A day in the life of a top Burgundy winemaker

By Marcel Michelson

BEAUNE, France, March 17 (Reuters Life!) - It's only 10 in the morning but the wine already flows freely, and has been doing so for a full week.

The Burgundy wine sector celebrates the Big Days of Burgundy event, held every two years to let wine buyers, amateurs and journalists visit the many villages and growers.

The growers manage to make hundreds of differently tasting wines using just a few varieties of grapes -- Pinot Noir and Gamay for reds and Chardonnay and Aligote for whites -- on a patchwork of small vineyards on or below the gently sloping hills of this area in central-east France.

"Burgundy is all about terroir," said Pierre-Henry Gagey, the head of the Maison Louis Jadot (http://www.louisjadot.com) house of wine growers and traders and president of the Burgundy wine association BIVB (http://www.vins-bourgogne.fr).

"Its diversity is its strength," he added during an interview on the sidelines of a tasting session in the small medieval city of Beaune where he has his offices.

Several dozen of local Beaune wine growers are pouring out small quantities of their whites and reds to the tasters in a big covered hall. Large spitoons are available to spit out the wine after tasting but not all the wine ends up there as some people swallow a mouthful from time to time.

Gagey took over the firm from his father some 15 years ago, and that followed three generations of Jadots since 1859.

"I arrive at the office at 7:30 (a.m.) because I want to set an example. Everybody is at work at eight in the morning so I believe the boss should arrive before that," he said.