foodwineclick

FoodWineClick! Wins Reader’s Choice Image Award
Jancis Robinson’s website is one of the leading wine related websites worldwide. Every year, Jancis and team host a wine writing competition. Some of the entries are posted on the website over the summer with winners announced in September. This year, the competition included both written word and image, and the topic is “My Favorite Wine Person”. I’m thrilled to announce that I won the Reader’s Choice Image category with the image of our friend, Nick Harbour, of Maison Harbour. Here’s a link to the announcement of the winners – WWC 23 Winners.

My essay didn’t make it to the published list this year, but I was happy to see the image made the shortlist, and now Reader’s Choice! Though my text didn’t make the cut for posting this year, I’ll include it below:

My Favorite Burgundy Wine Person – Nick Harbour
Allow me to introduce you to my friend and favorite Burgundy wine person, Nick Harbour. Nick and his wife, Colleen, are the owners of Maison Harbour, a micro-negociant winery in Savigny-les-Beaune. Due to the size of the business, they are also the cellar hands, forklift operators, the marketing department, the shipping department, and whatever else needs to be addressed.

I met Nick back in 2015, while planning my first wine trip to Burgundy. I posted a query in a Facebook group and Nick replied they would be happy to host us for a visit and tasting during our time in the area.  We had a wonderful visit and enjoyed their wines very much.

The Maison Harbour story consists of a series of leaps of faith and hard work, encountered with a can-do spirit. Nick and Colleen didn’t grow up in winemaking families, they started out working in Finance. In 2012, they had fallen in love with the region and decided to take their first leap of faith, quitting their jobs and enrolling in wine school in Beaune. Nick described their unique situation: “other students had straightforward projects – take over the family wine business. Our project: figure out how to make wine in Burgundy without land or connections.” Others asked: what will you make wine with? Over time, they built connections and were able to purchase some grapes. They took another leap of faith with an offer on an old building in Savigny-les-Beaune. The building, part of a historic winery, was in bad condition: the old stables and cellar had no plumbing, only an outhouse, no electricity, a wood burning stove for heat, and a leaky roof. They offered what they could. Somehow the offer was accepted and they were able to make their first wine in 2013. In the subsequent years, they both worked full time to pay the bills for their fledgling business, working on their own wines in evenings and on weekends.

When we visited in 2015, the winery was still in a primitive state, very much like camping.

With their positive, welcoming spirit, we could immediately see how this young couple had won over grapegrowers in Burgundy and found “material to make wine with”.

On subsequent visits over the years, we have seen the run-down house with the blue doors turn into a cozy home – with running water, power, heat and a solid roof. The winery has grown under their stewardship to expected production of 30,000 bottles in 2023, still quite small but big enough for them. We have always been welcomed, invited to photograph harvest, to help press red wines (that is, to help dig out the spent skins, stems & seeds from the oak fermenters). Nick has also assisted other Burgundy newcomers with projects of their own, and several have gone on to establish their own operations.

Nick explains that their next step will be to establish their own estate vineyards. Over time, Bourgogne grapes have become even more valuable and more difficult to source, making the life of a negociant more challenging. Plus, the appeal of having their own land and grapevines represents the next leap of faith and continuing hard work. They’re ready! If your travels take you to Burgundy, I suggest you contact Nick and he may become your favorite Burgundy wine person as well.

Below are some photos from our first visit back in 2015

Prior Year Submissions
I enjoy working on the challenge of a wine writing competition, especially when the topic is of interest to me. I was happy to have my entries posted on Jancis’ website in 2021 and 2022.

• 2021 – the topic was “Old Vines”. I wrote about Markus Niggli in Lodi with his passion for old vines and resurrection of Nicolini Ranch. Video content wasn’t part of the competition, but I enjoyed working on a video of Markus at Nicolini Ranch, posted on my youtube channel here.
• 2022 – the topic was “Regeneration”. I wrote about Troon Vineyard in the Applegate Valley of Oregon. My Jancis Robinson entry is here, and again my extra youtube video is posted here.