Just when you thought it was safe to go out – despite the heavy rain in the Côte d’Or on Friday – it seems that some vignerons have taken a chance to harvest the second-set or verjus grapes in their plots. Such things are typically left for the birds as they don’t get the time to sufficiently ripen – but when you have the earliest harvest on record behind you, there is more chance. Of-course, the biggest pain is rolling out (once more) your beautifully cleaned and polished triage and vibrating tables plus the ‘giraffe’ etcetera…
I know that they are not the only ones, but yesterday I happened upon the team of Maxime Cheurlin of Domaine Georges Noellat; despite the rain they had harvested an impressive number of cases of really fine looking grapes from their plots in Chambolle Feuselottes and Grands-Echézeaux – perhaps a Bourgogne Grands-Feuselottes in the making 🙂
Really not a lot of triage needed for these grapes – I’ve seen far, far worse in ‘normal’ vintage times. Maxime told me “If there was ever a vintage to try this, then 2020 is that vintage. I don’t know what this wine will turn out like, but I’m really interested to find out, as the raw materials look lovely.”
