Seriously though, if I were to take an educated guess, I would say that it might have been the first time there was an actual blog post about shutting down the winery. Something tangible to base the movement on, whereas most vignerons go out rather anonymously. I could be wrong though, as I’m really not a big follower of winemaker blogs.

From there, I think a couple well connected bloggers really set out on a mission. Some were familiar with the wines and the man, but one can’t help but think they were out to prove something, maybe subconsciously. Or maybe I’m just a curmudgeon

I agree, it is somewhat odd that this Olivier B captured the collective attention of social media. Do you have a theory as to why?

I get the feeling that this episode is really about the French bloggers gauging their influence. Without taking away from the generosity of this movement, one can only wonder “why this guy?” and other hardworking winemakers or wine lovers on forums such as la LPV have voiced this as well.

Personally, I haven’t tried the wines, but I will mostly remember Olivier B. as the neo-vigneron who couldn’t sell his wine. Nothing wrong in helping out a dreamer, but I find it more saddening to see long established families pull out their vines.

Sorry for my poor english…
François

Todd – interesting. Glad you have tried the wine.

Christian – Vraiment? J’ai mis des liens a huit blogs dans mon post–suivez-les et me dites si il y en a plus que j’ai ratés. // Really? I have links to eight blogs in the post–follow the links and let me know if there are others that I missed.

I did a double take when I saw the striking profile…we were fortunate to share a bottle of Les Amidyves here at our little office in VT about a year and a half ago. My business partner was living abroad with his family in Burgundy and he had met the man and brought with him this bottle, among others, during one of his trips back here. I remember it being a savage tangle of earth and brambles on the nose and on the palate…totally unique and it went through a mesmerizing evolution in the glass, where bunches of berries would appear ,be consumed, and the bramble bushes would close in again.
He’s back full time now, and he’s catching the last runs up at Killington today. I’ll show him this and see if we can get more detail out of him via a post at the blog they’ve kept:
http://unknownburgundy.wordpress.com/