Burgundy wine celebrations

30-31 January 2016 Irancy

Head for Burgundy at the end of January (30-31 January 2016) to celebrate the patron saint of winemakers – St Vincent. Every year the festival moves between different wine villages (hence St Vincent Tournante – revolving St Vincent) and for 2016 the venue is Irancy (89 Yonne, Burgundy) .

Previously held in Montrachet which boasts two Grand Cru vineyards – Montrachet and Bâtard-Montrachet – and then there is neighbouring village of Puligny-Montrachet. These vineyards produce some of the most expensive and long-lived white wines in the world – here the Chardonnay grape is supreme, although red wine is also made from the Pinot Noir grape.

For the weekend the village opens all its cellars for tastings; food stalls adorn the streets for snails, cheese, charcuterie and other burgundian gastronomic delights; a church service, parade and intronisation (induction) ceremony – a lively scene in this otherwise sleepy wine village.

Since 1938, each year a wine village of Burgundy hosts the Saint Vincent’s Day Festival and receives the assembly of all the brotherhoods and societies of mutual aid from across the region.

A folklore festival, since the small statues, attributes and processional batons of old are situated on the border between religious devotion and the social history of the old traditional brotherhoods.

For more info see www.st-vincent-tournante.fr