By Phil Eaves on October 8, 2009
Not too long ago I was truly naive. I was looking forward to becoming busy. I had no idea what busy was before a few weeks ago. My lovely clutch on my new 1987 cheap BMW 3 got angry at my sloppy heal toe activities and grew bored with my eager turns through the roundabouts on the route de Pommard so it decided to take the week off and simply lay on the floorboard. Never mind the amount of errands I needed to complete. A few days later and a bit flatter in the wallet and I was back on the road. Briefly. I certainly underestimated how much I would need a truck in Burgundy. I needed to rent trucks for picking up fruit, destemmers, [....]
Posted in Ray's Posts, Vintage 2009 |
By billn on October 2, 2009
A double update – from both Vicki and from Jean-Marie! Many things have already been said on the web about the 2009 Vintage, and it is already being compared to the 05 vintage. We have attached some temperature and light, and rain charts which show the differences between the 2005 and 2009 which show that of course no vintage is the same. Jean-Marie actually sees it more as a marriage of the 99’s and 05’s. Still at the end of the day it is a vintage in it’s own right and a very exciting one too! The grapes at harvest were beautifully small, so much so that some tiny ones which were no bigger than black currants fell through the grid of our sorting table [....]
Posted in Vintage 2009 |
By Phil Eaves on September 29, 2009
Things have been very busy at the winery lately. With all the fruit in tank and fermenting I have been focusing on tasting, testing, punchdowns and of course more tasting. I decided to use a fair amount of whole cluster on the Morey half way because I was curious about doing it, the otherhalf because my destemmer broke. Luckily a new destemmer came about an hour after I went from hand destemming pergatory to whole cluster just 2 clicks before madness. I decided also to be quite quick to initially punchdown and then to not be overly pushy with the must and just quickly get to once a day punchdowns. This of course raised eyebrows in the winery with my mates, but the results are [....]
Posted in Ray's Posts, Vintage 2009 |
By billn on September 24, 2009
So, a few updates on resources for the Harvest 2009: Mark has managed to extract pictures from his daughter’s pink Fuji, so, added to his first and last posts are galleries from his experiences. There has been a really good commentary here from Cynthia. Finally, I can deliver you the full set of ‘polished’ reports from the Domaine de la Vougeraie: 01- mardi_8_septembre_2009 02- mercredi 9 septembre 2009 03- jeudi 10 septembre 2009 04- vendredi 11 septembre 2009 05- samedi 12 septembre 2009 06- dimanche 13 septembre 2009 07- lundi 14 septembre 2009 08- mardi 15 septembre 2009 09- mercredi 16 septembre 2009 10- jeudi 17 septembre 2009 11 – vendredi 18 septembre 2009 12 – samedi 19 septembre 2009
Posted in Vintage 2009 |
By billn on September 21, 2009
I asked a few producers how things were looking in the cuverie: Intense colors – for the reds pH’s that basically (if I may) are not increasing during fermentation – we should end up with levels around 3.60 – 3.70 which is close to my goal. Tannins, after being a bit sharp at mid fermentation, are really softening nicely with the prolongation of macerations, and showing a good concentration, will lead to wines with a good if not overwelming tannic structure. The whites are showing a beautiful fruit, entering the cellar is an enchantment. acid balance seems good, but difficult to taste at this stage. Carel Voorhuis, Domaine d’Ardhuy I am afraid it’s too early to talk about extraction as it is the beginning of [....]
Posted in Vintage 2009 |
By JT on September 20, 2009
A few words on other matters before getting into Friday’s picking activities et al. One of the many things I have quickly come to love here is the view across the steep sided valley in which Pernand sits on one side – on the right heading up towards Echevronne. Domaine D-F is probably circa half way up the village or more but, sat in the courtyard, as I can be with spare moments, looking straight across, in one’s eye line is the wonderfully named terroir of “Sous le bois de Noel et ses Belles Filles” (Under the Wood of Noel and his beautiful daughters – not sure who the Noel was by the way) . Think that’s the full name (without checking). The vines plunge [....]
Posted in Picture Gallery, Vintage 2009 |
By billn on September 19, 2009
Rain overnight but by 9:30 a.m. it’s stopped and the sun is peaking through. The home team is bringing in Chambertin – it looks almost as good as yesterday’s Latricières, the grapes are a bit wet, still, the vibrating table is removing most of it and the rain doesn’t seemed to have affected the berry size. This is all the fruit for today, though in the cuverie the Ladoix and the Savigny Peuillets are getting some punch-downs. There is still some Santenay villages which is not quite ripe enough and a little Beaune blanc remaining on the vines, the plan is to bring these in on Monday. Météo France are now suggesting rain, rather than storms for Sunday. A quick tour of some other domaines [....]
Posted in Vintage 2009 |
By billn on September 19, 2009
So it’s Friday, and given the forecasts, and depending on which you believe – Météo France get short shrift from many – quite a number are aiming to end their harvest today. It’s a misty start which doesn’t whisk away the overnight damp very easily, but slowly the sun starts to poke through. By lunchtime there’s not a cloud in the sky and the afternoon basks in 22°C. At the home domaine they are working flat out! Santenay Clos Rousseau which is super fruit, Marsannay villages (a new contract) that needs about 5% triage for botrytis, otherwise nice, and crowning glory, Latricières-Chambertin, a plot whose produce can be a real mixed bag – only 35kg triaged from 2 tonnes of millerande fruit. The team is [....]
Posted in Vintage 2009 |
By billn on September 18, 2009
Fog and rain starts the day in Beaune – there is no morning picking at the home domaine. The report is that some growers in Marsannay have cancelled their plans to pick today. In the late-afternoon the home domaine grapes arrive from Vosne and Charmes-Chambertin – all are in very good shape. Like the previous couple of years the Vosne parcel has very nice fruit so there are about 10-15% whole bunches for the fermentations (nothing to do with the DRC from the other night!). The reports are still for thunder and lightening at the weekend, so whatever the weather on Friday, the last grapes from Santenay Clos Rousseau – which still look superb – and the rest of the gevrey grand crus will be [....]
Posted in Vintage 2009 |
By billn on September 17, 2009
The home team 2009: Gareth, Gillian, Marie, David & Shane (Joseph is missing, he was working away from the cuverie) After the exertions of the Duvault-Blochet the night before (and it turns out the sauce was actually based on Nuits St.Georges!) it comes as something of a shock to be greeted by early morning skies that are far from blue – in fact they are leaden. At least they are retaining their moisture and the streets are now largely dry. I arrive at the home domaine to find that our planned picking of the Vosne is delayed to the next day due to the rain and cold of yesterday – the rain stopped in the early hours – but at least we have some breeze [....]
Posted in Vintage 2009 |
By JT on September 16, 2009
Morning over to Volnay. Now here’s a genuine steal cum bargain of a wine in that a la Dubreuil-Fontaine the Volnay is a blend of premier cru and village and is currently Euros 18 !!! Think I need some. Quite often when a domaine wine has been produced for tasting it has been a Volnay. For the record the 3 PC sites, all below the RN74, are Carelle Sous Chapelle, Les Brouillards and Les Lurets. The latter was a mystery to me until today. We started in Carelle and a hard morning’s graft switching sites saw all Volnay done. The Carelle was right up to the Chapelle wall off which the sun bounced. The afternoon per my notes seems unremarkable – Pernand 1er cru Ile [....]
Posted in Vintage 2009 |
By billn on September 15, 2009
Tuesday – and another glorious blue sky. Our grapes during the morning are Nuits 1er Les Vaucrains – much anticipated as they are normally super. This year, we have a problem. The first case looks a bit disappointing as there is a mix of both shrivelled and unripe grapes – in the same bunches! – it seems to get worse from there on as oïdium begins to rear its head. The weather mirrors the mood as it becomes windy and cloudy – it’s quite chilly – we expect rain anytime, though it never comes. The triage table is set to the slowest speed, with six people sorting and still we need to periodically stop the table as the throw-away bins fill almost as fast as [....]
Posted in Picture Gallery, Vintage 2009
