Beaune 1er Belissand…
Our harvest day 3: A cloudy day and cooler than of recent – still, a little muggy for my evening 12km run – high above Beaune I thought I saw some people still picking at 19h30, but is was a vendangeurs’ campsite above (and next to) Les Aigrots!
Just two vineyards harvested today: We started the day with Beaune 1er Belissand – and white too. This is a new cuvée for the domaine, a vineyard bought in 2015, next to the domaine’s 1er Reversées, 0.43 hectares, but it was missing at least 60% of its plants, so the domaine decided to replant, and to white. This, the first harvest (Bourgogne or grand cru, it is allowed the label after 3 years, but not before – there is practically no fruit before!), only about 15 hl/ha was produced, and the grapes showed some oïdium and a more variable ripeness vs our Vergelesses – so we had a little triage to do – mainly because the grapes of such young plants are much closer to the ground than for (more) mature vines – but there was no rot.
We had plenty of waiting around in the morning – the young Belissand vines with low-hanging fruit, despite low yielding, take as much time to harvest as a higher yielding vine – and then we (of-course!) we had to wait for the press again – two large cases of Belissand had to sit and wait. Eventually Beaune 1er Reversées arrived – time to exercise the secateurs – except no, hardly anything to cut – more a case of weeding out the dried berries and pulling out the clumps of verjus that shouldn’t have been harvested. No rot, no oïdium – excellent shape and thick skins.
2000 F&D Clair, St.Aubin 1er Les Dents du Chien
Nose of lanolin and freshness – I automatically think it’s much older. Direct, mineral, a good mid-palate weight and a really very good width of finishing flavour. Certainly a wine with acidity, but with mid and finishing flavour to balance. Enjoyable… time in the glass and the nose is a little rounder with a sweeter suggestion of peach. I would still never have guesses 2000 – more like late 1980s to early 1990s – but it’s a mature character – not oxidation.
Rebuy – Yes
And did I mention a little something about analytics in the last days?
Well, here’s a nice comparison between our Corton-Renardes and our red villages Savigny – you’d be hard-pressed to separate them:
Corton 13° natural, pH 3.2, even the Savigny was 12.6° natural with pH 3.3 though seemingly the fresher to taste. Both are very respectable acidities given many the discussion about the heat. The Corton has 1.9 versus 2.4 g/l of malic acid in the Savigny, and the total acidities were 3.5 and 3.8 g/l (H2SO4respectively.
There are 2 responses to “2018 harvest – 30 august”
Hi Bill, what about the acidities for the whites? How are they compared to 2015?
Bill do you know the original owner of the Belissand, was it Didier Darvin by any chance? Also do I assume from your notes that the first Premier Cru vintage will be after 2021?
best Phil