&nbsp;There&#39;s good wine everywhere!</p>

harvest report

<p>We started on September 25th and finished on October 4th, and picked under sunny skies, sometimes with a few clouds and one small midday shower, so under very good weather.<br /> <br /> This was a rather long&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Harvest" title="521">harvest</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> but it was worth the time spent. We picked beautiful grapes, plump and juicy. There was very little&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Grey Rot" title="182">rot</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> thanks to two weeks of sunny and windy weather in the second half of September. The ripeness is good, in white as in red.<br /> <br /> Our worries of early September have turned into a smile of contentment, this <glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary> promises to be good, in white especially. Vincent is very busy in the winery, he has started <glossary term="Décuvage" title="410">devatting</glossary> the reds and has to closely monitor the whites&rsquo; <glossary term="Fermentation" title="441">fermentation</glossary> in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Barrel" title="142">barrels</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p>

harvest report

<p><u><strong>September 21nd, 2004:</strong></u></p> <p>No two years are alike.<br /> <br /> In 2003, we had finished the <glossary term="Harvest" title="521">harvest</glossary> on September 6, the earliest date in 150 years. This year, we will start on September 24, a much more normal date for this region.<br /> <br /> After a pretty wet summer, strong rains in July and August and a hot and dry September contributed to a well ripened and very healthy crop.<br /> <br /> In terms of quantity, this <glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary> looks very good. In terms of quality, we are counting a few more days of sunny weather to increase the level of sugar in the grapes.<br /> <br /> The <glossary term="Pinot Noir" title="805">Pinot Noir</glossary> grapes appear to be riper than the <glossary term="Chardonnay" title="271">Chardonnays</glossary>; so we will start harvesting <span class="zalup"><span>(<glossary term="Hand Harvesting" title="520">by hand</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> of course) the reds first.<br /> <br /> To be continued...</p>

harvest report

<p><u><strong>September 6th, 2003:</strong></u></p> <p>We have just finished the <glossary term="Harvest" title="521">harvest</glossary> after five and a half days of work: a whole day less than it would take in a so called &ldquo;normal&rdquo; year.<br /> <br /> This <glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary> will remain etched in our memories for many reasons. First of all for being so early; the earliest ever in the past hundred years. Then for being so spread out in terms of when various <glossary term="Estate" title="427">estates</glossary> actually picked. Some were finished by August 29th, others just started today. We started with a partial crew on Friday, August 29th and then started officially on August 30th.<br /> <br /> The scanty <glossary term="Yield" title="1129">yields</glossary> are another feature of this <glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary> that will be long-remembered. The small <glossary term="Yield" title="1129">yields</glossary> were due to various factors; a very early and small <glossary term="Bud" title="206">bud</glossary> burst in the spring followed by a serious <glossary term="Frost" title="1135">frost</glossary> on April 11th (it is very rare that the young <glossary term="Bud" title="206">buds</glossary> would be big enough to freeze by this date), then two <glossary term="Hail" title="1136">hail</glossary> storms (one in early June and another in the middle of July), two&nbsp;or three&nbsp;days of extremely high temperatures in July and August which burned some of the grapes that were facing the setting sun and to top it all off, an unusual lack of rain.<br /> <br /> The media has been announcing an exceptional&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary><span>!</span></span></span> For all the reasons given above, it is. As for its quality, it&rsquo;s better to be cautious at this point.<br /> <br /> We have brought in some very beautiful grapes, very healthy, very ripe but also low in <glossary term="Acidity" title="71">acidity</glossary> and juice. The <glossary term="Fermentation" title="441">fermentations</glossary> have hardly begun. At this point I think it would be prudent to wait until juice turns into wine before saying much more. It seems quite likely that given the low levels of juice that we will see a lot of&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Concentration" title="324">concentration</glossary><span>:</span></span></span> we will have to keep a close eye on the reds during the <glossary term="Vat/Tank" title="1140">vatting</glossary> to make sure not to <span class="zalup"><span><span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Extraction" title="433">extract&nbsp;</glossary><span>too much.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></span><br /> <br /> The one thing that is certain as of today is that the <glossary term="Yield" title="1129">yields</glossary> have been very low. The various <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> of our <glossary term="Estate" title="427">estate</glossary> have <glossary term="Yield" title="1129">yielded</glossary> a range between 25 to 28<glossary term="hl/ha" title="528">hl/ha</glossary>&nbsp;for the reds and 30 to 35<glossary term="hl/ha" title="528">hl/ha</glossary>&nbsp;for the whites. These are only averages of course, one must keep in mind that the&nbsp;<glossary term="Yield" title="1129">yields</glossary> of the vines which were hit by <glossary term="Frost" title="1135">frost</glossary> were extremely small.<br /> <br /> After a few days of<span class="zalup"><span>&nbsp;<glossary term="Maceration" title="610">maceration</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> the color of the red wines is already quite intense and the aromas are delicate. The <glossary term="Fermentation" title="441">fermentation</glossary> of white wine has been turbulent with foam spilling out from all the <glossary term="Barrel" title="142">barrels</glossary> which makes for extra work cleaning up.<br /> <br /> The harvesting itself went very well, with a great crew, beautiful weather, no incidents and no accidents and in the final analysis, that is what really counts.</p>