Latent Meursault 2009
Impeccable timing marked my arrival – just 20minutes triage of Volnay villages before clean-up then lunch! Our team is once again a united nations of wine; Californian, Antipodean (Aus + NZ on the same team!) and South African – a small contingent that would best be described as French too!
Big changes at the home domaine this year – we have a sound-system!!! Oh and also new destemmer, and a bladder press for the whites (minor detail after the stereo…!)
Back to the Volnay which had almost perfectly clean bunches – our triage table ran at full speed with a minimum of intervention – perhaps one bunch in 10-15 needed a little rot cutting from its core exactly as the 2005s were. The grapes have decent thick skins and a little more juice than the 2005s – you do not stick so readily to the table – apparently the analysis of the early Côte de Beaune grapes shows 12.5° or more, so the annual ‘sale’ (it’s only for 2 months of the year) of 20kg bags of sugar at the local Leclerc supermarket is not so successful 🙂 The phenolics/tannins are on a lower order than 2002 and 2005, typical pHs being 3.3-3.5. In other words, very clean and balanced.
Lunch – ah we have ‘catering’ – and a high standard too; very nice salad with home-made mayonaise, boeuf-bourguignon and home made apple-tart, all suitably washed down with 06 Monts Luisants blanc, 07 Corton-Charlemagne and 06 Corton Clos du Roi. Mmmmm…
Après-midi, the delivery was of Meursault villages (blanc). So clean we didn’t need our triage table, the fruit went straight onto the conveyor up to the new bladder press – we were only looking to remove the occasional leave. The juice from the press was fat and sweet, pH 3.3 with 12.5° potential.
The 2009 fauna watch from a relatively low number of tonnes, was 2 spiders only! The team mentioned that they spotted a few ladybugs in the first cases of Volnay fruit, but there was nothing in the last part that I saw.
Enough for today, I’m already becoming hungry thinking of dinner 😉
There are 2 responses to “harvest 2009 – saturday 12th sept”
You’re making my mouth water too.
I think I’ll go have lunch. The only problem is my lunch doesn’t sound nearly as appetizing as yours. 🙁
These collected reports are a fantastic resource. Thanks Bill!