A Year in Burgundy

Why are there so many new films about wine? Jancis Robinson reviews five in the Financial Times Weekend Magazine, including A Year in Burgundy — awarding the film a Five Star rating.

A Year in Burgundy is a little more rustic, but then so is Burgundy. And there is nothing naive about its star, Martine Saunier, who has been importing some of her native land’s finest wines into California for decades. But what appealed to me about this film is that it includes some of the less obvious people and places in Burgundy, and Martine has an attractively straightforward, no-nonsense manner.

A wine club in Virginia screened A Year in Burgundy together with some of their favorite Burgundy wines.

Excerpt

The film really brings the winemaking process to life, even its mundane aspects, such as racking. It manages to delve into winemaking techniques without getting bogged down to the point that it loses the focus on story telling.

However, the best part of the film is, hands down, the cinematography. The images that fly across the screen are stunning and the film really brings out the beauty in, around and under Burgundy.

Read the full article.

Swiss online wine magazine Vinifera-Mundi wrote about A Year in Burgudy for their February issue.

“For wine lovers it proves to be profound, touching and really radiant.”

Ever since the premiere of the film Sideways (2004), the American film industry has been creating intelligent, information-rich, and sensitive films and documentaries about the wine world over again, including A Good Year with Russell Crowe (2006).

The new film A Year in Burgundy was first screened mid September 2012 in London. For wine lovers it proves to be profound, touching and really radiant. It reflects the story of the encounter between two fascinating
characters: one is David Kennard, who for years has been making excellent documentaries for the BBC and others, and has developed an enviable reputation in this field; and secondly Martine Saunier, a famous wine importer, born in Burgundy, but living in America. Together, they describe and portray the lives of seven
internationally recognized winemakers and their families, sometimes even four generations (if the two-year Céleste Morey-Coffinet is counted). Saunier, who has sold wine for 40 years, knows the seven wine families personally.

The result is a sophisticated, even poetic film about these wineries: Domaine Leroy, Morey-Coffinet, Denis Mortet, Perrot-Minot, Bruno Clavelier, Michel Gay et Fils and Dominique Cornin. The film is not about
showing how wine is produced industrially. Instead, the duo wanted to show how winemakers’ lives unfold, working every day in the vineyard, in the cellar, and in private life. David Kennard likes to say “I wanted to make a film for the Americans, I mean for sensitive, erudite Americans. I wanted to explain French culture as well as the wine itself. Actually, there are two points of view in this film: one looks at the wine and the other looks at family traditions and craftsmanship. This is a film about a whole culture.”

Swiss wine lovers will be seduced by this film. First of all, because it humanizes Burgundy. The vintner Lalou Bize-Leroy impresses every wine lover. A winemaker as important as Christophe Perrot-Minot explains the quality of his grapes. But within the few minutes, during which they appear in the film, it reveals their
extraordinary humanity. A Year in Burgundy demystifies the region and shows that a Burgundy wine is a testament to the culture, a testimony of its thousand-year history, and not least a fabulous human story.

Download the original (German language) version.

Vinifera-Mundi web site

Elisabeth Bartlett's review of A Year in Burgundy ran in FilmFestivals.com and Hollypost

Excerpt

Alas, it turns out wine making is really interesting… not just for the wealthy.  Because I mean, what IS it that makes good wine? The same question could be asked of any art… according to A Year in Burgundy it seems, the answer lies in science, and in love.

I will leave you some facts, but for more, I suggest you catch the flick.

Don’t pick your grapes during a full moon.  

When you prune branches before next season you can burn the wood right in the field to make natural fertilizer from the ashes.

“A vine can live 100 years if you treat it right.”

Read the full review here.

 WineOK