harvest – 1st september (part 2)

Update 5.9.2011(1.9.2011)billn

Another lovely, sunny and warm day – storms were forecast but they’ve been put back to friday (tomorrow) let’s see. Today we triaged a mountain of Savigny 1er Les Peuillets and a small hill (3 barrels) of Aloxe 1er cru. To follow was Meursault; I asked ‘villages?’ yes was the answer, but then with a smile the boss says ‘but not just any villages Meursault, these are from just under Poruzots!’ – there can never be enough delimitations in Burgundy 😉

And what of the the grapes? I hear you ask…

Pinot noir: Well, so-far, comparing the vineyards that I’ve triaged almost every year, the level of rot is rather low, 2006-levels. The grape sizes are, however, relatively large – rare are the small bunches of tiny grapes delivered by 2010. But despite the lack of rot, triage is important as almost every bunch has some verjus/unripe green berries – all must be removed. Decently ripe, clean but large grapes – we’ll wait for the results of the analytics, but I can see the word ‘saignée’ is on some people’s minds. Early days yet…

Chardonnay: Just too early to say. One vineyard has offered some of the best looking fruit I’ve ever seen – varying degrees of ripeness but perfectly clean with tiny berries – some were so small that there was no room for pips. Our second batch of chardonnay was less inspiring; good ripeness, but the grapes were fragile and shot-through with plenty of botrytis – so much for ‘just below Poruzots’! Still, two more cuvées of Meursault tomorrow, so I’ll have a slightly better data-set after that.

The elphant in the room is the quantity of ladybirds. The photos are not in any way staged, but represent what has been triaged through the vibrating table. This piece of kit has removed about 99% of the beetles from the clusters so it’s relatively rare to see them on the moving belt triage table, but of-course they fly and we certainly have them in the fermentation tanks. Versus 2004 there are definitely more of them this year, however, less are within the clusters which was quite common in 2004, so we see less on the table this year. Comparisons of how many were and are in the fermentation tanks – I don’t have. It is certainly of concern to me.

Jasper popped in to say ‘hi’ today…

There have, of-course, also been some wines. To protect the innocent and guilty alike I’ll keep the list minimalist…

Yesterday:
09 Chassagne Tête du Clos
03 Bourgogne
03 Beaune
02 Gevrey Lavaux St.Jacques

02 Aloxe Boutières
02 Beaune Pertiusots

Today’s list might not yet be complete!

I haven’t had chance to have a read yet, but the Domaine de la Vougeraie has also started their page of vintage reports which you can find here.

Agree? Disagree? Anything you'd like to add?

Burgundy Report

Translate »

You are using an outdated browser. Please update your browser to view this website correctly: https://browsehappy.com/;