More and more people are attacking their vines. Yesterday Lafon picked his Montrachet, and Lafarge did their usual opening routine of harvesting their Clos du Chateau des Ducs, hand-destemming the grapes through a large ‘sieve’ – as in previous years – then they did the same with their Pommard Pezerolles.
Today, I got the chance to ask Erwan Faiveley how the harvest had started for him: “Our harvest started on Monday in the Côte de Beaune and Mercurey villages, not yet the Givry or the Mercurey 1ers. The whites in Côte de Beaune that were frosted – Bourgogne and Puligny villages, for example – were also harvested, bringing in about 20 hl/ha, but our Bâtard delivered 35-40 hl/ha (they are not yet decanted so it’s not yet fixed) so we can be very happy with that.” Erwan explains that the grapes grew quite well in the last days though it still won’t be a big volume vintage, “The reds are likely to show some tannin from the growing season. One or two vines in the Côte de Nuits are already harvested, including the old vines of Chambolle Fuées. Tomorrow we start in Chablis where we had a welcome few millimetres of rain at the weekend – and there will be Mazis tomorrow too!”
Vincent Dancer coninues to post the most compelling images of the harvest – I leave you with one to finish. Outside of Chablis, Côte d’Or and Chalonnaise, some of the early ripening areas in the Beaujolais Crus are already beginning to be harvested, but the bulk remains on the vines, waiting – though Lafarge (again) started with their Chiroubles today!
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