I read that the Morey domaines of Dujac and L&A Lignier have completed their harvests today – Jeremy Seysses bemoans the fact that he only ended up with 25hl/ha for his villages Morey, though no quality complaints – actually a little white Monts-Luisants is still to be picked on Friday by Dujac.

At the home domaine there were no new grapes, just the last of the Santenay from Wednesday to finish which was triaged in the morning – the grapes are fine at 6°C overnight! The last grapes to be brought in will be Chambertin, Charmes-Chambertin and some Hautes-Côtes. Maybe tomorrow or maybe Saturday – let’s see.

The first fermentations have started; the grapes from the new contract for villages Volnay were ‘innoculated’ via the addition of a little must from a tank that was already fermenting – ‘the boss’ deciding that despite clean-tasting juices, he didn’t want to hang around waiting. Also the white (Meursault) that was brought in before I arrived has started to ferment.

This was a very busy – but dry – day for the home team.

Grapes from Maranges, Santenay villages, Vosne-Romanée and finally Corton Clos du Roi. Maranges and Vosne were in great shape (photos later) the Corton Clos du Roi and Santenay needed more triage. The Corton had a similar amount of botrytis to the Ladoix and the grapes could perhaps have been picked a day or two earlier – but we generally hold on because of the tannins. The Santenay needed green and rotten fruit removing.

It’s worth noting that maximum triage this year (reds!) is still only in the region of 6-7% the average being much lower; only 05 and 09 have been better in the last 7 vintages.

Short but sweet – more info tomorrow.

(in absentia as I had to come home to do something less manual!)

The last thing I did before I left yesterday was to taste through some of the different cuvées. Of-course it’s only fruit juice right now, and with so much sugar the pH of 3.2 means nothing! Still the colours seem to be extracting nicely and the flavours are very clean indeed – interesting that of the two (vinified separately) Volnay villages cuvées, one seemed more powerful, the other to have more complexity. Despite one needing more triage they both seem spotlessly clean – in the end I guess it’s just down to how much you have to throw away!

Today was a dry day in the Côtes. The home team brought in Marsannay and Gevrey. The Marsannay from the southern part of Les Longerois had lots of millerandes and was quite clean – a little botrytis, but only 100kg was thrown away from 3 tonnes of grapes. The Gevrey was a mix of older and younger vines; the young vines had more botrytis in the bunches than the older ones, but again significantly less to triage than either 2007 or 2008.

I await more info on toilet seats and photographic evidence of some decent grapes – I’ll update this when I have it.

The previous evening was leftovers again, but this time supplemented with 2004 Puligny and 2002 Fourrier Gevrey Clos St.Jacques. The white had a very obvious 2004 character, the red was elegance personified – no fireworks but understated complexity.

Today and it’s raining – not too heavy, but wet all the same. We have no grapes today; the Beaune Avaux and Corton Rognets was advanced and the Gevrey and Vosne were put back to tomorrow. Chambertin won’t be harvested until the end of the week. So in the morning I chatted with a couple of very similar vignerons (well, same village!) David Clark and Laurent Ponsot in Morey. I asked Laurent how his harvest was shaping up and he flashed a big smile and said “what harvest, we wont begin anything in Morey for at least a week!“. Acually he was going to be getting some first grapes from Corton soon, but even in the cold and damp he was very confident that photosynthesis would continue and that his grapes would improve. David Clark was also in good shape, looking to start his harvest on Tuesday or Wednesday, so-far nothing had been cut.

Back to Beaune in time for lunch; avocado with home-made mayonnaise, pork with cauliflower cheese, cheese and then floating islands for dessert. Wines to accompany were JN Gagnard 2006 Chassagne 1er Boudriotte, a 1996 Giroud Côte de Beaune, a 2007 David Duband Morey 1er Clos Sorbé and lastly one of my 1991 Saviour Club Chapelle-Chambertins (or Chapelles-Chambertin as the cork was stamped). The Gagnard had good balance a very sneaky, oak driven, creamy mid-palate though perhaps need a bit more intensity, the Giroud was relatively sweet and drinkable despite the acid at its base, the Duband had a sweet oaky, almost confected note and finally the Chapelle was a treat!

Quote of the week overheard during lunch “I don’t think I can survive a second week without a toilet seat!!“. Far from being an initiation ceremony for non-French stageurs, it turns out the original was broken, and nobody had got around to buying a replacement. Various consultations ensued as to whether particular ‘outlines’ would be beneficial for the person delegated to make the purchase!

monts-luisants 27 Sept

monts-luisants 27 Sept

monts-luisants 27 Sept

marc de morey ?

It’s Sunday, and surprise, surprise, it’s not raining.

The previous evening we had a lovely soup (sorry chef it was better with a pinch of salt!) and the quenelles with a lobstery sauce – one of our antipodean colleagues decribed them as ‘French dumplings’ – a great call methinks! To drink was a 2008 Bourgogne Blanc from Domaine Dublère ‘Cuvée Millerandes‘ – very nice, indeed powerful, the acidity not quite seamless in the finish, but this was way above standard bourgogne level. For a bit of fun we tried the ‘cooking wine’ next; a Camille Giroud 1996 Monthélie – actually it was drinkable, blind you might think it smelled Italian as it spent so much time in oak. The last one was André Cathiard 1989 Vosne Les Suchots – all strawberry fruit, ginger and lace – a bit shorter than it could have been -probably some of its years had been spent ‘too warm’, but still a wine to contemplate.

Back to today. The pickers have been out early again and by 9:00am everything set to triage some Ladoix. We have to slow the table down a little as we need to weed out the unripe and some rot – I’d say it’s about a 2006 to 2008 level of rot (and the average of 2006 and 2008 is not 2007 before somebody says it!) After about 2 hours we’re strainght into Savigny 1er Les Peuillets and despite also having to watch for under-ripe bunches and rot, it’s on a much lower level than the Ladoix – lovely grapes, almost with the cleanlines of 2009 but perhaps some of the berries are swollen because of the rain. Interestingly a few of our red friend with black spots on their wings could be found in the triaged material for throwing away – I never saw one in the triage table or in the winery though…

Lunch! The eggy-salad played havoc with the first wine, my first pinot noir from British Columbia (actually my first wine of any kind from BC!). Great label design; a bear carrying a gramaphone talking to a ‘maiden’ – I had to explain to the previously referenced antipodean that the bear was holding an earlier version of the iPod. Anyway the 2007 Foxtrot Okanagan Valley smelled great, and once we moved onto the coq-au-vin it was a nicely composed, well balanced drink. Following was Méo-Camuzet’s 93 Corton Rognets. My first one of these was lovely but the last one was compromised and cloudy – this was the same. Drinkable – even good – there was nothing particularly amiss with the nose and we finished it no problem.

The weather was so good – we were even enjoying sunshine – that the pickers were called to do duty in Beaune 1er Les Avaux, and then Corton Rognets. The Beaune was quite a mix; relively clean but the average berry size was bigger than the Savigny. The last grapes from Corton Rognets were stunners, triaging alone I bet I had to pull out no more than 10kg from two pallet-loads of fruit. Tiny berries, beautifully blue-black in colour. The skins tasted to have some tannin, so we chickened out of whole cluster despite optically having grapes of 2005 quality. And there we are – now it’s 7:30pm and time to start the big clean-up!

For info, this year the Vougeraie harvest log is online – help yourself.

So yesterday evening was leftovers and two grand crus, both from Camille Giroud; a 2007 Corton-Charlemagne and 2008 Charmes-Chambertin – both very good indeed as somebody might say, actually the Charlemagne could have been fine-plus!

I mentioned yesterday the potential this year for a Côte de Beaune, Côte de Nuits divide, so lets get into that: It hangs on maturity and the weather. Much of the Côte de Beaune will have been harvested (we’re talking reds) by Monday and at decent maturity too. There is some rot, but few of the best sites have been significantly affected – grape quality was rather good, 2006++. Despite also having excellently clean grapes (still) the Côte de Nuits has an issue – in general the grapes are not yet ready to pick. 11-12° is still common. While we had blue skies and sunshine the cold temperatures were not too much of a problem – photosynthesis continues. Now we have cloudy skies, (even) cooler temperatures and more rain in the forecast, 5° or lower overnight. I expect a sudden rush into any vineyard that reaches 12.5°, maybe even a bit less! The forecast says it may turn warmer and sunny Tuesday or Wednesday – but the forecast has a poor record this year. Côte de Nuits producers will be hoping the forecasters have got something right…

Today the pickers are out at first light, just about 7:30 – there was a little rain overnight, but we have dry, fairly bright, if cloudy skies. Onwards with Pommard Clos des Vergers – this is a villages plot but the grapes are frankly excellent – hardly any triage is required, lovely stuff. You tend to be quite concentrated whilst triaging, so it was a surprise mid-morning when I looked around to see that there was some heavy rain. It lasted about 20-30 minutes, before we moved back to cloudy with sunny spells. After the Pommard, Santenay 1er La Comme. These grapes needed a bit more care to weed out unripe binches (bunches that really shouldn’t have been picked) and a little rot – a good result though, in the end I think we triaged well over 4 tonnes of Pommard/Santenay grapes before lunch.

Did somebody mention lunch? It was a simple affair of melon and Parma ham, veal with potato (Dauphinoise of-course), cheese (including probably too much Brillat-Savarin) and pineapple upside-down. Wine was a Giroud 2000 Hautes Côtes Blanc followed by Louis-Michel Liger-Belair’s first vintage of Echézeaux, the 2006. It remains the best Echézeaux I ever tasted from barrel though I was surprised how oaky this wine was, but aromatically it was a powder-keg of complexity, it needs much more time though.

Our afternoon will not be as packed as first planned because the pickers were told to stand down after the morning rain. Still, there’s plenty of villages Volnay this afternoon from a different contract to yesterday’s Volnay. The grapes are excellent, only some unripe bunches to pull out and some with verjus – tiny ungrown green berries amongst the ripe ones – to remove. So we have an early finish, we can start the clean-up already at 6pm…