Domaine de Suremain (Burgundy)(2)
By Bertrand Celce 2009-3-3 11:35:34
The ancient opening designed to pour the clustersWalking into the adjacent vatroom, which is a very old part of the winery, we marvel at this small opening above our heads, there are several of them in this room. That's where in the 18th century the clusters were poured directly into each of the open wooden vats underneath after the harvest. Simple and beautiful stones, testimony of the history of the place and of the region. They're not used anymore today.
Red grapes are usually 100% destemmed, and on exceptionnal years like 2005 for example they may put 20% to 30% of whole clusters. They use a vibrating sorting-table since 2008 because there was such a strong push of mildew in the vineyard that they had to sort and throw away lots of damaged grapes. They won't use this table every year but this year it was very useful. They began as every year by a vineyard of theirs which is always ripe first, their Rully Les Préaux Pinot Noir. Then usually, they go on with the whites, which follow in ripeness order, but on some years like in 2007, they actually ended with the whites. There's no fixed schema in the order, they taste, taste again, and make some analysis, three weeks before the supposed harvest date and in each vineyard block.
Timeless scene on the side of the vatroomIn the adjacent vatroom being undr repair, three other Grenier wooden vats are covered with plastic sheets for protection, including the last one delivered by the cooperage, the biggest of this winery to this day. It has a 30-cask capacity, or 6840-liter, at 228-liter per cask. It was a hard job to haul it inside because it is heavy and massive. Dominique de Suremain says that they have four main cuvées, Rully 1er Cru white, Rully 1er Cru red, Monthelie Village and Monthelie 1er Cru. They still need many open vats because they harvest separately, not necessarily block by block, but by group of blocks among their 10,5-hectare surface, and they take into account the respective maturity of each plot.
Mrs Dominique de Suremain in one of the galleries of the cask-cellarDominique was not originally from the region and she had little knowledge about wine or wineries before meeting 
her future husband Eric de Suremain, but his passionate nature helped in the transmission of his know-how. She learned everything from the work in the vineyard to the vatroom and cellar tasks. They hadn't any employee then and Eric's father and grandfather were helping in the vineyards. She doesn't work in the vineyard herself anymore but got a good understanding of the whole vineyard-management and vinification process. We visit with her the cask cellar, a nice, vaulted twin cellar composed of two galleries holding about 40 casks each. We walked down a few very old steps to reach it but at the other end a small window opens on the landscape facing Monthelie, because the winery sits at the edge of the slope bordering the village. Mostly reds in these casks : of the 10,5-hectare total surface, 8 hectares are planted with Pinot Noir. Since 2006 they have another 1er Cru in Monthelie. They had_and still have_ 3 hectates of Monthelie 1er Cru Sur la Velle, plus 3 hectares of Monthelie-Villages where some vineyard blocks were upgraded in 1er Cru. So, they decided to downgrade themselves some of the 1er Cru vineyards and keep vinify them with the Villages-wines to keep a good level for their Monthelie-Villages. And their remaining Monthelie 1er Cru is actually a plot that has been upgraded from the Villages Appellation in 2006. Anyway each plot is vinified separately and blended if necessary only at the end of the elevage.
From wineterroirs.com
