Go “Back to Burgundy” in Fact and Fable

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Burgundy winemakers

Gerry Furth-Sides (Some content and the photos are courtesy of the production companies) Every winemaker we ever met has been as generous with sharing their wares and knowledge as sharing their passion for what they do.  Burgundy winemakers are no exception and we see this in both fact and fable in the commercial film,  “Back to Burgundy” with an engaging fictionalized family (and a real winemaker among the actors (!), and in David Kennard’s mesmerizing documentary following six artisan family in “A Year in Burgundy” with legendary Martine Saunier as guide.

Alicia in Back to Burgundy

François Civil as Jérémie, Pio Marmaï as Jean, and María Valverde as Alicia in Back to Burgundy. Courtesy of Music Box Films

Whether you are a wine connoisseur or a novice as I am, or even a teetotaler, the rich films are enlightening and entertaining.   I came upon A Year in Burgundy when I had a HULU trial and it turned out to be about the best thing on it.

Lively BACK TO BURGUNDY also captures a year of winemaking.  This is the tale of three thirty-something siblings reunited in the family vineyard when the prodigal brother comes home in time for the father’s death.   Who will carry on the father’s name in the business? And will there even be a business when the family even United is such financial difficulty?  Three of France’s most popular young actor’s star in it, Pio Marmaï, Ana Girardot (daughter of Anna, who is also in the film).
Director Cédric Klapisch

Director Cédric Klapisch. © Emmanuelle Jacobson-Roques/Courtesy of Music Box Films

The screenplay was developed with the collaboration of veteran actor Jean-Marc Roulot, whose own real-life career as a top Burgundy winemaker provided invaluable input and locations.  He is also a character in the film.    Since 1989, Roulot has managed Domaine Roulot, an old family estate based in Meursault since 1820.  A marvelous insight into how he came to be in the film can be found on:  For a wonderful insight into how and how big a part roulot played, please see: //www.eater.com/2018/4/11/17203214/back-to-burgundy-film-winemaker
BACK TO BURGUNDY is in Los Angeles theatre screens now.
Brilliant Filmmaker David Kennard turned the documentary, A Year in Burgundy into a lush portrait than a documentary.  Senior Producer, Director and Writer  Kennard is the co-founder and President of InCA
The brilliant producers describe it poignantly and perfectly.  “The vines bud and grow leaves and tendrils are trained cared for in the spring with one hand in the soil and eyes on the (possible crisis-inducing) weather at all time.  A small, diligent army of hands (often the same ones year after year arrive to harvest and carry them away. The stripped vines die back, dry and brown, and turn to brush. The brush is burned, going into the wind as a curl of smoke and into the ground as ash. This is a year in Burgundy.”

Horse ride

With the Morey-Coffinets, we meet three generations of wine-makers. In Lalou Bize-Leroy, we meet the uncrowned Queen of Burgundy – now in her eighties, still involved in every detail of her winemaking, creator of some of the best-renowned and most famous wines on earth.  I will forever have in my mind this graceful elderly lady, pruning vines, dressed in a t-shirt and pearls!

wine

We get a sense of the deep history involved in this area, possibly the most valuable agricultural land on earth with some backyard-size plots and wines that can sell for $1,000 a bottle.

Winemaking in Burgundy and the discovery of the best terroirs (and how to exploit them) have been developed since Roman times.  The Cistercian monks actually kept the art alive during the Dark Ages (500-1000), developing a whole industry in the Middle Ages.  Their central wine-making HQ, Clos de Vougeot, still exists and is the location for one of the central scenes of the film: a great mid-summer banquet.

Martine Saunier

Martine Saunier (photo courtesy of InCA (Independent Communications Associates Inc)

Martine Saunier, Senior Producer, Consultant,  was born in Paris. She spent childhood summers at her Aunt’s home in Prissé, near Mâcon, which included a winery and where she grew up loving the process of making Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Samosa with WineMartine Saunier The first woman to establish a wine importing company in the United States, she founded Martine’s Wines in 1979.  It came about because when Martine moved to California in 1964, she was dismayed by the absence of many of her favorite wines and started making buying trips to France. In 1965, she drove to Beaulieu Vineyards, knocked on the door, and was lucky enough to meet the great André Tchelistcheff. He told her in his good French that if she wanted good Pinot Noir, she had to go to Burgundy to get it!

So in the spring of 1969, she flew to France, bought a small VW bug and started her tour and started her illustrious She became an importer/distributor!   Martine has been decorated twice by the French Government with the title of Officier du Mérite Agricole and Chevalier du Tastevin.

A Year in Port is the climax of a trilogy of films beginning with A Year in Burgundy (2013) and A Year in Champagne (2015) again written and directed by David Kennard, created by InCA Productions and Executive Produced by Todd Ruppert.


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