Hardly a day goes by without a headline about the frenzied wine market in Asia, particularly China. This week, Wine Enthusiast Magazine announced that it will produce a Mandarin edition for circulation to 100,000 “Chinese VIP consumers.” France’s Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters announced a 29 percent increase in shipments to Asia last year with a value of $3.3 billion. And in the city of Bordeaux, a négociant that specializes in Bordeaux sales to China and is staffed by seven Mandarin-speaking employees, opened a street-level shop to increase its visibility to the growing number of Chinese buyers coming to town, according to Decanter.com.

Indeed, the red-hot Chinese market for all levels of Bordeaux shows no sign of cooling. But what you hear almost nothing about is the Chinese and Burgundy. I had the chance to discuss this last week with Vincent Avenel, export manger of Domaine Faiveley, one of Burgundy’s biggest and best-known producers, at a dinner featuring some top new releases from Frederick Wildman and Sons, the New York importer that has been bring wines from the region to the United States since the 1930s. When I asked him whether the Chinese were taking to Burgundy the way they had to Bordeaux, his answer was quick and emphatic: “Not at all.”

In fact, China accounts for just 1.5 percent of Faiveley’s exports, Avenel told me. This surprised me as we tasted some top Burgundies, among them Faiveley’s 2009 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru “Les Cazetiers” and Alain Burguet’s 2009 Chambertin Grand Cru “Clos de Beze.” Don’t wines like this qualify as the kind of luxury items the Chinese are embracing? What followed was a fascinating and candid conversation about money, taste, and sophistication.

For the Chinese at the moment, Avenel said, the hot wines are from Bordeaux and Australia because they are “bombs in a glass” and more easily understood and embraced than Burgundy. “We all started with Bordeaux,” he said, “because it’s the entry-level thing. The U.S. started with Bordeaux. The Japanese started with Bordeaux.” He said that Burgundy, on the other hand, “is never love at first sight. You need to build some maturity in terms of taste.”

He continued: “Burgundy is not about power. It’s about charm and secret things. You need to improve your ability to taste subtle things.” How long does it take? “It’s not something you get in just a couple of years,” he said. “I think it takes 10 to 15 years.” His conclusion: for all its newly minted wealth, China is simply not yet ready for Burgundy. “What we notice,” he said, “is that very often Burgundy is about old money and that Bordeaux is about nouveaux riches.”

Domaine Faiveley has started work on a new €5m winery designed by the architects of Napa Valley's Dominus.

Erwan Faiveley: 'a new image for Mercurey'

Erwan Faiveley, the head of the major Burgundy producer, said the new building will be ‘one of the most beautiful wineries in Burgundy.’

It is being built by Swiss architect Jean-Frédéric Luscher, responsible for the ultra-modern Dominus in Napa, owned by Christian Moeiux, and for Glenelly in South Africa, which belongs to May-Eliane de Lencquesaing, the former owner of Chateau Pichon Lalande in Bordeaux.

The winery, built alongside the existing Faiveley property, Clos l’Évêque in Mercurey, will have capacity for 90ha of grapes, with ten 70h/l oak fermenters. It will be completed in time for the 2013 harvest, Faiveley told Decanter.com.

‘It will bring a new image to Mercurey,’ he said. ‘It will be in the Burgundian style and but will fuse the classic and the modern.’

Faiveley said part of the reason for building the winery was that he and his father François Faiveley had decided to ‘give a new image to our Mercurey holdings and build something brand new.’

The new winery will only be for Faiveley’s 70ha in the Cote Chalonnaise – which Erwan Faiveley intends to increase to 90ha.

‘We have the possibility to plant another 20ha, so we will need more capacity in the future,’ he told Decanter.com.

Domaine Faiveley is one of the biggest producers in Burgundy with 80% of its wines coming from its own vineyards.

The house owns 120ha including 10 Grands Crus in Cote de Nuits and Cote de Beaune and five Monopoles, which include Corton ‘Clos des Cortons Faiveley’ and Beaune 1er Cru Clos de l’Écu.

Erwan Faiveley at the helm

It’s no secret in Burgundy and beyond that Faiveley has been on a roll. And it’s no secret why: the arrival of the young Erwan Faiveley at the helm.

Erwan, 32, is the seventh generation in his family to run the company, which was founded in 1825 as a negociant, buying and selling wine. When his father was 25, Erwan’s grandfather literally turned over the keys to his dad. And in 2005 when Erwan was 25, his father continued the tradition and put Erwan in charge (Erwan himself has no children, so his position is likely safe for 25+ years). I sat down with Erwan in New York a few weeks ago to talk about how he has improved the house style, overcoming paternal resistance, vineyard acquisitions and biodynamic winemaking.

With the weight of generations on their shoulders, today’s heirs to the storied estates of Europe could be forgiven for having one primary goal: not screwing up. And when the family company holds a jaw-dropping 300 acres of vineyards in Burgundy, including 25 acres of Grand Cru, and makes wine across 18 different appellations, the pressure ratchets up even further. I could certainly understand if a scion asked for the instruction manual along with the keys and followed everything to the letter; ripping up the manual would seem like a remote possibility.

So when Erwan took over in 2005, he was careful not to rock the boat. He grew up in Nuits-St.-Georges and studied in Versailles (and later did an MBA at Columbia in New York). He told me that he wasn’t happy the first two years running the domaine, as he contemplated a change in style and personnel. He went out into the market and discussed changes with key accounts in the Japan and the US and elsewhere. In the end, he decided that “when you don’t take risks, you don’t make great wines.” He hired a new technical director and a general manager, Bernard Hervet. The shift was underway; he didn’t rip up the manual entirely, he just did a total rewrite.

Describing the stylistic transition, Erwan says that his father prefers strength, where has he prefers more elegance making a comparison as shifting from Nuits-St-Georges to more Chambolle in style. His inspirations for the shift were the wines of Dujac, Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Domaine Henri Gouges, and Dominique Lafon. Erwan shelled out for a new vertical press at the winery, paid more attention to the wood for barrels, and purchased vineyards in the Cotes de Beaune, including two acres in Batard-Montrachet.

The results in the glass are terrific. The 2009 Bourgogne wines, made from mostly purchased grapes, are both solid examples of Burgundy under $20. The 2009 Clos des Myglands, a premier cru from Mercurey, offers good depth, acidity and a tannic structure that provides intrigue. The 2009 La Combe aux Moines, a premier cru from Gevrey Chambertin, climbs the scale in terms of quality showing a lot of richness, minerality on top of approachable tannins with a good does of come-hither fruits earthiness on the nose. The 2009 Corton Clos des Cortons Faiveley, a grand cru, is a terrifically rich wine that is not over-the-top, just concentrated with ample stuffing. Young as it is, my time with it in the glass showed an unfurling of aromas–spices, red fruits, plums and earthiness–and layers of complexity on the palate. It’s pretty sexy stuff.

Although we tasted all 2009s, I asked Erwan which vintage he preferred, the 2009s, which have been derided by some contrarian-minded Burghounds as underwhelming in favor of the 2008s. He replied that while the 2008 was very classic and fresh, he preferred the 2009. In the vineyard, he said, there was so much perfect fruit in 2009 while in 2008, some selection had to be done. As to biodynamaics, he worked with only one grower who was biodynamic but he asked him to stop in 2010, citing the large amount of copper and silica used in the vineyard treatments.

Are more vineyard purchases in the offing? “I would love to purchase a vineyard in Chablis,” he said. He has his eye on one site and every year he thinks it will be the year. But that might actually happen this year, he says, citing a January 31 change in the capital gains tax on real estate that may trigger sales. A developing story–just like the domaine.

DOMAINE FAIVELEY

Dom Faiveley, Premier Cru 2009 Meursault-Blagny 16 Drink 2013-2016
Greenish tinge. A caressing nose, lightly dusty herbs. Soft, slightly smudgy fruit, satsuma peel and some nectarine. Quite low key earthy character but all in balance. (TC)
£327 per case in Clarion

Dom Faiveley, La Garenne Premier Cru 2009 Puligny-Montrachet 16.5 Drink 2013-2019
Ripe and peachy on the nose and elegant. A surprising sweetness on the palate. Not sure if it is oak or lees effect. Minerality cuts in on the finish. Persistent. (JH)
£189.50 per case of 6 ib Haynes Hanson & Clark; £195 per case of 6 ib Armit

Dom Faiveley, Grand Cru 2009 Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet 17- Drink 2013-2019
Dusty citrus and finely aromatic. Creamy, gentle but moreish. Just not really grand cru class on the palate, hence the minus.(JH)
£690 per case of 6 ib Armit

Dom Faiveley, Grand Cru 2009 Corton-Charlemagne 17 Drink 2014-2024
Toasty, struck-match nose and equally – but attractively – reductive on the palate. Fine-grained texture, concentrated with lots of pure ripe citrus fruit and good length. (JH)
£500 per case of 6, £510 for 3 magnums ib Haynes Hanson & Clark; £590 per case of 6 ib Armit

Dom Faiveley, Grand Cru 2009 Bâtard-Montrachet 16.5 Drink 2013-2019
Complex, lightly toasty nose, creamy, fresh and, again, rather soft. Nice flavour – citrus and creamy - but seems to lack structure at this level. (JH)
£765 per case of 6 ib Armit

Dom Faiveley, Les Champs Fulliot Premier Cru 2009 Monthelie 14.5 Drink 2012-2016
Sweet and ripe. Sample seems a little oxidised. Similar sweetness on the palate but finishes rather abrupt and dry. (JH)
£165.50 per case ib Haynes Hanson & Clark

Dom Faiveley, Frémiets Premier Cru 2009 Volnay 15.5 Drink 2012-2017
Ripe and dark but much fresher than the Monthelie. Light and fresh on the palate, not very substantial. (JH)
£305 per case ib Haynes Hanson & Clark

Dom Faiveley, Les Porrets St-Georges Premier Cru 2009 Nuits-St-Georges 16.5 Drink 2013-2019
Firm crimson. Quite a racy nose. Very fresh and admirable. Not a silly price. Good balance though quite forward.
£360 per case ib BBR

Dom Faiveley, La Framboisière 2009 Mercurey 15 Drink 2011-2014
Workaday and sweet and open. Easy peasy but not much refreshment value.
£66 per case of 6 ib Howard Ripley

Dom Faiveley, Les Cazetiers Premier Cru 2009 Gevrey-Chambertin 17 Drink 2015-2022
Light nose. Lots of texture. Serious stuff. Lots of chew on.
£396 per case ib BBR

Dom Faiveley, Grand Cru 2009 Échezeaux 17 Drink 2015-2026
Dark and ripe with a touch of spice. Sweet dark fruit. Surprisingly soft and approachable though there’s enough structure for a good life ahead.(JH)
£375 per case of 6, or £380 for 3 magnums ib Haynes Hanson & Clark

Dom Faiveley, Clos des Issarts Premier Cru 2009 Gevrey-Chambertin 15.5 Drink 2012-2017
Blackcurrant juice. Strange, tastes more like squash than wine – light and fresh but not very winey. Light structure. Slips down but disappears rather quickly. (JH)
£425 per case ib Armit

Dom Faiveley, Les Damodes Premier Cru 2009 Gevrey-Chambertin 16 Drink 2014-2020
Rich, lightly spiced dark fruit on the nose. Dark and white-peppery on the palate. Dry, fine tannins. More sustained than the previous wine. Fresh but lacks verve. (JH)
£345 per case ib Armit

Dom Faiveley, Grand Cru 2009 Corton-Clos des Cortons 17 Drink 2017-2027
Heady and concentrated and voluptuous. The oak is a bit dominant at the moment. May get there...
£360 per case of 6 ib BBR; £330 per case of 6 ib Armit

Dom Faiveley, Grand Cru 2009 Clos de Vougeot 16.5 Drink 2013-2020
Dusty blackberry aroma. Very fine boned and light-footed. Silky, scented but light. (JH)
£395 per case of 6 ib Armit

Dom Faiveley, Grand Cru 2009 Mazis-Chambertin 16.5 Drink 2014-2020
Cassis and slightly herbal but not underripe. Scented mid palate, fine light structure. Elegant, fresh but pretty lightweight. (JH)
£495 per case of 6 ib Armit

Dom Faiveley, Grand Cru 2009 Chambertin-Clos de Bèze 17- Drink 2014-2020
Dark and spicy on the nose with rich dark fruit under the oaky spice. Tannins are so fine they almost disappear and it is remarkably light on the mid palate. Not thin but rather too light and finish is equally light but not short. This lightness explains the minus. (JH)
£695 per case of 6 ib Armit

Dom Faiveley, Grand Cru 2009 Latricières-Chambertin 17 Drink 2018-2027
Pretty heady and sweet. Easy and comfortable. But not outstanding, Bit soft.
£420 per case of 6 ib Howard Ripley