Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/735024
76 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2016 { real somm stories } When you think of Sauvignon Blanc which wine regions come to mind? Marlborough on the South Island of New Zealand perhaps, or Sancerre in France's Loire Valley? Either would be an obvious choice. A place that almost certainly would not immediately come to mind is Bourgogne—it's all about Chardonnay and Pinot Noir isn't it? Well, not necessarily, as I was about to discover from Romaric Petitjean as we stood on a hillside overlooking the village of Saint-Bris-le-Vineux, just outside the town of Auxerre in the northern part of Bourgogne. The hill is about 250 meters high, faces northeast and has a layer of stony top soil over Portlandian and Kimmeridgian limestone. A promising spot for growing vines you might think and thereby hangs a tale . . . The Petitjean family has a long history. They have been in Saint-Bris-le-Vineux for many generations but before the 1960s they, like most other families, culti - vated cereal crops and in particular cherries, which were more profitable than wheat and barley. It's a similar story for Jean-François Bersan of Domaine P-L & J-F Bersan, whose family can, incredibly, trace its roots in the village back 21 generations to 1453! Long ago there was a thriving wine culture here. Indeed Romaric and Jean- François assure me that Saint-Bris-Le-Vineux is the real home of Sauvignon, and as proof of this they tell me that it was from here that vines used to be sold to other wine regions, including Sancerre. By the mid-20th century, Saint-Bris had still not recovered from the ravages of phylloxera almost a century earlier, and there were very few vines left. Some of the remaining vines were Sauvignon—both Blanc and Gris—but they were used only to make an inexpensive VDQS wine (Vin Délimité de Qualité Supérieure) which, for the producer, was not a very attractive alternative to cherries and wheat. { bourgogne } AOC SAINT-BRIS IS A SURPRISING SANCTUARY OF SAUVIGNON by Jiles Halling / photos by Eric Vandenbossche Jean-François Bersan with a bottle of Saint-Bris from Domaine P-L & J-F Bersan. Jean-François Bersan with a bottle of Saint-Bris from Domaine P-L & J-F Bersan. It's Bourgogne . . . But Not as We Know It The village of Saint-Bris-le-Vineux from the Domaine Petitjean vineyards.