Domaine Faiveley and the Riches of Burgundy

Eve Faiveley, who along with her brother Erwan, represents the seventh generation of the historic Domaine Faiveley in Nuits-Saint-Georges, has been in charge of worldwide marketing for the winery since 2014, and for the French market over the past two years.

Wine-Searcher recently interviewed her to learn more about her work as well as changes that have been realized at the winery over recent years, and learn her thoughts on recent Burgundian vintages, as well as the concept of pricing some of the world’s most sought after wines.

Do you remember the first time your father let you try wine?

I can’t remember exactly, but I think it was during a lunch when I was four or five years old. Every Sunday we would have a big lunch and he used to open Corton-Charlemagne, because that was the only grand cru at that time. I remember that Corton-Charlemagne was our best wine, so that was the surprise of our lunch.

What changes have been implemented at Faiveley in terms of producing and selling the wines over the past 10-15 years?

In terms of production, first we have bought different vineyards the last fifteen years. We added two white grand cru to our porfolio (Bienvenues-Bâtard Montrachet and Bâtard- Montrachet), and two small plots in Puligny-Montrachet. We also had the opportunity to buy a tiny plot of Musigny.

In terms of production, we have launched a project to renovate our two wineries in 2013, one in Mercurey in order to produce our wines from the Côte Chalonnaise, and one in Nuits-Saint-Georges, that we use to vinify our wines from the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits, so we have started first to renovate our winery in Mercurey in 2013, and at the end of 2015, we have renovated our winery in Nuits-Saint-Georges.

We have invested mostly in large wooden vats, temperature-controlled wooden vats, and we now vinify by gravity. So those are the most important changes.

What can you tell us about the most recent vintages in Burgundy?

I’m sure you’ve heard that 2019 is one of the best vintages in the last century; 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016 were very ripe, very hot vintages. And 2017 was very good for white, very fresh wines, very intense aromas. Actually the reds were good in 2017, but 2018 and 2019 were perfect for reds. So I would recommend keeping reds from 2019, 2018 and 2016.

What were the differences in the 2018 and 2019 reds? Which will age longer?

In the 2019 vintage, we harvested in September, which is not so usual now in Burgundy, as we used to harvest in August for the last five years. 2019 is a very fresh, well-balanced vintage; the production was very, very low compared to 2018.

It can be compared to 2009. Red wines are very seductive, well balanced and aromatic. The 2018 wines, which were harvested in August, are very good, but less concentrated than 2019. Both are very good, but I don’t know if it’s the yield that makes the reputation of the 2019s, but both are very good.

I haven’t tasted the 2019 whites recently, so I couldn’t tell you about those. I only tasted them from barrels, not bottles. We haven’t started bottling the 2019s yet.

The prickly price question

© Domaine Faiveley
| Eve Faiveley’s first wine memory is drinking Corton-Charlemagne with lnch.

Are Burgundian wines too expensive?

You could compare Burgundy with the income of people in the world. There are more and more rich people in the world and it’s the same for the wines.

Grand cru wines are still in demand by the collectors; they have many bottles and they want them, so they are ready to pay completely crazy prices to have them. So the demand is increasing, but the production is not; it’s has been decreasing these last five years.

Actually, we also increased our prices with the 2015s last year, but the thing is the other producers of Burgundy are also increasing prices. So if you want to be well positioned, you have to increase your price.

Grand Cru wines are in demand because of collectors. So now the problem is to sell wines in the middle price range like Nuits-Saint-Georges, Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny villages, for example. These kinds of wines are too expensive for people who want to pay $20 – $30 a bottle.

I think that we should only produce grand cru and wines from the Côte Chalonnaise – it will be easier!

What is the breakdown for your sales for the foreign and domestic markets?

Right now, we sell 55 percent of our production abroad and 45 percent in France. That’s not very typical for Burgundy producers. They used to sell 90 percent of their production abroad and 10 percent domestically. We are quite different from the others in that regard.

We sell a lot in France. My dad always thought that France is one of the main markets where you need to be. You have many good restaurants in France and when the tourists come to France, they should be able to find your wines. That was dad’s way of thinking, and also selling your wines in France is how you make more money.

This is especially true right now, because sales abroad have decreased and as you know, the restaurants in France are closed (except for takeaway). They have been closed since October, and for two months before that. So we don’t sell anything to the restaurants in France, but the French consumers have ordered a lot of wine during the lockdown, so we have had almost the same turnover that we had last year.

What is your business plan now and post-COVID?

The lockdown started in March; sales decreased dramatically from April-June. So in July, when the lockdown was over, we decided to open a small shop in Nuits-Saint-Georges where we have our main winery, in order to sell wine. We also organized tours and tastings at our winery, which is something we never used to do. It had not been our goal to sell wines directly from our estate. We decided to do that this summer in order to make money. And it worked well, even if we didn’t have many tourists.

We are working on opening a retail shop in Nuits-Saint-Georges in the next months. We are thinking about the future and maybe doing a bit of enotourism.

Tell me about the Clos des Cortons Faiveley Grand Cru.

That is my brother’s favorite story.

My family acquired this vineyard in 1874. It’s one of the oldest appellations we have. We bought it as Corton Clos des Cortons Monopole.

At the beginning of the 19th Century, the association of Corton came to see our great-grandfather Georges Faiveley, who was the owner at the time of the vineyard, because they were not so happy with the name Corton Clos des Cortons Monopole because it could mean that he was the only owner and producer of Corton, as it was a monopole.

So they asked him to differentiate his wine from other wines of Corton. He didn’t want to change anything because he bought it as Corton Clos des Cortons. So finally they went to court, and after several years, they convinced him to add his family name to the appellation in order to make the difference from the other Grand Cru of Corton. So it’s been proclaimed and judged as Corton Clos des Cortons Faiveley Grand Cru Monopole.

It’s one of only two appellations with a family name in Burgundy, along with Romanée-Conti. So this means that if we sell this appellation, for example to Latour, it will be Corton Clos des Cortons Faiveley made by Latour. In a typical year, we produce between 17,000 to 19,000 bottles.

What have you noticed regarding climate change?

First of all, the length of the harvest. I remember when I was a kid, my dad was harvesting in late September, early October. So now we know in 20 or 30 years how the harvest has become earlier. I think that since 2015, we haven’t harvested since the 10th of September, which is crazy.

It will probably be more difficult for the Chardonnay, as I think the Pinot Noir is able to adapt to climate change and to hot weather. We have seen that in the hot vintages, except for 2017, it’s more difficult for the Chardonnay.

Is it unusual for a woman to be doing your job in Burgundy, or is it not a big deal?

It’s not a big deal. Actually, I never felt that being a woman in the wine industry was very difficult, but maybe that is because in Burgundy there are already great women such as Veronique Drouhin or Anne Claude Leflaive and so on; they are very well known and respected.