Luckily, I’ve plenty of things to type. I’ve even more things to arrange – such as my first wave of tastings for white 2013s. But there’s a bit of a hole…

There are no more grapes – and come to think of it, no Mark de Morey either – he seems lost in action!

Of-course, it can be a little wearying, but it’s great to be part of a team, and one that can make such a difference – that’s the triage team – of-course! We brought (almost) the last grapes in on Tuesday, and then yesterday it rained – it seems planned like a well-oiled machine – eh?! 🙂

But more of today – I see that Panos beat me to the punch at winesearcher. It’s a more nuanced version of the terrible headline-making of Decanter and it’s worth your time. It’s the first time I’ve seen the suzukis linked to late cherries, but why not…

Of-course we had storms and even the possibility of hail in our weather forecast for today, so no grapes.

Instead, breakfast at Hotel Le Montrachet – for six – one of which has their birthday. We, very enjoyably, graze for 90 minutes, until they take it all away…

As you will note from the pictures (below), the storm seemed a long, way-away – if it was to come at all – there’s a short burst of rain in Beaune about 14h45, but only for 5 minutes against a backdrop of sunshine. So back to the keyboard, after cruising past the cows in Place Madeleine!

Post Script: A few small showers later in the evening, but basically nothing. We thank the forecasters for our day off!

Not so stormy Beaune:

It’s Saturday!!

But no rest for the wicked – or those with grapes! The rain started again on Friday evening ~21h00 – it was still raining at 12h30, but I’ve no idea when it stopped. There were a few spots of rain this morning too, but not enough to really wet – the sun shone brightly from about 14h00 though. There’s the possibility of a storm with hail forecast for Sunday, so tomorrow we have no grapes – but there was plenty to pick today, hence, we triaged from 10h00-19h00 – admittedly with the two obligatory coffee-pauses and a good lunch. I brought the 1973 no-name Romanée St.Vivant – all chocolate, width and with just a faint suggestion of oxidation. It exceeded my expectations!

And the grapes? First, it was the return of the Santenay Villages whose picking was cut short yesterday due to the storm. Beautiful grapes as you can see below. Then (fanfare…) Corton Clos du Roi, then Maranges 1er Croix Aux Moines. Actually the loveliest grapes were the Santenay; the Clos du Roi had no rot but we had to concentrate on eliminating the small, dried grapes from the triage table – and there were lots. One of our parcels of Maranges had quite a bit of unripe clusters – we didn’t really want to pick it until next week – but given the forecast, the grower decided not to wait. Still, a rosé will also be made tonight 😉

First, the Santenay:

Santenay Villages

More Santenay Villages…

Santenay portrait!

Emanuel Giboulot, Thomas Bouley & David Croix discuss what shirts they will wear to the pub tonight…

Idealised next to ‘average’ Corton Clos du Roi 2014

My most ‘Perfect cluster of the week’ award: Maranges Croix au Moine!