By billn on August 26, 2009
A couple of selected quotes from this week: David Clarke @ Morey: Things are looking good. The weather has essentially been warm and very occasionally stormy since my last update. The storms have brought a few millimetres of unneeded rain, but thankfully nothing worse. The forecast is also dry and sunny for the next week so optimism is definitely rising. There is still no rot and we are around 10% potential alcohol already. The acidity is relatively low, but I think many people are now hoping for something at little better than the 1997 vintage I mentioned a few weeks ago. I still feel the skins are quite thick and tough so would like to wait until around the 19th if possible, but will be [....]
Posted in Asides, Vintage 2009 |
By Phil Eaves on August 20, 2009
Well, not too long ago, I was planning my first trip to Burgundy. Now, days away from leaving to Burgundy to begin my first Harvest in Burgundy, I simply cannot believe how fast time has flown. My days leading up to my Saturday departure are filled with contracts on facilities, barrel purchases, and a host of other things to work out such as cleaning supplies and basically all of the bits no one goes in thinking about. After a few hurdles (…well, much more than a few) such as changing facilities twice, it seems that things have worked out exceedingly well. Grapes are sorted, along with facility, legal obstacles, tanks (1 wooden, 14 cement vats by Marc Nomblot) and I couldn’t be more pleased with [....]
Posted in Ray's Posts, Vintage 2009 |
By billn on August 8, 2009
A quick update on the situation in the vines, courtesy of David Clark in (of-course) the Côte de Nuits: The vines are looking far too good at the moment. I’m doing the green harvest and haven’t found a single botrytised berry yet – plenty time for that to change, of course! I’m looking at harvest maybe the weekend of the 19th, weather permitting, although many will be earlier. Naturally we need a Côte du Beaune-er for balance – here’s Etienne de Montille’s view: So far so good for the coming 09 vintage. Though it was a bit tough for organic growers, we could manage the mildew that was the main difficulty during the season. Grapes look great and well set (normal yield – maybe shorter [....]
Posted in Picture Gallery, Vintage 2009 |
By billn on July 14, 2009
My ‘vintage updates’ seem to be becoming more of a ‘hail-watch’ than anything. Anyway, here’s the mid-July ‘hail-report’: Yesterday evening there was a tremendous storm following a hot day of about 30°C. It seems from reports in so-far, that the Côte d’Or pretty-much escaped with a mere 50 millimetres of rain in about 12 hours. Less lucky as you can see from the linked photo, was Bligny-sur-Ouche, which I think would be classified as Hautes Côtes de Beaune – if they still have some grapes! Now those things have really got to hurt. Never-mind their grapes, do you think any of their cows survived?
Posted in Vintage 2009 |
By billn on June 30, 2009
Summer has appeared – with a vengeance. I was in the Côtes yesterday, and the temperature peaked just over 34°C in the latter half of the afternoon – today it was 35°. It’s the first really warm spell of the year, the last weeks were ‘average’ as far as temperature went; say 25°C. Things are moving apace though; a few weeks back it looked like harvesting would be September 10-20th, but current indications (that don’t account for a dark July or August) would suggest September 5th-15th. Not quite another August vintage, but pretty close! There is a litlle humidity that goes with the heatwave, but at least there is some relief amongst growers that projected storms didn’t fully materialise about 2 weeks ago. Many were [....]
Posted in Vintage 2009 |
By billn on May 26, 2009
Back from a sticky 35°C in the Côtes. In the Vines Vine-growth is very speedy at the moment; all the vineyards are looking like they need their first ‘hair-cut’ as the vines start reaching for the sky. The earliest flowering started on Wednesday last week, but more than 95% of the vines have yet to start. The heat of the last couple of days will start flowering in earnest over the next; this relatively early flowering sees producers already beginning to ‘pencil-in’ 10th September as a potential starting date for the harvest – that’s another early one – but let’s see how warm the summer is first! The heat coupled to flowering will have growers up and down the Côtes scanning the skies and their [....]
Posted in The Market, Vintage 2009 |
By billn on May 22, 2009
Some serious damage to vineyards in Morey today, Les Chaffots (directly above Clos St.Denis & Clos de la Roche) was worst affected. Seemingly there was no damage just over the border in Gevrey…
Posted in Vintage 2009 |
By billn on April 17, 2009
Hail today in Nuits and Gevrey – light in Nuits but the ground was completely white in parts of Gevrey – nothing in-between. Parts of Puligny became white and light hail was seen in Volnay too. It looks like the vignerons were lucky as few buds were open…
Posted in Vintage 2009 |
