Tuesday: is Vinotas day 5.
Yesterday evening I took a tour around the grand crus of the Côte de Nuits. About 70% of the vines have already been harvested, some sections (Leroy I think) of Romanée St.Vivant and Drouhin’s Grands-Echézeaux still stand proud with their fruit. There is much less rot here than I saw in the Côte de Beaune, but it’s still around – see the picture with an affected bunch in the aforementioned RSV. The Clos de Vougeot, in-part because of the protection afforded by its wall is also mainly picked.
Parts of Musigny still bear fruit, but Romanée-Conti and (the same domaine’s) Richbourg look to have been harvested – there are still quite some bunches on the vines however – perhaps we might see a second pass if the weather allows. The grand crus of Gevrey are likewise quite advanced as far the harvesting goes.
The canvassing of candid opinion gleans that many a winemaker is disappointed with the Côte de Beaune reds, they have the required ripeness (fruit and phenol) and acidity but at least from the perspective of the harvesting, triage and the first two or three days in the cuverie, they remind of 2004 with slightly less acidity. Everyone likes the whites. As usual a good domaine will make a good wine – it’s a mixture of triage and technique.
Today is cooler again, yet despite not just the forecasts, but 36 hours of constant, heavy rain just 150km northwest of Beaune – we are an oasis of dryness – sofar! Let’s see what the day’s grapes bring…
There are 2 responses to “tuesday’s summary…”
Thanks for the updates. Fantastic. Keep them coming.
John-Ohio
Domaine de la Vougeraie
Tuesday 26 September 2006
Day eight
From Côte to Côte
Despite the weatherman promising sunshine, gloomy skies greeted us today, but 10°C (50°F) in the early morning rose to 17°C (63°F) in the afternoon, making it comfortable work for the pickers, some of whom are now starting their second week on the job. Today is a flower day in the lunar calendar and ideal for harvesting grapes as it promises good things for the future wine’s aromatic expression, so we were thankful the rain held off. In fact, the conditions were perfect for grape harvesting.
Today, the two Côtes were under attack. One team took the southerly Côte de Beaune – the Pierres Blanches vines to be specific – gathering the remaining white grapes. The second team headed north to the Côte de Nuits to harvest our Clos de Vougeot.
The grapes are brought to the winery in crates and systematically sorted to ensure only perfect specimens are vinified. The white Côte de Beaune Les Pierres Blanches berries were fine, with an excellent balance of sugar and acidity and the juice from the first pressing told the same story.
Meanwhile, our eight-strong sorting team saw the first reds arrive from the Clos de Vougeot. They looked magnificent, and despite a relatively high number of grapes affected by millerandage, Pierre only set aside 3% of the harvest of this grand cru. The story was a little different for our Savigny-lès-Beaune Premier Cru Les Marconnets, where 15% of the crop was rejected.
The diversity of the pinot noir harvest once again highlights the crucial role played by Burgundian terroirs in understanding our wines and the hierarchy of the various crus. The wise monks of Citeaux understood this perfectly, planting only vines best suited to the soil, and were the first to rank their plots according to the quality of wine they produced.
At lunchtime, our hard-working teams took a welcome break. Harvesting of the Pierres Blanches (1.0642 ha) is now complete and we’re now well into the Clos de Vougeot, our highest plot, set against the entrance wall (1.05 ha).
Despite the gray sky overhead, our pickers were undeterred and returned to their work in high spirits, which more than compensated for the lack of sunshine.
The afternoon was devoted to pinot noir, both on the Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune.
By 3pm, we’d finished harvesting the Clos de Vougeot, and the team headed off to start on the Vougeot Premier Cru Les Cras, while over on the Côte de Beaune, the Savigny-lès-Beaune Premier Cru Les Marconnets yielded its first fruits.
Pierre left the winery to test the ripeness on the Côte de Beaune. The results were varied and this time the variety is not to blame. The Corton Charlemagne and the Beaune Premier Cru Clos Roi will be harvested tomorrow but the Corton Le Clos du Roi and the Beaune Premier Cru Les Grèves will have to wait until they have ripened a little more.
His tests complete, Pierre returned to the winery and the working day finished at 9.30pm – no two days are alike.
Wednesday’s weather forecast is for the morning mist to lift, followed by sunshine all day, but there are no guarantees – meteorology is anything but an exact science.