Wednesday September 7 – my Burgundy harvest day number 8

Update 12.9.2022(10.9.2022)billn

Oof! This was a day to remember – or better still, forget!

Today we almost exclusively triaged ‘Bourgogne.’ Both our colours of Bourgogne (Bourgogne Côte d’Or) come from the same sector as our Chorey-Blanc that had been affected by hail – only here was a little worse.

Our first two bins of Bourgogne Blanc took one hour to triage – and that was only about 500kg of grapes. At the base, we had great grapes but we had to spend a lot of time removing anything that may contribute ‘off-tastes to the must after pressing – this was effectively all the dried grapes and any with hail impacts. Both rot and oïdium were thankfully rare. What wasn’t rare were the dried berries – not the raisined style of some recent vintages but rather the tiny berries that didn’t develop and went brown and dried. Normally these fall by the wayside on the vibrating table – but not these – boy did they take some removing!

The whole morning was devoted to the white and then a little of the afternoon too. Finally a change of scene – Bourgogne Côte d’Or Rouge – again from the same sector. I can say that triage was slightly easier than for the white but like for the white, the triage table was moving at the slowest possible pace and was replete with 6 pairs of hands with secateurs.

Two days later, checking on the musts – red and white – I can happily report that everything tasted clean – no off-tastes from dried material…

Lunch

Of course, lunch brought some respite. We made a toast to Louis-Fabrice Latour with a 2013 1er from Maison Latour followed by a 1996 Corton:

2013 Louis Latour, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Sous Les Puits
Cork, not DIAM. The colour is just a little darker than I’d like. Aromatically there’s a little too much development here for the age but with generous, slightly structural flavours. Not a wine that would win any prizes but that’s not why it was on the table – adieu Louis-Fabrice.

1996 Ardhuy, Corton-Renardes
Browner colour. The nose that is far from foxy – round, with fresh energy – plenty of cooking spices and sous bois – but nicely clean and gradually offering some floral perfume – really engaging! Fresh as any 1996 should be but never sharp. Energy and clean flavours like the nose – I think we were all a little surprised how very, very good this wine was!
Rebuy – Yes

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