Right: Beaune’s Saturday market:

The 2025 harvest has started with more of a whimper than a bang, so today (the weekend) I saw fewer teams picking in the vines.

There are some plots of reds being picked – but almost always they are the exceptions and young vines. The heat of 2025 has not been kind to the shorter-rooted younger vines, as many of them have smaller grapes and they show the clear signs of thirst with their dried yellow leaves at their base.

I’m expecting a larger wave of producers making their first foray into the whites on Monday, but today, for the first time this year, there were some notable teams in Chassagne, Puligny and Meursault:

Most famous was Domaine Leflaive who began their picking in their Puligny 1er Clavoillon, and in the same village was the team of Alvina Pernot in Bienvenues Bâtard-Montrachet and some others. To the south, Simon Colin was picking Chassagne 1ers, and to the north, Dominique Lafon was picking the Meursault Narvaux of his own label.

I jogged around the hills of Beaune at midday and saw nobody…