Growing Grapes in Burgundy vs Oregon and Sonoma

Grape vines in Burgundy see far less sunshine than their counterparts in Oregon and Sonoma simply because of how far north they sit. Winemaker Alex Gambal explains the differences in the angle of the sunlight and the amount of sunlight that each region receives over the course of the summer. In many ways, this is a cheat sheet to understanding the broad stroke differences between the Pinot Noir’s main growing regions. Filmed on location at Flickinger Wines in Chicago.

What does a vineyard cost in Burgundy? Alex answers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jTcfKbRIAg&list=PLddUmDhg4G_JfEJrnV2nwye55onz0ggav&index=2

For a list of Alex’s wines for sale at Flickinger Wines, click here: http://flickingerwines.com/growers/MaisonAlexGambal.aspx

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If you think about the slope like this in that middle slope are the premier crus and the Grand Crus. I think one of the things that people forget about Burgundy, you know we talk about the deep dark secret, is where we’re a continental climate.

And we’re at the 47 parallel where northern Maine, we’re Seattle. And so think about June 21st on the slope at 4 o’clock in the afternoon: the Sun is straight up in the sky, all the vineyards are getting Sun, it’s fantastic. Lots of sunshine at 4 o’clock in the afternoon on September 21st where is the Sun? it’s low in the horizon which vineyards are still getting sunshine at 4 o’clock in the afternoon the mid slope not the village and the Bourgognes below or above. It’s the mid slope the premier cru and the grand cru. This is what we forgot, or never learned in 10th grade biology class: photosynthesis. Turning the starches into sugars, the chlorophyll.
And so we don’t think in terms of temperature hours as they do in the more southern climates we think in terms of how many hours of luminosity, sunshine to convert the starches and the sugars. And so I make the point maybe a little too hard I said so let’s go to the Willamette Valley. It’s very cool from the Pacific Ocean, it can get nice and hot in the summer but you’re at the 45th parallel that’s that’s the Rhone, ok? that that’s just south of Hermitage. Then you go to Napa it’s Barcelona. Sonoma is Barcelona on a latitude basis, but again let’s I don’t want to overstate the fact it gets cool because you have the Pacific breezes that cool Sonoma and makes some delicious Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but those grapes are gonna get a lot more sunshine and get a lot riper than ours can. And then go down to Santa Barbara and you’re in Tunisia. Again it’s cool, but they’re gonna get riper so we have two different problems. In California they get lots of sunshine so the sugars shoot to the roof and the acids get burned up by the sugar. We have the opposite we have high acids low sugar so we’re trying to bring those two together the better balance. And so between that and the fact that we have limestone you know we have a different flavor profile than anywhere else in the world for the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. And it’s our, you know, it what it’s what makes it wonderful when it’s great, but also it’s our biggest “defi”, the big biggest challenge we have every year is to try to get these grapes ripe. In the last four years they’ve been marginal growing years very difficult. A lot of overcast, cold spring, bad flowering all these kinds of things. So we’re constantly you know working the vineyards, aerating, pulling leaves off to get better aeration, more exposure for the for the bunches to try to get these bloody grapes ripe, because every day after June 21st it’s a slippery slope you know can we catch up for Sun with the sunshine and that’s really what it comes down to.