Musing Post La Paulée 2024

Nikita Malhotra

March 11, 2024

La Paulée has come and gone, and like with all other La Paulées, it was a chance to celebrate and learn more about Burgundy. Between the overall ambiance of fun, there are important trends and conversations that come about when you get everyone in one room.

One thing that punctuated my conversation with vignerons and other sommeliers was the topic of farming. Our Sommelier Seminar was led by Rajat Parr, who really has become a leading voice in this conversation, not only for domestic wines, since he makes wine in California, but also as an expert of wines from around the world. His experience of traveling and tasting with the best winemakers has inspired multiple generations of sommeliers; his advocacy of restorative and ethical farming is what framed the seminar. It has always been an important subject, and is by no means something new in terms of topics concerning Burgundy, or the whole wine world in general.

We tasted Château de Béru, Chablis “Clos Béru” monopole 2018, Domaine Rougeot, Bourgogne Passetoutgrains 2022, and Chanterêves, Savigny-lès-Beaune “Dessus de Montchenevoy” 2021. Each wine helped navigate the story of what responsible farming in Burgundy looks like. But it was Parr’s personal journey with farming that resonated in the seminar. His words carried a sense of urgency as well and framed the context of ethics to both the grower and consumer of wine.

There seems to be a paradigm shift concerning the topic of farming, the concept of old world vs. new world or conventional vs. natural seem outdated, and now I propose we can look at the dichotomy in the approach to the wine world through the lens of the health of the soil and vines vs. desire to make great wine.

I don’t propose that both are mutually exclusive, but I think that intentionality is key here. Does the winemaker feel like they are a custodian of the land and have a responsibility towards creating a healthy eco-system or does the winemaker aspire to make something outstanding? It is in the privileging of one concept over the other that I find intriguing. There is still much to flesh out; is this a theme that will continue, or just a subplot in our ever-changing views of farming and sustainability? Can we locate the seams of this division as generational? Do our opinions of climate change and whether we are nihilistic or optimistic affect our feelings as consumers?

Our last event for La Paulée was in New York, tasting through 13 different vintages of Montrachet. Dominique Lafon has always been someone who practiced responsible farming and everything at Domaine des Comtes Lafon is biodynamically farmed. And yet, as he surveyed the different vintages he had made over the years at his family domaine he noted that he always wanted to create good wine, and that is what matters, not the narrative and buzzwords behind it. It was such an earnest statement delivered by a legend.

This brings me to review the policies from France, as this frames a lot of what is at stake in terms of this concept of restorative farming in Burgundy. The French government has been been under fire recently for their delay in initiating its plan to halve pesticide use by 2030. It seems like the government is reacting to both the farmers who have protested at the idea of reducing pesticide use because they feel that this ties in with the end of agriculture in France and the environmentalists who see the implications of the country being one of the main users of pesticides in the EU. Is it a complicated issue? It is agriculturally, but how does this issue resonate specifically with winemakers?

So, in conclusion, I am left with a fascinating number of questions after this Paulée, and look forward to spending the year delving into these topics.