I drove to the Côtes yesterday evening – it started dry in Switzerland, but it soon got very wet in France. Only the last few kms before Beaune allowed me the luxury of ‘intermittent’ windscreen-wipers! It seems that the department of the Côte d’Or got it (the rain!) quite badly – about 1 month’s rain in 24 hours. The Côte d’Or itself seemed to have only very limited patches of standing-water in the vines, but my first appointment today was at Vougeraie in Premeaux – Pierre Vincent was having to pump-out some of his cellar – “Perfect humidity” he quipped, also noting “That’s why it’s called Premeaux – it’s the first with water!”
Hard to believe, but it was actually dry today (post-7am!) and the first rays of sun shone just an hour before darkness. Cool dark clouds as a backdrop!
