I was running through the vines between 19h00 and 20h00 yesterday, and in the twilight, I noted a couple of picking machines in the vines – the first on the flat (Bourgogne) behind the old railway station of Pommard, but the second seemed to me to be in Beaune 1er Les Montrevenots. The first thing that crossed my mind was – are they afraid of the light? But judging by the fruit I’ve triaged this week (so-far) this is probably as good as any vintage to do this – the dry stuff will mainly fall in the vineyard – so half the triage is done, the skins are decently thick and there’s not too much botrytis. Still, it wouldn’t be my choice, but I’m surprised it works better in the dark…
It was too early for bed once showered, so I headed to the bright lights of Beaune for a glass. It turned out to be 2 glasses as the heavens opened and we were ‘treated’ to a fabulous light show, load thunder and some heavy rain – I home the machine pickers were in bed!
There is one response to “Burgundy Harvest: 19 Sept 2014 (prelude)…”
Bill, have you noticed more machine picking this year ? I hardly used to see the machines but this last week they seemed to be almost as numerous as fruit flies and cyclists. On the subject of cyclists, their routes go through the vineyard roads and they seem think it fun to weave through pickers and porters crossing the roads. The lycra crowd seem to have thought everyday was Sunday too and they have made these roads even more awkward,and at speed and in numbers!