The 78th edition of the Saint-Vincent Tournante of Burgundy wine will take place on March 19 and 20 in Corpeau, Puligny-Montrachet and Blagny, south of Beaune. During the mass, the vine was considered a “sign of peace”.
“Saint-Vincent is part of the history of Burgundy”, proclaims Alexandra Pascal, mayor of Puligny-Montchaet, this Saturday March 19, 2022. All weekend, the village, associated with the neighbor Corpeau and the hamlet Blagny , organizes the annual festival bringing together the winegrowers of Burgundy wine.
Scheduled for January 2021, postponed to January 2022 due to the health crisis, the rotating Saint-Vincent finally takes place on March 19 and 20, 2022 on the eve of spring.
Third Saint-Vincent in Puligny-Montrachet
In Burgundy, each wine-growing village organizes its local Saint-Vincent on January 22 to celebrate the patron saint of winegrowers and, on the initiative of the brotherhood of the knights of Tastevin, since 1938, all the villages meet on weekends. next for the rotating Saint-Vincent, in winter, a period of less work in the vines.
After 1961 and 1991, this is the third occurrence of the rotating Saint-Vincent in Puligny-Montrachet. Saint Bernard is the patron saint of the winegrowers of Puligny-Montrachet while Saint Martin protects the winegrowers of Corpeau.
The Puligny-Montrachet vineyard covers an area of 210 hectares, including 120 hectares in Premier Cru and 28 hectares in Grands Crus. Chardonnay is the main grape variety for making white wines with a worldwide reputation.
Parade of brotherhoods of 7 km
Usually, the parade of brotherhoods and mutual aid organizations of winegrowers begins at night, in the cold. Admittedly, the wind is fresh at 320 meters above sea level, but it is daylight when the 500 or so participants set off at 7:30 a.m. for a seven-kilometre procession starting from the hamlet of Blagny, passing through the center of Puligny-Montrachet and going to the church of Corpeau to return to the church of Puligny-Montrachet.
On the way, a stop is made at an ephemeral monument to the dead, made by Menuerbie Gerbet, for a wreath-laying by Alexandra Pascal (unlabeled), mayor of Puligny-Montrachet, Sandrine Arrault (unlabeled), mayor of Corpeau and Luigi Moio, President of the newly established International Organization of Vine and Wine in Dijon.
In the background are Alain Suguenot (LR), president of the Beaune Côte et sud intercommunality, Denis Thomas (LCOP), departmental councilor of the Côte-d’Or, Charlotte Fougère (LR), deputy mayor of Beaune, Christian Morel (without label), vice-president of the Burgundy-Franche-Comté regional council in charge of agriculture, Didier Paris (LREM), deputy for Côte-d’Or, as well as Alain Houpert (LR), senator for the gold Coast.
“Singing the Exquisite Vine”
At the time of the mass, the particularity of the day will be taken up by Canon Dominique Garnier. March 19 being the day of Saint Joseph, the canon imagines in his homily a dialogue between Saint Vincent and Saint Joseph in paradise, the first to the second to accept that the feast takes place on this day.
A winemaker speaker addresses the “victims of military conflicts” in direct reference to the Russian-Ukrainian war.
“In our climates, we are close to Heaven”, continues the Canon, “we frequent it assiduously because we do not forget that goodness comes from there”. While the war rages at the gates of the European Union, the canon mobilizes the “sign of peace” of the prophet Isaiah who encouraged to “sing the exquisite vine”.
“It is our duty in our climates to taste how good it is to be brothers and to live together; this fraternity inscribed in the Gospel but also on the pediments of our town halls requires a commitment of life, no one is a brother if he does not work for the common good. Let us never forget that peace has its source in the common good in which everyone must take part”, he develops.
“The vine speaks to us, it maintains our memory”, considers the man of the church, “the vine cultivates us as much as you cultivate it, the vine teaches us to live.
“An event of high cultural and human level”
President of the newly established International Organization of Vine and Wine in Dijon, Luigi Moio is taking part in this . In the past, when he was an oenology student in Dijon, Luigi Moio had already participated in a rotating Saint-Vincent. This Saturday, he is also presiding over the chapter of the Brotherhood of Tastevin Knights held at the Château du Clos de Vougeot.
According to Luigi Moio, the rotating Saint-Vincent is “a manifestation of a very important cultural and human high level”. “These beautiful traditions are very important, they give this message that links the vine and the wine, therefore to life. The OIV is a scientific organization of world reference but it is also the guardian of the principles of the integrity of wine and the traditional historical values of wine”, he confides to Infos Dijon.
“In the spirit of Saint Vincent”
“Let us rejoice to be able to gather today to celebrate Saint Vincent”, with these words, Alexandra Pascal, Mayor of Puligny-Montrachet, sums up the feeling of the organizers, who have been working on the event since 2017 under the presidency of Jean -Michel Chartron, as well as partners and the public.
“We live in a society that is constantly changing and in which individual autonomy seems to take precedence. Volunteering comes, in counterpoint, to bring its values and to the social participation that builds living together.
“It will have been necessary to keep the whole motivation, to constantly reinvent the event according to the health imperatives and to adapt”, recalls Jean-Michel Chartron, “here we are all gathered, here, under the sun, in the spirit of Saint Vincent, that of sharing and mutual aid”.
Saint-Vincent 2023 in Couchey
During a ceremony open to the public, former winegrowers from the two villages were introduced into the brotherhood of the Knights of Tastevin and Jean-Michel Chartron was elevated to the rank of Commander.
In 2023, the Saint-Vincent des Chevaliers du Tastevin is scheduled to return to the Côte de Nuits for a rotating Saint-Vincent in Couchey, near Dijon.
Jean-Christophe Tardivon
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