Cream of the CROP

Helen Parkinson delights in the buzz of the harvest at one of Burgundy’s finest wine châteaux

- Helen Parkinson

I’m floating through a cloudless autumn sky around 1,000 feet above Burgundy’s bucolic Côte d’Or, a patchwork of golden vineyards cascading in every direction as far as the eye can see. Every roar of the burner above my head slices through the tranquillity of my high altitude adventure, sending beads of sweat shooting down my spine. Hard at work down below, undoubtedly even sweatier than me, is an army of grape pickers diligently plucking the finest berries for the new vintage. When I was told I’d be seeing France from a whole new perspective, I wasn’t quite expecting this!

Bountiful Beaune

The Côte de Beaune evokes the harlequin roof of the Hospices, the nose-tingling mustard of Edmond Fallot and, most pertinently, the bottles of liquid ruby and gold that have cemented the area as one of the world’s wine capitals. Beaune, a buzzing town of 22,000, sees its population swell with the arrival of the harvest, just as the trees don their fiery autumn coats when a deluge of seasonal workers descends on the vineyards to reap their rewards.

I was to join the harvest at the Château de Pommard, founded in 1726 and, since 2014, owned by an ambitious Silicon Valley investor – and ardent Francophile – Michael Baum.

Undaunted at being the first Americans to own a wine-producing château in Burgundy, Michael and his family – who split their time between Pommard and San Francisco – are endeavoring to make their home the ultimate destination for wine enthusiasts.

The château and its ancient vineyard, Clos Marey-Monge, make up Burgundy’s largest private clos. And it couldn’t be better situated, just to the south of Beaune and in one of the prestigious wine-producing communes on the Route des Grands Crus, the famed tourist trail for oenophiles.

Burgundy from above