Waiting for the grapes…

The day that Charles Lachaux of Vosne-Romanée finishes his harvest, we are about 60% of the way through, though Charles has quite different viticulture to most domaines. Many others in the Côte de Nuits are still not looking to start until the middle of next week – or even later! Since yesterday, much of the Côte de Beaune white harvest is underway – administratively, Mondays are always the best time to start!

So today, we started with Bourgogne Côte d’Or Blanc from Chorey (where else?), followed by Chorey Rouge, followed by Bourgogne Côte d’Or Blanc (again), followed by Chorey Rouge (again!) – that took our whole day. I may have forgotten to mention the home domaine’s new innovation for 2020 – a second press for the whites – and it’s bigger too – 35 hl versus the 24 of the old one – and it’s not a replacement – we now have 2! Despite the removal of this important bottleneck, we still had to split the picking/triage today as both presses were full. The first session with the Bourgogne Blanc saw ‘almost’ zero oïdium but quite a few impacts from hail – virtually unreported in July which we will probably also see in the white Pernands over the coming days. The weather was dry and warm after this hail, hence, no rot and easy to triage. The red, as yesterday, the easiest Chorey I’ve triaged at this domaine. This parcel was near to a wood which retained a lot of damp near the vines and so plenty of rot too – the trees nearest the vines were cut down last year – it’s made a massive difference.

But I know that you are all on the edge of your seats, straining to know a little of the analytics of these baby 2020 wines – so here you go:

2020 Beaune 1er Blanc, pH 3.2 with about 1.9 g/l of malic acid and a potential alcohol of 13.15
2020 Beaune 1er Rouge, pH 3.3 with about 1.9 g/l of malic acid and a potential alcohol of 13.45
2020 Savigny Rouge, pH 3.2 with about 1.9 g/l of malic acid and a potential alcohol of 13.40

So not much in the way of tax savings if they are exported to the US!

Lunch saw the restoration of our usual traiteur – he had been on holiday. It wasn’t really to mark the occasion, but it turned out that we had some nice wines:

1990 Pierre Marey et Fils, Corton-Charlemagne
A new ‘old’ domaine for me that no longer exists. I believe that Brigitte Berthelemot may be exploiting most of these Charlemagne vines now. A poor cork that really had us laughing – It had clearly snapped with only a small lean of the corkscrew but going in for the second piece I seemingly did the trick with no need for decanting. But when I attempted to pour the wine, nothing happened – there was a third piece still in the neck – oh how I laughed – grr!
Deeply golden in colour. The nose has impact and sweetness – the faintest suggestion of oxidation yet it remained a lovely invitation – with time in the glass taking on a more smoky note and less of that suggestion of oxidation. In the mouth it was powerful, forward, sweet wine with the merest trace of oxidation on the first sip – frankly, I never thought about it thereafter. Clearly for drinking now – but also really for enjoying now – very attractively balanced despite its obvious concentration.
Rebuy – Maybe

2013 Taupenot-Merme, Morey St.Denis 1er La Roitte
DIAM-sealed – no problems of course.
Medium-plus colour. This nose is high-toned, pure and has an engaging, practically floral, dimension that offsets a little graphite-style minerality. In the mouth I kind of like the edginess here – fine acidity, a little direct and structural but pure too. Far from the ripeness of recent vintages – but who needs that? Though for such an excellent 1er cru I might have expected a little more power – but that’s the vintage. Excellent and very much enjoyed.
Rebuy – Yes

2000 Thomas-Moillard, Romanée St.Vivant
I had to go very carefully, but the cork came out in one piece. Here’s a wine (domaine!) that needs 20 years as a minimum – looks like we might be lucky then!
Deeply coloured – they used to like to extract! The nose is wide and brings the impression of silk – complex too but with a little brett I thought – nobody else seemed to care – that’s French wineries for you! In the mouth though, this really showed the nobility of the terroir if not the winemaking – weight of flavour but immaculately textured and delivering waves of flavour – very long finishing too. The nose left me unfulfilled but everyone else loved this wine – while I returned to the Riotte, they finished this bottle!
Rebuy – Maybe

Triage

Nearly empty triage bin…

Triage under the vibrating table

Triage at the end of the traige table

Lunch – with all the parts of the cork!