Nothing much to add today – except that there were a number of tonnes of Chorey-lès-Beaune grapes that crossed over our triage table. But we finally finished the parcel at just past 6pm! Two more whites and two (or was it three?) more reds to bring in and we are done!

After yesterday’s rain, today was clear and sometimes bright with temperatures hovering around 20°C. The weather was nice enough that the bins of grapes delivered to us from the vines, stopped bringing in mud with them by the middle of the afternoon!

It’s a little boring for me to keep saying that the grapes were nice – even if they were. Maybe better to think of the lovely fillet-mignon with lentils for lunch – and a new cheese discovery for me – Cantal cheese from the Auvergne. A little creamy, crumbly – similar to an aged cheddar with a nice salty tang – very yum – indeed, so good that I passed on the Epoisses today! Oh, there was another 1979 too – it started spicy like a Nuits or Vosne, slowly adding depth and almost a smoky coffee – right from the start, this was delicious. A surprise – a Beaune. Delicious all the same. Think I’ll have to find something nice for lunch tomorrow!
 

Casse-croute

Training – now don’t drop it!

Lunch

Our heaviest of the day – 376 kg…

After 5 days of being steeped in grape-juice!

There really is a lot of colour coming out of the grapes this year – there’s a much more disgusting view of my hands, but I can’t hold a camera and press the button at the same time – lucky you! The ultimate was 2015 when my hands looked like I had a long-term smoking habit after just 3 days – but 2017 is not far behind – and still more than I remember being the case in 2005. I’ve been told that the level on phenolics/anthocyanins was a record in 2015, so it’s pretty high in this vintage – evidenced by the deep colour coming through in tanks that have macerated only two days…

A band of rain came through about 5am today, but you’d be forgiven for not noticing in Beaune at 8am – as it was practically dry. Rain, not heavy, but consistent waited until closer to 11am to properly set in – thankfully the afternoon became brighter nd brighter – we even ended up with a little sun. Our pickers were in Chorey today – poor them – heavy clay in the soil here and not many stones – their boots must have got bigger and bigger – caked with mud as the rain made its mark. We had both colours of Chorey today – starting with roughly a tonne of chardonnay – planted by Sylvain Pitiot where previously pinot was in the ground – he liked the look of the clay there – was his reasoning. The vines are now about 25 years old and the grapes were good. Then came our marathon – Chorey red – we have over two hectares – which filled the rest of today and probably will fill all of tomorrow too!

Lunch, as every day so-far, was delicious. I brought along a 1978 Pierre Boillot (the father-in-law of François Mikulski) Meursault-Charmes which did indeed charm us with its truffly nose, but at least compared to the 1976 – the last bottle of mine drunk during my last harvest, I think – it was a direct and less open and giving palate, good flavours but with no weight and no caress. Super wine in super condition for its age and I’m only being harsh in the context of that great benchmark!

Tonight a few bottles with a certain Australian winemaker who is visiting Pommard – hopefully I’ll still make tomorrow’s 09h30 start time!
 

Pernand Sous Fretile is go…

Today started with beautiful white grapes but then it was red, red, red…

Following the (white) Sous Fretile was red Savigny 1er Les Vergelesses then a pair of Pernands – first En Caradeux and then a smaller parcel of Les Fichots. The Vergelesses comes from a plot of old vines – roughly 60-years-old, and although needing very little actual triage (the amount of concentration on the grapes passing across the table is the same) the berry size was not the smallest – it is like this every year with particular plat material. The two Pernands were very, very similar in the amount of triage – particular this year is the very modest amount of under-ripe grapes that I’ve been discarding – even in vintages like 2005 or 2015 I’m sure that there was a little more. Despite the ripeness of the grapes – you only need see how brown the pips are – the degrees are not too much – 12° for our Savigny villages, 12.5° for the Corton – despite how sweet the grapes and grape-juice tastes. The acidity seems to offer a little more freshness than either 2015 or 2016 at the same stage, yet analytically it’s really only average.

Note that our chief was up to it again with his blind bottle – this time I was sure that it was (once more) an Ampeau of similar vintage to yesterday’s white. So it was – 1979 again – but my guess was a Volnay – I would never have come up with a Blagny! Like the white this wine was unrecognisable after 10 minutes of air. Bot the aroma and flavour being earthy, pinched and not that tasty to start. Time brought a lovely red fruit note and much more width and richness to the flavour and texture. Definitely worth a refill!

Tomorrow is Saturday and we will be be bringing in grapes on Saturday and Sunday – but tomorrow will be different – we will have rain!
 

Pernand Sous Fretile

Lees from Savigny Aux Vergelesses Blanc

The thin ones always get the most exciting jobs!

2017 Corton (again)

(A part of) Lunch

Savigny Aux Vergelesses Rouge!

Shoveling Beaune Villages into the giraffe…

Just two vineyards to triage today – both red.

We began the day with the last part of our villages Savigny. Here in what is described as the most ‘humid’ part of the vineyard, was a little rot that needed to be removed, but as if to amplify the description of this parcel, something I’ve never seen on a triage table before – and how it survived our 300 kg bins of fruit I’ll never know – a small newt – just looking at everyone as it moved along the table whilst sat on a cluster of grapes! It was on the other side of the table to me and my fingers were too sticky to take a picture – somebody else helped it outside of the cuverie!

Lunch was a wholesome affair, cassoulet-style. As payback for my 1993 Corton yesterday, the chief poured a blind bottle. It was white – clearly – okay deeply golden! It smelled fresh, mineral and old. The first sip was long, narrow and implied a cool place I guessed older than 1985 – it was a 1979. I also guessed it was from Saint Aubin – the chief said ‘It’s a little more noble’ – Puligny 1er Combettes. I have to say that 10 minutes later, with air, that it was a different wine, rounder, fuller and much more impressive. It was probably even harder to guess at this stage – luckily I only needed to be wrong once 🙂

Post-lunch we had Beaune – villages Beaune from nearly 0.9 hectares – so there would be plenty of Beaune. Here was less rot – but still a little – than the second parcel of Savigny.

Not much more to report today, other than the colour is forming very quickly on the Corton and Savigny already in tank.
 

Our tumble-drier in action!

Today, like yesterday, started for us with Savigny Blanc Les Vergelesses – this time from the upper parcel. Also like yesterday, our tumble-drier (above) was the bottle-neck in our process. Once it was full the press programme lasts 2.5 hours – so we can triage some more, but then those grapes have wait for the press to finish – oh, and be emptied! Yesterday we did a little Corton before finishing the last of our white – today we were more patient and finished the white first. A great result – mainly leaves to triage and the occasional bunch with a bit of oïdium. Including all that fell through our vibrating table, we had only 25kg of ‘waste’ from almost 2 tonnes of fruit – it was that clean. And like yesterday, it was delicious.

Whilst waiting for the press we tasted the two cuvées from yesterday, and the Corton, already pink, is wow – for grape-juice, anyway – just a beautiful line of fine acidity despite the weight of flavour – or mainly sugar! Note, yesterday I didn’t listen properly – there isn’t more bourbe (sediment) in the whites this year – the opposite – there’s actually very little, so the tanks won’t need much time to settle before being moved into barrel

The last of the Vergelesses was placed in our press in time for lunch. Pernand blanc, St.Joseph and a little bottle from me as homage to our Corton yesterday; Jadot’s 1993 Domaine Corton Pougets. Despite the cork breaking in two the wine was fine. The nose got better and better in the glass, with detail, complexity, purity and all-round fabulousness – really something! In the mouth a little narrow, direct and intense – good but hardly a giving wine at this stage. So a nose to die for and a palate still to wait for, but for all that a great bottle.

After lunch we had about 4 hours worth of Savigny villages – an old-vine parcel, but a big one – nearly 1 hectare. No oïdium, rather rare porriture – mainly leaves! There’s plenty of juice at this stage and I’ve certainly seen smaller grapes, but the amount of sugar, the viscosity of the juice is impressive. There’s no rain forecast before Saturday and with more and more of the Côte de Nuits starting their harvest before that rain, there’s time for the grapes to shrink – just a little. Still, I sense finer acidity at this stage than in either 2015 or 2016. Let’s see.

Tomorrow there will be more Savigny and then some Beaune villages – it’s a great team here too!
 

Clearing the press

Only 2.5 kilos

Not much bourbe

Great 2017 Corton

Great 1993 Corton

Great looking old-vine Savigny

The next load arrives…

Time to clean…

Day one at the home domaine – and it’s a new home domaine this year! ‘Only’ Côte de Beaune fruit here, but there’s a slight chance I could make a couple of days guest appearance in the Côte de Nuits before I head home – let’s see!

First to say – what great fruit, and delicious fruit too. Grand Cru red and 1er Cru white today – it could be the reverse tomorrow 🙂 The Savigny white is from probably the best white area in Savigny – Les Vergelesses. The domaine have two parcels, high and low – this is the low and we will wait a little longer for the high. Then there was Corton-Renardes – delicious again – the later picked fruit containing both a little chardonnay and pinot gris – less than 1% – both with good ripeness. I have rarely thrown away so little – leaves, the very rare bunch that contained some rot or was a little unripe – but practically nil. The white has quite a lot of bourbe (sediment) so might need closer to 48 hours of settling before being run into barrel – we will see. The largest difference between my old ‘home’ domaine and the new one, is that here the fruit is collected in larger bins – roughly 300 kg worth. Depending on how long they wait to cross our triage table, the weight can significantly increase the amount of free-run juice – which is essentially lost under the vibrating table – I suppose it’s like a little saignée.

If we look at other vintages ending in a seven, then the whites will have some competition – 07 was very good for well-placed vineyards though a little acidic at villages and regional level. The reds, however, will have very little competition – 1947 was the last ‘7’ vintage of any renown – so 2017 looks like the best 7 for red in 70 years! The weather is set fair, so there should be no catastrophes and my prediction should be a relatively safe bet.

This is a relatively young domaine, so have the best yields that they have seen – though their Corton-Charlemagne was badly hit by frost last year, so this year the vines have only a modest quantity of fruit, but otherwise I think they will be pretty happy. That’s enough for day 1!
 

Savigny Les Vergelesses

Washing Savigny Les Vergelesses

Pressed Savigny Les Vergelesses

Careful with that!

New and sharp!

Corton-Renardes

Clean-up

Clean-up

The Clos de Vougeot about 17h00 today.

There’s a wave of new starters in the vines today and interestingly, a number of producers are noting that they are harvesting vineyards on exactly the same day as in 2015 – that will be a good comparison in the future.

In the Côte de Beaune, there are many starting their first harvests in Beaune, Pommard and Volnay – but the whites are not yet over; Dominique Lafon was picking his Montrachet this morning and Jean-Marc Roulot won’t finish his harvest until Thursday. Olivier Lamy makes today his last day of harvesting whilst Patrick Essa of Domaine Bouisson-Charles, usually a later picker, is just starting in his Meursault 1er Crus today and Fabien Moreau also started his campaign in Chablis! I note, with distaste, there were also a couple of machines harvesting in Beaune Vignes-Franches – again!

Today I took the road north, as far as the Clos de Vougeot. Perhaps a dozen different teams were active on the Corton hillside, one in Chorey too but afterwards very little. The Nuits 1ers of Premeaux all the way into Nuits were empty – just an occasional person in the vines – most likely monitoring sugars. Likewise north of Nuits I saw only one team, it looked like in Aux Thorey, but from there it was clear – just two teams in the bottom of Vosne (villages Vosne-Romanée) near the Route Nationale. Of-course no-one in the Clos de Vougeot is ready to pick; I met Sylvain Pataille there – who consults at the Château de la Tour – he explained that in the Clos they can wait at least another week as the weather is set fair. For his own domaine Sylvain will start tomorrow with whites.
 

The Clos de Vougeot

Sylvain Pataille

Old vine Clos de Vougeot of Château de la Tour

The Louis Bouillot harvest started on the 21^st with the first musts coming from the Beaujolais area. Since last Wednesday they have been picking near the Clos de Vougeot (En Bollery above), Vosne-Romanée and Gevrey-Chambertin – today they started in Savigny-lès-Beaune too. Their harvest will consist of, roughly, 30% pinot, 20% gamay and the rest chardonnay – some musts are already fermenting, and with an average of 75 tonnes of grapes per day arriving at the cuverie in Nuits St.Georges, it’s no surprise with all that volume of fermenting juice that all the tanks are aspirated out of the roof, because that’s a lot of CO₂. I hope that the birds on the roof are not too sleepy!

LB make about 15,000 hectolitres (that’s about 2 million bottles) and Frédéric has 50 tanks of juice, each with different colour labels for the different colour grapes – and big tanks – 280 hectolitre tanks! The fermentations are at low temperature – 16-18°C – the aim to keep the finesse and florals. Frédéric thinks that it looks like a good vintage; “But there are two parts to vintage; before and after the rain. After the rain the sugars were perfect for crémant, before that they were borderline high, but so-far we already have more tension than in either 2015 or 2016. The grapes are coming in very clean but the rain has made the grapes more fragile so we have to keep vigilant.”

Four colours of fermenting juice…

So-far Frédéric has 70% of his musts already delivered, but as of today, only 20% of the grapes have been cut – “It’s almost a wave of ripening from the south to the north.” And they really will finish with grapes that come from the Chablis region! Frédéric also pointed out that the colour was coming out of the red grapes so easily this year that no extra time on the skins will be needed – “There will be plenty of rosé in 2017.” Also, starting with this vintage they are evaluating many more parcels, vinifying them separately – “To try to decrypt the terroirs!” They have separated at least 10 different ones at the moment, including the En Bollery parcel – which has its own ‘baby’ press – it takes a mere 2,000 kg of grapes!
 

Frédéric Brand

En Bollery

The view across the road from En Bollery

The day starts with about 12°C but peaks around 23°C – the week seems set like this – that will be perfect.

It’s Sunday so there are not many people ‘about’ – that said I did my touring between 12h30 and 15h30 – so that’s also peak eating time – we are, of-course, in France!

First a little grand cru hommage in Vosne-Romanée – nobody was in the vines and, so-far, virtually nothing has been picked – just Arnoux-Lachaux yesterday in their Aux Reignots…
 

Romanée St.Vivant

Romanée-Conti

La Grande Rue

La Romanée

Amandier…

La Tâche

There was nothing to report in Pommard, but on the far side of the village in Volnay were two teams just starting – Domaine Clerget in their 1er Cru monopole Volnay Verseuil – quite the prettiest triageurs seen this year(!) and on the other side of the road, Mark O’Connell’s team in his 1er Cru monopole of Clos de la Chapelle.

The grapes are looking great this year – and there are plenty of them in most vineyards. The reds have some patches of sun-burn and the raisined grapes are the tastiest I can remember – all very clean. Many of the lower vineyards show some yellow leaves due to the lack of rain in the last weeks. So, it’s looking like a fine vintage, so-far.
 

Hospices Corton-Vergennes

Hospices Corton-Vergennes

Corton-Charlemagne

Corton-Chaumes

Beaune Teurons

Hospices Beaune Teurons

Volnay Clos de Chapelle

Volnay Clos Verseuil

Volnay Clos Verseuil