Wine aficionado and writer Clive Coates
a soul of sophistication : BURGUNDY ACCORDING TO CLIVE COATES
Interview by Gary Hewitt , Sommelier ( ISG , CMS ), CWE
Clive Coates leveraged his early career as a wine merchant into one of a leading wine authority starting with his first published article in 1966 and subsequent erudite and widely read self-published wine review called Vine . Initially drawn to Bordeaux , his focus shifted to Burgundy in the early 1980s , as the region shifted to the practice of on-the-spot estate-bottling . He has followed Burgundy ’ s evolution with great interest , skill , and delight . Here he shares his animated insights with Gary Hewitt on Burgundy ’ s offerings to the contemporary wine consumer .
Gary Hewitt : Mr Coates , you have had a very prolific winewriting career . You have devoted a great deal of time and energy to Burgundy and in semi-retirement , you produced a remarkable book called The Wines of Burgundy . I ’ d like to ask you : What first brought you to Burgundy those many years ago ?
Clive Coates : The history behind the domaines has always interested me . In the 20 years I was a wine merchant , I used to go to Bordeaux a lot , and , having more energy in those days , in the evenings I would address myself to one of the châteaux and ask them if they would put on a vertical tasting for me . I would ask questions about the domaine and then write a “ château profile .” I had the field to myself , and the proprietors were only too willing to set up a tasting of fifteen to twenty vintages of their wines . Around 1975 , I started writing regular châteaux profiles for Decanter magazine . By 1982 I had done about sixty , and I published my first book , which was called Claret .
Burgundy has always been bought in a different sort of way . Anyone can buy any Bordeaux châteaux they like — all they need is a cheque book . But in Burgundy , the domaines are somewhat smaller ; they can only sell to one or two people in each country . Being a buyer for a large organization , I dealt mainly with the merchants . In those days , there were much fewer domaines pushing their own wine . In 1984 , I stopped being a wine merchant and launched Vine . In the years since , just about everybody who has got a decent piece of land in Premier Cru or Grand Cru vineyards now bottles and markets themselves , which didn ’ t happen in the 1960s or the 1970s . Each time I returned to Burgundy , I witnessed more and more domaines making , or bottling , their own wine .
Every time I went to Burgundy , I would take in one of the villages and go and see absolutely everybody . After about ten
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