Pascal Marchand, Grand Cru Film
When a producer says “I made a 90 minute film chronicling my journey through the 2016 vintage”, the response will likely be a sea of yawns peppered with the odd “tedious!” But when that producer is Pascal Marchand and he says he’ll bring wine to the screening, one or two real wine dweebs might show an interest. Thus I spent a thoroughly enjoyable evening earlier this week with Pascal and a small selection of his 2016s.
A brief but dense history of the man Jancis Robinson described as "an honourary Burgundian" might be of use here: Originally from Montreal, Pascal Marchand settled in Burgundy in the 80’s and immediately charmed the renowned Comte Armand who tucked him under his wing and taught the young Canadian everything he knew, Pascal was just 22 years old. Fifteen blissful years later, in 1999, our intrepid hero jumped ship to Jean-Claude Boisset’s brand new conglomerate Domaine de Vougeraie. In both locations, Pascal learnt the ins and outs of making wine all the while undertaking the task of converting both wineries to organic and biodynamic farming, a nascent interest of his which would later become his very raison-d'etre. He eventually left la Vougeraie in 2006 which is when the eponymous projects began. Before embarking on those however, it is definitely worth mentioning he had very brief stints working with Bruno Claire and François Germain not to mention a close friendship with Henri Jayer who gave him a lot of very valuable advice over the years. So come 2006, Pascal Marchant was pretty solidly established with a hefty CV and invaluable experience and knowledge from some very big names. The obvious next step was of course to set up his own venture. He launched himself with gusto into his burgeoning consultancy portfolio floating all over Burgundy (even outside the Cote d’Or!) whilst simultaneously establishing his own label. In 2010, an old Ontarian acquaintance, Moray Tawse cropped up and offered to partner with Pascal. Moray is the big boss man of First National Financial (the biggest mortgage provider in Canada) so using a little bit of that money, they set up a negociant Marchand-Tawse and snapped up the entirety of Domaine Maume in 2012. Since then they have accumulated a large portfolio comprising over fifty labels from across Burgundy (including a very small bottling of Beaujolais). Oh! and he also founded Marchand & Burch, producing Burgundian varieties in Australia as well as taking on some small projects in both Chile and Belgium. Deep breath… and we’re done!
As we finished off a bottle of quite delightful Côteaux Bourginon Gamay, the film – Grand Cru, directed by David Eng – kicks off. Very high production values immediately dispel any assumptions of tediousness and as Pascal’s dulcet French-Canadian lilt lulls us into a Burgundian dream world, some Abbaye de Morgeot Chassagne is poured and everybody sits back and enjoys… Except Pascal, he’s reading a book in the corner. As the 2016 vintage unfolds beautifully before our eyes, we’re reminded of what a difficult year it was. Producers were hit with frost in the early part of the season leading them to spend many sleepless nights lighting candles in the vineyards so the plants didn’t freeze. This was of course an awful situation but I must say, it made for incredible aerial shots in the film! Later on, hail came down hard destroying and bruising grapes before finally, heavy rainfall lead to mildew spreading around rotting a majority of the hardier fruits that had survived so far. Over all, producers suffered huge losses throughout the season but luckily, the wines they did make were outstanding.
Pascal had one extra obstacle in 2016. He owns a small plot of Musigny, for those who aren’t au fait with the intricacies of Burgundy’s grand cru vineyards, strap in. Le Musigny is a 10.86ha grand cru in Chambolle Musigny. In the film, Pascal calls Le Musigny “the greatest terroir in Burgundy” and by many accounts it is blessed with one of the best climates in the Cote de Nuits. Clive Coates MW said of Le Musigny “At its best the red wine can be quite simply the most delicious wine to be found in Burgundy […] it is the summit of achievement.” As a vineyard, it has a slight oddity however, and that is two tiny sections on the other side of the road at the bottom of the vineyard – Technically, there are four plots but only two are planted with vines. Both plots are owned by Domaine Tawse (the name given to the grower arm of the Marchand-Tawse Empire) and look over Les Amoureuses 1er cru directly below. Les Amoureuses and the two Musigny annexes are joined by an ancient wall which was knocked down during a particularly stormy night in 2016 putting the Tawse plots at great risk. Once again, a terrible scenario which lead to one of my favourite scenes in the film: Pascal talking out of ear shot to a French bureaucrat with a pixelated face the day after the incident whilst his voice over said “they gave us advice to re-build the wall, I ignored it all.” Unfortunately as advice was not followed, Pascal lost the appellation of Musigny for the plot meaning he faced the dubious potential accolade of selling the most expensive Bourgogne Rouge in the world. I’m happy to report, he did appeal the decision, and grand cru status was eventually reinstated. Crisis averted but this was definitely not needed in addition to everything nature was chucking at Burgundy that year.
Drama induces thirst (probably) so by this point we’d smashed through a cheeky crisp Puligny Champ Gain and were tucking into a very impressive Corton Charlemagne. As mentioned above, Pascal has always been a champion of biodynamic agriculture. Throughout the film we see him following the biodynamic calendar all the while implementing biodynamic farming methods such as burying cow horns, plowing fields with horses and preparing natural tinctures to spray over the vineyards. These methods are an integral part of Pascal’s philosophy, he hates the idea of messing with nature using chemicals and his passion for this is highlighted in a scene where Moray tells us of a time he was very skeptical of these practices but together they conducted an experiment where they bottled the same wine on different days in the biodynamic calendar and the results were so different that he was immediately converted to the biodynamic way of thinking. Moray appears very early in the film and is the first to sing the virtues of biodynamics.
One more scene I really enjoyed and really spoke to Pascal’s passion was the one covering his barrel selection process. The French government owns most of the forests in France, including the one in which we can find the oaks that become a lot of Burgundy’s barrels. They auction off individual trees to various interested coopers who then design and craft barrels to sell to winemakers. Pascal enjoys wandering around the forest picking the trees he likes, he then looks up which cooper bought the trees he likes before giving them very strict toasting instructions to the extent of actually visiting the cooperage to oversee the process itself. Some (including the coopers) may say ‘micro-management’, I say ‘passion.’
As the credits rolled, I sipped on my final glass (2013 Clos de Vougeot – pretty good you know) and thought about our relationship with wine and its producers. The film really reminded me that wine is far more than an ephemeral touch of mouth pleasure for me. It is grueling and tedious work for farmers around the world and the more they decide to follow their morals and integrity with organic and biodynamic farming, the harder it becomes. Plowing a field with a horse is painful physical work for example. Not to mention a vintage like 2016 where natural causes meant a lot of producers across Burgundy were faced with the very real threat of bankruptcy as well as the uncertainty of their future based on what nature threw their way. These are people with a passion who are dedicated to making the very best product they possibly can, and we are so incredibly lucky to be able to even taste a sip of these beautiful wines. Yet we do get to, and they are amazing and endlessly life improving.
Check out the film, I think you can rent it on Vimeo. Search Grand Cru by David Eng.
A brief but dense history of the man Jancis Robinson described as "an honourary Burgundian" might be of use here: Originally from Montreal, Pascal Marchand settled in Burgundy in the 80’s and immediately charmed the renowned Comte Armand who tucked him under his wing and taught the young Canadian everything he knew, Pascal was just 22 years old. Fifteen blissful years later, in 1999, our intrepid hero jumped ship to Jean-Claude Boisset’s brand new conglomerate Domaine de Vougeraie. In both locations, Pascal learnt the ins and outs of making wine all the while undertaking the task of converting both wineries to organic and biodynamic farming, a nascent interest of his which would later become his very raison-d'etre. He eventually left la Vougeraie in 2006 which is when the eponymous projects began. Before embarking on those however, it is definitely worth mentioning he had very brief stints working with Bruno Claire and François Germain not to mention a close friendship with Henri Jayer who gave him a lot of very valuable advice over the years. So come 2006, Pascal Marchant was pretty solidly established with a hefty CV and invaluable experience and knowledge from some very big names. The obvious next step was of course to set up his own venture. He launched himself with gusto into his burgeoning consultancy portfolio floating all over Burgundy (even outside the Cote d’Or!) whilst simultaneously establishing his own label. In 2010, an old Ontarian acquaintance, Moray Tawse cropped up and offered to partner with Pascal. Moray is the big boss man of First National Financial (the biggest mortgage provider in Canada) so using a little bit of that money, they set up a negociant Marchand-Tawse and snapped up the entirety of Domaine Maume in 2012. Since then they have accumulated a large portfolio comprising over fifty labels from across Burgundy (including a very small bottling of Beaujolais). Oh! and he also founded Marchand & Burch, producing Burgundian varieties in Australia as well as taking on some small projects in both Chile and Belgium. Deep breath… and we’re done!
As we finished off a bottle of quite delightful Côteaux Bourginon Gamay, the film – Grand Cru, directed by David Eng – kicks off. Very high production values immediately dispel any assumptions of tediousness and as Pascal’s dulcet French-Canadian lilt lulls us into a Burgundian dream world, some Abbaye de Morgeot Chassagne is poured and everybody sits back and enjoys… Except Pascal, he’s reading a book in the corner. As the 2016 vintage unfolds beautifully before our eyes, we’re reminded of what a difficult year it was. Producers were hit with frost in the early part of the season leading them to spend many sleepless nights lighting candles in the vineyards so the plants didn’t freeze. This was of course an awful situation but I must say, it made for incredible aerial shots in the film! Later on, hail came down hard destroying and bruising grapes before finally, heavy rainfall lead to mildew spreading around rotting a majority of the hardier fruits that had survived so far. Over all, producers suffered huge losses throughout the season but luckily, the wines they did make were outstanding.
Pascal had one extra obstacle in 2016. He owns a small plot of Musigny, for those who aren’t au fait with the intricacies of Burgundy’s grand cru vineyards, strap in. Le Musigny is a 10.86ha grand cru in Chambolle Musigny. In the film, Pascal calls Le Musigny “the greatest terroir in Burgundy” and by many accounts it is blessed with one of the best climates in the Cote de Nuits. Clive Coates MW said of Le Musigny “At its best the red wine can be quite simply the most delicious wine to be found in Burgundy […] it is the summit of achievement.” As a vineyard, it has a slight oddity however, and that is two tiny sections on the other side of the road at the bottom of the vineyard – Technically, there are four plots but only two are planted with vines. Both plots are owned by Domaine Tawse (the name given to the grower arm of the Marchand-Tawse Empire) and look over Les Amoureuses 1er cru directly below. Les Amoureuses and the two Musigny annexes are joined by an ancient wall which was knocked down during a particularly stormy night in 2016 putting the Tawse plots at great risk. Once again, a terrible scenario which lead to one of my favourite scenes in the film: Pascal talking out of ear shot to a French bureaucrat with a pixelated face the day after the incident whilst his voice over said “they gave us advice to re-build the wall, I ignored it all.” Unfortunately as advice was not followed, Pascal lost the appellation of Musigny for the plot meaning he faced the dubious potential accolade of selling the most expensive Bourgogne Rouge in the world. I’m happy to report, he did appeal the decision, and grand cru status was eventually reinstated. Crisis averted but this was definitely not needed in addition to everything nature was chucking at Burgundy that year.
Drama induces thirst (probably) so by this point we’d smashed through a cheeky crisp Puligny Champ Gain and were tucking into a very impressive Corton Charlemagne. As mentioned above, Pascal has always been a champion of biodynamic agriculture. Throughout the film we see him following the biodynamic calendar all the while implementing biodynamic farming methods such as burying cow horns, plowing fields with horses and preparing natural tinctures to spray over the vineyards. These methods are an integral part of Pascal’s philosophy, he hates the idea of messing with nature using chemicals and his passion for this is highlighted in a scene where Moray tells us of a time he was very skeptical of these practices but together they conducted an experiment where they bottled the same wine on different days in the biodynamic calendar and the results were so different that he was immediately converted to the biodynamic way of thinking. Moray appears very early in the film and is the first to sing the virtues of biodynamics.
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| A picture I half inched from the Grand Cru website Pascal (left) and Moray enjoying some rare sun in 2016 |
One more scene I really enjoyed and really spoke to Pascal’s passion was the one covering his barrel selection process. The French government owns most of the forests in France, including the one in which we can find the oaks that become a lot of Burgundy’s barrels. They auction off individual trees to various interested coopers who then design and craft barrels to sell to winemakers. Pascal enjoys wandering around the forest picking the trees he likes, he then looks up which cooper bought the trees he likes before giving them very strict toasting instructions to the extent of actually visiting the cooperage to oversee the process itself. Some (including the coopers) may say ‘micro-management’, I say ‘passion.’
As the credits rolled, I sipped on my final glass (2013 Clos de Vougeot – pretty good you know) and thought about our relationship with wine and its producers. The film really reminded me that wine is far more than an ephemeral touch of mouth pleasure for me. It is grueling and tedious work for farmers around the world and the more they decide to follow their morals and integrity with organic and biodynamic farming, the harder it becomes. Plowing a field with a horse is painful physical work for example. Not to mention a vintage like 2016 where natural causes meant a lot of producers across Burgundy were faced with the very real threat of bankruptcy as well as the uncertainty of their future based on what nature threw their way. These are people with a passion who are dedicated to making the very best product they possibly can, and we are so incredibly lucky to be able to even taste a sip of these beautiful wines. Yet we do get to, and they are amazing and endlessly life improving.
Check out the film, I think you can rent it on Vimeo. Search Grand Cru by David Eng.
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