To a soundtrack of Johnny Cash and Massive Attack we make our own attack on the grapes of Lavaux St.Jacques and Maranges Croix de Moines – happy under our cover from incessant rain. [Edit: The rain lasted for 30 hours, delivering 50mm!]
The Gevrey is lovely – we use about one-third whole clusters – and even the other two-thirds from this produce of a lovely old-vine selection needs not much more than a cursory trie. Then we have the big cuvée of Maranges which will take us right up to lunch to finish the triage. If it hadn’t been for the rain, these would have been left on the vine a couple of days longer – and it’s easy to see why – a mix of very fine clusters and larger clusters which sometimes had questionable ripeness, weeding out the unripe was virtually the only triage that was required. Like most of the grapes that have crossed our table (Santenay La Comme excepted) there was virtually no botrytis.
Only the grapes of Le Chambertin remain on the vines – to be picked tomorrow or perhaps Friday? Let’s see…
Lunch:
2010 Jadot Beaune Bressandes (Blanc)
2005 Chapelle-Chambertin