France 1rst of July - Road movie

I needed to visit Pierre Naigeon in Gevrey since there were wines from him that I really wanted to taste before the next shipping. I drove from Aix to Burgundy. That was a nice day, first day of holydays with lots of people on road... It was very, very hot: the car registered 38 degrees in the vineyards in Pommard! Ok the car is Renault so...

I took a few pictures: Route Nationale 6 boardered by Platanes, hay rolls in the fields, French cyclists (Tour de France starts tomorrow), and vineyards: the Lavaux valley in Gevrey, and the enclosed field called "En l'Argilliere" in Pommard. Notice on the last picture the red earth and the presence of stones there. Actually this conjunction of two soils: a layer of read earth on white loam -- the famous "Marne blanche" -- yields red wines very dense and also mineral.

I also had a nice conversation with a producer who was working in his vineyards located in the area of "Les Charmots", just next to "Les Argillieres". We were a bit chatty but it was too hot to work and I had the day for that. He explained that so far June has been cold and within the last 4-5 very hot days the nature is now completely booming. So one has to keep the vine under control... usual things as it seems. Amongst other things it was also interesting to hear him talking about Pommard's wines in general. In particular he explained that he was one of the earliest to harvest amongst Pommard 1er crus producers. The reason is that he wanted to keep the freshness and the fruit from Pinot Noir. I tend to believe this idea: Pinot Noir cannot bear getting too ripened. As he had 1er cru vines, he was happy to say that the Pommard area is huge and very heterogenous, ie. all Pommard are not equal. This is certainly true and a short visit in the vineyards should convince anybody. Eventually he talked about wine making techniques. For instance he claimed he was not warming the wine at the end of the alcoholic fermentation to improve extraction and fix color -- some clients tend to prefer dark Bordeaux color. This trick seems common indeed and yields cooked/candied fruit taste. We agreed that this artifact had nothing to do with "terroir". Eventually I would be happy to taste his wine.