This morning, naturally we have sun again; though as the day wore on, the blue sky was replaced by high cloud and some spots of rain – somebody mentions 30mm of rain as the forecast. We no-longer have any indication of hail – long-range suggests cooler weather with plenty of rain next week though.

Taking stock of the whites and reds taken in so-far; the reds so-far are interesting in that the acidity is that of quite a ripe vintage yet the sugar levels are not particularly high – there might be quite some chaptalisation this vintage – the BIVB are suggesting average phenolic levels similar to 2010 – once more, let’s see. The whites are better than our picture of Meursault reveals, though even that wine looks okay in tank – pHs are about 3.3 with 12-12.5 degress of potential alcohol…

Over the road they had some Corton-Charlemagne yesterday – and it would have made the Meursault blush – grapes that needed no sorting and went straight to the press withoput sorting – that team is very happy. Here today, it is a day of red; Pommard, Vosne and Gevrey. The Gevrey villages is coming in two tranches – the old vines (from the lieu dit of Crais) were very nice – tons of earwigs though, I’ve never seen so many – they still needed the unripe berries removing but there was less of that than the previous Côte de Beaunes, and almost no rot. Lunch comes before the second part of this parcel – lovely, lovely lunch – hmm. The second tranche of Crais is younger vines and was reported as less good – the grower dropped some fruit but too late to make much difference – apart from the acetic smell in the vines as everything was left on the ground! The grapes are actually better than forecast – I think somebody worked very hard with the secateurs in the vines – larger berries, even a bit less green berries but a touch more rot – still very low levels.

Next-up is the villages Vosne-Romanée – a vieilles vignes cuvée that usually merits 89-91 or even 09-92 from Burghound. The quantity of grapes is a little less than the Gevrey already triaged. Ladybird-watch will come in part 2…

Yesterday’s collection:

2010 Bourgogne Chardonnay (direct from the tank)
2005 Carrick Excelsior
2009 Santenay Clos Rousseau

2008 Cremant du Jura
2007 Chardonnay du Jura
2008 Clos St.Denis

Some Saturday morning pictures, mainly in and around Beaune…

The Home Team 2011.

So every year there are new cast of players at the home domaine:
- Kiwi Anna, sauvignon blanc winemaker at Oyster Bay
- Kiwi Blair, vineyard manager at Carrick
- Springbok Nathaniel, from Nederburg in Paarl
Plus, of-course, the more regular crew – naturally there is no discussion whatsoever about the up-coming rugby world-cup, only how fetching England look in their new black strip!

Today we started with pinot from Beaune 1er Les Avaux – the vines are a good age, but unfortunately they normally deliver quite a large berry size – big surprise this year when I was expecting cherries, the grapes if anything smaller than the Savigny-Peuillets and Aloxe-Valozières of yesterday; virtually nil rot, but again the annoying 1-3 unripened green berries which need to be removed – from almost every bunch – tsk! Still, I expect a good cuvée from this.

By 11:30 we were ready for our first tranche of Meursault – not quite as tough to triage as yesterday’s (which actually tastes quite okay in the settlement tank), but not fun either – it turns out that there had been hail in this vineyard and whilst there was no obvious hail damage, we had to run the table pretty slow.

Ladybird quotient is perhaps a hint lower than yesterday but there are still many.

Lovely lunch…

Of-course when doing whites you have to wait for the press to finish it’s run before you can start the next lot of triage – it was close to 4pm before we started to remove (just the same amount of) rot; very slow table and and the mercury touching on 30°C. I think in my 8th consecutive year of harvesting, that’s a temperature record. The storms and hail have been put back a day, just like every day for the last 3 – we are certainy lucky compared to Bordeaux…

Just for the record, and as an hommage to the ladybirds, yesterday we consumed:

04 Griotte
04 Latricières
04 Clos St.Denis
04 Carrick Pinot Noir (screwcapped, no ladybirds – like the Griotte – and perhaps the best!)
08 Chassagne Morgeot (red)