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s p r i n g / s u m m e r 2 0 1 6 | 5 9 My Journey Begins So, off we went. The visit was intense: Michael and I, together with Michael Ragg, friend, Burgundian vintner and proprietor of Mischief and Mayhem, visited three to six domaines per day. At each do- maine we tasted 12 to 20 wines out of barrel, taking copious notes— quickly. Lunches and dinners included domaine owners, and discussion topics invariably included farming, grape grow- ing, winemaking, soil conditions, trellising and training systems. This was not your lei- surely stroll through Burgundy. It was like drinking from a fire hose, and I enjoyed every minute of it. So, what did I learn from all of this? First, it all starts with the soil and farming. Ten years ago, if asked to attribute the great wines of the world to vineyards versus winemaking, I would have probably said 80% vineyards and 20% winemaking. Today? I'd say it's 95–5. Great wines are born from a unique combination of soil, microclimate and attention to detail in farming. It is this confluence that causes great wines to be unique. Not better. . . unique. Second, don't bother trying to reach a domaine owner during the growing season—he or she is in the vineyard. If you're doing the right things when farming the vineyards, great wine becomes a possibility. My time in Burgundy highlighted this in such a clear way. Another takeaway was the importance of restraint. Restraint is not a word I typically embrace, and have found that life presents much to be experienced when going at it full bore, pursuing an unrestrained path. You only go around once, and life is not a practice round. But, in Burgundy, winemaking is a lesson in restraint, which I found admirable and worthy of reference. Once their farming is complete and is as good as can be, resulting in incredible quality and consistency in their grape clusters, it's game time. In the important next steps of the process—harvest, vinification and barrel aging—these winemakers show incredible discipline, perceptiveness, self-control and restraint. They go into winemaking with the idea that the vineyard should be allowed to show its uniqueness which comes in due time. The winemakers interpret the signals from the vineyard during the growing season and from the wines during vinification and ageing. I discovered, from the winemakers whom I respected, that much of their work and decision-making is sensory—they are keenly aware of that which is happening at a particular moment, both in the vineyard and in the winery. They adapt to that which the vineyard and their wines are tell- ing them. Winemaking is not engineering, nor is it formulaic. You can't take a recipe from one place and blindly apply it to another place and expect a replica. It just doesn't work, as wines are unique to a place and time. And the fruits of their labors were pro- vocative—provocations which continue on my regular trips to Burgundy (two or three times a year). When I was tasting these wines, I was struck by the extraordinary combination of complexity and subtlety, expressed in myriad ways and rooted in the vineyards from which they were born. Balance, seamlessness and integration were and are the hallmarks of these wines—and those qualities are pres- ent in all great wines. These wines also beget a softness in the mouth, brought together in harmony and balance. Nothing stands out—except, of course, the excellence of the wines and their inspirations. In the Chassagne-Montrachet region of Burgundy, Domaine Ramonet proprietor Jean-Claude exem- plifies restraint in winemaking.