Tada! Day one of the home domaine harvest in Beaune.

About half the domaines in Burgundy have started harvesting by now, my home domaine choosing to wait until the 31st having originally considered the 27th – so why? – let’s first get that out of the way…

Our boss answers: “It’s true that the grapes would also have been properly ripe if we’d started on Saturday but for me the aromatics were still missing – today I’m much more confident in how they smell – I think that waiting was the right decision. The only issue with this delay is that we will lose all the student pickers next week as the new school year starts on Tuesday…”

This is certainly going to be quite a pressurised harvest as most vineyards will be ready for picking quite close together – there is less disparity between the reds and whites this year too – and it’s not just the colours, Chablis is starting to pick now – so it’s geographically ‘compact’ too.

Yesterday evening there was rain in the forecast – Nuits got some and part of the Côte Chalonnaise got plenty – over 20mm – but here in Beaune, all was dry this morning. The boss suggested about 2mm in Savigny – so the possibility of being damp underfoot in the vines – but of no consequence to the grapes we were about pick.

So today was a day of Savigny fruit, starting with 1er cru Hautes Jarrons white and then in the late morning changing over to Hautes Jarrons red – right – also 1er cru. With much cunning (guesswork!) I brought a 2005 Hautes Jarrons for lunch. This being a warm, harvest, we will, almost habitually, be picking the whites in the morning when they are cooler and the reds later in the day. Already at 11h00 the red grapes were warm to the touch – it’s less of an issue for the reds because as soon as they are destemmed they go into the tanks where they will be cooled. We finished our day with a small parcel of Savigny 1er Les Narbantons – finer, cliché, bunches, many with smaller grapes if not quite as ripe as the Hautes Jarrons – but the Jarrons is expected to come in at around 14.5°!

I’ll get more into the analytics as the days progress but the grapes themselves were rather uniformly ripe; not the smallest of grapes but our triage was largely cosmetic – a little of everything could be found – rot, oïdium, dried/raisined grapes and even a few hail impacts for the white – but very little in each case and quite rare were the unripe bunches except where the second-set had been picked. Clearly, the reds have plenty of soluble phenolics – judging by the staining of my fingers already on the first day – but perhaps a little less than in 2019 or 2020.

Of course, more detail as the days proceed and the numbers become available.

2005 JC Boisset, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Hautes Jarrons
A cork that broke in two – fortunately the second part came out in one.
A slightly funky, bretty, leathery nose that could have been 10 years older – air cleaned it up a little but not completely. In the mouth, this was altogether fresher and more interesting – it also showed fine energy. Just a modest – but correct – structure. Quite tasty but I never really warmed to the aromatics.
Rebuy – No