Vintage 2006

Friday: As the harvest closes we can now take time out to eat cake! There was a chance for some sorting on Saturday and Sunday, but given perfect harvest conditions in the last few days coupled with a forecast for rain at the weekend, people have worked double-time and are aiming to finish (probably late) today. So I won’t go this weekend. Yesterday’s grapes from Charmes-Chambertin went through the triage table very easily, and today the Gevrey-Chambertin and Latricières-Chambertin likewise – and that’s quite an acheivement given that the grapes from this grower are not usually the best, but this year the Latricières was better than 2005. As I’m typing this the Chambertin grapes are being picked and should arrive at the domaine in the [....]

Wednesday: Vinotas spreads the fame of the sorting team. I had to run back to Basel – curses – but my moles (Sophie, Sally and Julia above) will keep me up-to-date on how things look. Amazingly, while Beaune and its environs remained dry, my garden recieved 30mm of rain in 36 hours – we are 250km apart. Updates this afternoon… okay, Thursday really!

Monday: Never judge a book by its cover! It’s a few degrees cooler this morning – but dry – just arrived we have grapes from Corton Chaumes, 90 year old vines that have given a low (significantly sub 30hl/ha) yield – the grapes are perfect, as good as anything seen in 2005. In the picture you can see the ‘field-blend’ of chardonnay, pinot noir and at the bottom the lighter pinot beurot (pinot gris). The stems are part lignified, dry and if you chew them there is no astringency. The winemaker gets a flash-back of Saturday’s DRC and decides to go for it – we will include 50% whole clusters. The destemmed grapes are added over the whole clusters and we expect some carbonic maceration [....]

Saturday morning and it’s raining in Beaune – we delay our trip. Actually we just stay in bed a little longer We arrive in Beaune late afternoon and there is no rain – in fact it’s rather warm. In the evening we open lots of bottles and are all humbled (including the winemakers among us) by the understated complexity and alround excellence of domaine de la Romanée Conti’s 2002 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru – and (as you can see above) we compared it to lots of other bottles! I should add the Julia’s cooking also helped a lot – Julia is from Brasil and is here doing a stage. Safe to say we slept very well; Sunday the first grapes of our trip arrived.

The sun is shining ! After a month of July dry and very hot, August was quite cold and humid. September looks very interesting and will be probably the key of this vintage; the grapes seem protected by good skins , result of the July weather. We already received the first grapes that we buy every year and really the “table de tri” was not so useful. Concerning our own vineyards it was nice to see absolutely no rot: the grapes are healthy and we start harvest on Monday 25th. As last years the natural level of sugar looks very good. Acidity is well-balanced and tannins are present ! The “medias” already give notice of an “outstanding vintage in white”: we can confirm with the [....]

The word is that there’s a lot of botrytis around – the weather has been good, but the humidity has been on the high side. Many domaines have already started in the Côte de Beaune and the rest will go full force in the Côte de Nuits at the weekend – the forecast remains good – and I expect to be joining them – there’s nothing quite like chewing on a few grapes from Chambertin while you work! It sounds like the triage table might be important – but let’s wait and see the grapes. Info newly in: Nathalie Tollot at Domaine Tollot-Beaut tells that they started their harvesting yesterday and are hoping to finish by the weekend – they are pleased with the result [....]