While a true wine expert’s heart can be broad, there is a saying among wine aficionados that on the journey to wine understanding, all roads eventually lead to Burgundy.
In Burgundy, my favourite area is Golden Slope. Is it yours too? It is a thin strip of vineyards along a series of sloping hillsides running more or less north – south. Most of the great vineyards in Burgundy are here.
When we started feeling miserable after so much rain this winter, I remembered my time in Burgundy, where there is always the possibility of hail and rain. It is the wonder of nature, or, what French proudly defined, the concept of terroir, delivers the greatest wine. It is the concept that the specific site where the grapes are grown is what gives the wine its soul. The soil, the wind, the slope of the hill…combines to form its terroir. Well…except perhaps climate?
Although we probably all should worry about what bad weather can do to our vineyards, stop letting the rain draw our brave heart down for Australian wine. Just like a crushing storm in the heart of Burgundy can be amazingly attractive, it is everything we have here in our nature makes our wine so uniquely beautiful.
One of the most favourite photos of Blue Orchid taken in the heart of Golden Slope – In lovely old town of Beaune, with a beautiful storm arriving.
