Arlaud Vendange Day 11, Thursday 13th September 2018

And so to our final day. The inevitable tinge of sadness/melancholy for me that I’d soon be leaving this wondrous place, for which I have developed so much affection for over the years from first arriving in 2008. I guess quirky Morey-St-Denis is deep in my soul, along with the domaine, the terroirs, vines and fellow vendangeurs over the years. Well, there’s always another year, meantime we ain’t quite finished yet so need to address this day before we’re ‘done’. I was quietly cum confidently thinking we might just have a few local Bourgogne type terroirs to do, and that ‘management’, in all probability, were likely aiming to have us done by lunch or, at ‘worst’, just after. How wrong would I be, in reality this day turned, from my own perspective, into something of a very surprising organisational, management, debacle which was almost a nightmare – BUT we came through it !

The early morn started cloudy and a lot, lot, cooler finally – praise be – than any previous current vendange a.m. start . A bit late maybe but nevertheless welcome. My thoughts had already started to turn to what I might do in the immediate vendange aftermath (as I always want to stay a day or two for ‘me time’ and had a list of errands/missions to undertake for a long time friend) and when I might return to the UK. For now though a few first thing photos to ‘grab’, including the expectant team, waiting vehicles, sun coming up over the Raphet vegetable patch, and J-P Feral wearing his favourite (well, seems to me it’s his favourite as has made me smile in past years) tee shirt with its ‘j’ai un charme fou’ chest wording translating as ‘I have a crazy charm’ – well, guess such is one way of describing himself, but perhaps he has, oh yes – he does, bless him, a remarkable man !

Usual time, usual departure, usual absence of other teams yet in the vines (as we will be first again) but a not usual (in any way) first plot which, personally, location wise came as a big surprise as entirely new to me for the first time in nine years. Aligote (again) as well, another surprise. The sky first thing as we’d left the village had been remarkable with broken cloud shot through with a striking orange rising sun. Superb. Location wise we were again across the RN 74 east of the village, past the grande maison plot of a couple of days ago, going slightly further north on the same metalled vineyard road (Chemin des Aires ? Or the unnamed road below that ?). Map wise I’d estimate we were maybe below the edge of ‘Les Crais’ or ‘Les Cognees’, possibly as far as being in ‘Les Pertuisees’ (but maybe not that far), looking west up to the village some way off. The Aligote has looked really, really good this year, the summer must have favoured it, and Cyprien subsequently confirmed it was indeed a good year for the varietal – he said it can be difficult to get the right skin colour but no such issues this year. Both quality and quantity, some notably large bunches, including here on this early morn. First plot done we moved only a short distance for Aligote Plot 2 which took us up to after 10.00 a.m. and thereafter, on an unplanted area of rough grass/bare ground, took our by now well established casse-croute and drinks break. Seemed a little longer interlude than usual, chance to take more photos of both the team and looking up to the Morey village properties in the distance, but eventually back to work. I was still in quite relaxed, methodical, no need to ‘bust a gut’, picking mode, my mind kinda dialled in to a wishful thinking likely lunchtime or just before/after finish.

Post Aligote 1 & 2 we moved to some Bourgogne Rouge. Memory is a bit hazy here as to whether it was close to our rest area or elsewhere. I’m fairly sure it was the latter, and on the other (south) side of the village, still ‘below’ the main road, reached along the Chemin des Poisots . We were in the same sort of area we’d picked Aligote on the 7th September but some rows along, nearer to the commercial property on the top part of the Rue d’Epernay nearest to the main road, with the (long) rows running from the Chemin above up to the edge of the RN74. Long rows again here, can’t remember now if we made more than one pass, or if we doubled up – don’t think we did. A couple of photos though, taken at 12.03, as we walked along the grassed top of the vineyard just below the main road to some more rows, give some clue as to what was now happening and, for me, wheels coming off in terms of management. The sharper reader amongst anyone reading this might be ahead of me by now and thinking 12.00 = lunch (and lunch means back to our village base – unless on the Hautes-Cotes). I’ve not worn a watch for years, and don’t mean just for the vendange, and (for the vendange) don’t carry my mobile phone, taking the view I can check it lunch or evening & if someone wants me they can leave a voicemail or send a text. As such, in the vines I only tend to have a general impression what the time might be, unless I ask someone. I had asked a little earlier to be told it was 11.30 at the time but, thereafter at c12.00, it was abundantly clear we weren’t going for lunch (or not then anyway). At first, I didn’t think a lot of this, surmising we maybe hadn’t got much more to do, and thus ‘management’ had decided we would just see off the last vines. Herve had disappeared as well. Maybe he’d gone for his lunch !

One thing I’ve learnt from the vendange, if I didn’t know it already from travelling in France, is how very seriously important lunch is to the French. Quite different from the UK. So, musing on no break immediately for lunch, although confidently thinking we’d maybe soon finish altogether, I wondered how my colleagues would react. Initially, they didn’t, I guess maybe thinking the same as me, but as we continued in the same general area to move around, cutting small plots/small numbers of rows here and there, time passed and soon I was conscious of some collective unease and mutterings from some – not unreasonably I thought.

By approaching 14.30 we were about to start a ‘scruffy’ short rows section of Bourgogne Rouge I knew of old, which always has extensive foliage & is difficult to cut, now on the east side of the Chemin des Poisots where the road kinks & continues for maybe c200 yards towards the RN74. Here matters got a little more serious and, whilst I wouldn’t say there was potential mutiny, a drinks break was the catalyst for in charge Climent not unsurprisingly to come under some semi (or quite)-serious & unhappy verbal challenging of the “What on earth is going on”, “What about lunch”’ “It’s 14.30 and we’ve had no lunch” variety. Whilst to a certain extent, if it had been justified to me, I could pass on lunch, nevertheless I was pretty baffled myself what was going on and why. I think Climent got on his phone, or it rang, but can’t be sure about this but, whilst we were sitting around, and at least we were having a rest, Cyprien turned up suddenly in his Volvo SUV and started dishing out casse-croute type baguette sandwiches. Hum ! To me, it looked like there’d been a bit of a panic on to get some sort of food, belatedly, to ‘the troops’. No one offered me a sandwich; but I was standing on the fringe of the group, at the start of the latest row I’d been allocated, feeling tres fatigue (and the rest) and frankly couldn’t be bothered over a bit of chewy bread & what might be in it. I was more bothered about an explanation as to what was going on and what we were going to be doing after our latest location. No explanation was forthcoming.

Break over, we started the latest. I’d cut a couple of bunches whilst fighting & inwardly cursing foliage then, on my knees, had to duck and lean into the vine to allow a couple of others to pass by me down my row as we were numerically enough to double or triple up. All vendange I’d managed to avoid any injury, including cutting any fingers, and had settled on a great pair of striking yellow & black robust gloves I’d bought for the 2017 vendange but not worn. I’d been wearing these ideal, tough, but flexible gloves from about Day 2 or 3 – after the rubber gloves I’d started in had become ripped quickly & fallen apart – and whilst I’d nicked a couple of the glove finger tips nothing more serious had happened. But, now, the inevitable occurred and, probably distracted by ducking out of the way of the others, seriously tired, and struggling with foliage and awkward bunches, I cut the top of my left index finger in an eye watering way with a loud yelp. Fearing the worst, I gently removed the glove and, wiping some blood, realised I’d actually cut across the top of the finger nail, not quite from one side to the other. The finger nail quick, or some of it, seemed to be hanging out. Some sort of relief came from gently sucking my finger as all I could think to do and waiting a few moments for the pain to diminish. Looking again at my finger/nail I realised if there was some consolation I’d cut across the fingernail or otherwise matters might have been more serious. Pain & discomfort though was followed by some ‘red-mist’ anger ‘at the world’ as, rightly or wrongly, I was blaming our/my by now mid afternoon predicament, fatigue, etc etc for cutting myself so painfully & ironically almost at the end of the vendange. This anger sustained my gently pulling the glove back on, the glove finger tip cut open, and continuing down my row where fortunately my doubling/tripling companions had covered for my impromptu medical pause. I was still inwardly seething though as we got back on the track through the vines and walked a distance to a large tree which I knew, of old, was a ‘marker’ for the Arlaud plot of Gamay which we’d not been to for at least two years (frosted in 2016, not sure why no visit in 2017). The rows here are horizontally ‘across’, rather than up/down from Chemin to RN74, and finish on a track, on the other side of which is a PVC Windows, Doors, Conservatory business. Herve by now was back with us but just acting as a couper (picker). The quality, and quantity, of the Gamay here was quite impressive, and I might have been more impressed if the afternoon wasn’t still moving on with no apparent final end in sight. I did have something of a second (or third) wind here and picked well, finger still very painful, taking some care not to catch it again. We were doubled, or tripled, again but as we finished I realised there was someone lagging behind me (can’t recall who now) and went back to help them get ‘over the line’. As we then exited the rows, praise be, I thought I’d heard more than one mention ‘that was indeed it’, and we’d finished, with it now well after 15.00 hrs. Seizing the moment I shook hands with a few around me (which no one queried !) before taking off knee pads, gloves etc & climbing wearily into the van front seat alongside J-P Feral who, incongruously, was chomping on a large banana, having ‘recycled’ the skin by throwing into the vines.

So, I thought we’d finished ! That comfy, relaxing, thought lasted, having moved from the Chemin des Poisots going north onto the Chemin des Petites Rues, as far as the latter’s junction with the Rue des Jardins, when I realised, with deep sinking feeling, that we weren’t heading back to ‘upper’ Morey but instead were retracing our morning steps which we did until coming to a plot I well recognised. This was Bourgogne Rouge but as about as far east as it is possible to go without ‘hitting’ the railway line. We first visited this plot only a few years ago i.e it didn’t feature at all in my first years at Arlaud – whether it’s a new acquisition or has been picked by the domaine team/machine initially I couldn’t say. I think we did this in 2016 (we definitely did in 2017) but whichever of those two years is in my head it was a complete so and so of a plot to deal with. I go on about ‘long’ rows but the one’s here I’m pretty sure are the longest we do. Just what one needs late in the afternoon on a supposed (by now I was a doubter) final day. So, fatalistically, everyone seemingly past moaning or complaint by now but, like me, apparently grimly determined to see matters out, we set off down the rows – at least tripled up, myself thankfully with two ‘good uns’, Laetitia and the Japanese guy. The only laughter and chat seemed the preserve of the porteurs. And so to a staggering (for me) exit of this last row. This WAS absolutely ‘it’. Climbing one last time into the van it was 17.15 which I could hardly comprehend, about as at odds with what I’d expected as possible to imagine. I’m pretty sure this was, without a doubt, the most ‘sauvage’ and unpleasant last ‘sting in the tail’ day in my 9 year domaine vendange history – ultimately grim ! Total relief, waves of fatigue, etc etc were all mentally mixed up with bemusement at what we’d been led to throughout the day. Ultimately, I pondered, Cyprien (if not Herve although I wonder here) must have been ‘hell bent’ on our finishing on this day at all costs – which must have been/can only be the explanation for where we’d been, timings, no formal lunch etc etc – if understandable. In essence we’d had a very full day indeed (!) and finished about ‘normal time’. Incredible. I also reflected overall, as we drove back to base, just where we had been throughout the whole vendange and the sites/terroirs we’d picked. We’d been to places, despite 9 years, I’d never been to before. We MUST have picked absolutely every plot of vines the domaine owns or has on a negoce basis (except the NSG I’ve mentioned previously), certainly the ‘lesser’ sites. I psyched myself up for one last bucket & secateurs cleaning session when we got back. Arlaud have always been for me unique in that most (it seems) other domaines make a very noisy (vehicle horns etc) last return to their bases when they’ve finished and often decorate vehicles with pieces of vine branches, foliage etc but we’ve never done this, 2018 no exception, with a very quiet, everyone alone with their own thoughts, return to Morey. Manoeuvring the vehicles to finally park up in the Arlaud yard Herve called out there was no need to wash buckets or secateurs that evening – a let off of sorts although I’d have ‘happily’ done, just to draw a final line on proceedings. Heading wearily though for my room, mentally working out my evening timings, I peeled off into the washroom/ toilet ‘basement’, ‘ceremoniously’ confining my battered, almost worn out knee pads, and by now very second hand gloves, to the waste wheelie bin therein seeing no merit/need to take such back to the UK, well though those items had served me. Only remained to get my wash bag and have a shave and cleansing shower before the evening proceedings – latter to be subject of a separate ‘note’ hereafter. BUT, we’d finished, thank goodness, an ultimately satisfying, if probably longest (in days) vendange I’d worked in 11 years (9 at Arlaud). Phew ! Just one stand out ? The heat throughout, without a doubt !

Jusqu’à la prochaine 😉. Paulee, and final two days roaming detail to follow.
Marko de Morey 1st October 2018.

Arlaud Vendange Day 10, Wednesday 12th September 2018

By now it was definite that we’d finish Thursday, although how far into Thursday, and what was left to do, weren’t clear. There was also an odd mention of a post finish Paulee celebration (but not ‘that kind of paulee were one bring’s one’s own wine – just a party with food & drink provided by Arlaud). But, as I hadn’t attended one of those for a few years – 2017’s ‘helpfully’ took place at a Chambolle restaurant circa 2 weeks after my return to the UK – and prior to that there wasn’t one for a few years, I wasn’t ‘getting my hopes up’ although, curiously, in a brief conversation, Cyprien had smilingly hinted at a surprise for me after the vendange had concluded – or at least that’s what I thought he said without remotely having a clue what he meant !

For today, Day 10, we turned out to have a full Hautes-Cotes day. I suppose if I was a lazy so and so, or was by now bored & tired with my ‘diary’, then I could take an easy option and just say ‘Hautes-Cotes’ all day and add the pictures – but that wouldn’t be ‘on’ would it 😉 ? There are plenty of pics so it will be over to Editor Nanson to make his ‘picks of the pics’.

The Hautes-Cotes chez Arlaud might be divided neatly into two distinct elements:- 1) the owned, high trained, short but steeply sloped Chardonnay site, below/on the way to Arcenant; and 2) the quite large, negoce, plot of Pinot Noir on a plateau, high above Vosne, the nearest human habitation of note the hamlet(s) of Concouer-Corboin which, in addition to viticulture, seem to specialise in blackcurrant growing, presumably for cassis etc, and maybe other fruits.

Our first destination, sensibly, as its both the furthest away and does not take long at all to ‘do’ was the Chardonnay site. This is reached for you geography buffs by taking the D25 from those dratted (much scope here for a ruder word or two) traffic light cross roads on the north side of Nuits – in my circa 2 weeks on the Cote I must have passed through this junction innumerable times and never once ‘managed’ to ‘get the traffic lights on ‘green’. Moving out of Nuits, having passed the Intermarche supermarket, one enters a green, wooded, valley of the Le Meuzin river, passing the La Gentilhommiere hotel before one comes to, and passes through, the village of Meuilley. I really like the look of Meuilley, albeit I’ve only ever seen it in limited scope from vendange transport, but it strikes me as the sort of place, if I were to ever have a place in France (I wish), which would suit me well. There’s some very nice looking, older, property. Meuilley is also home to the redoubtable Jean-Pierre Feral, long time, 70+ vendangeur, and my regular van front seat companion. Today, though, given our travel, J-PF would join us in his Citroen once we arrived. From Meuilley we continue on the D25 vers Arcenant, until we arrive/stop at a large, grassy area on a sweeping bend before Arcenant (another village I’d look to properly look at – Aurelien Verdet is an occupant here who’s wines I know a little of and who’s cuverie I’d like to visit). Leaving the vehicles on the grassy area we cross the road and take a path/rough track upwards to the right with vines commencing immediately, high trained Pinot Noir. We continue up this track for maybe a quarter of a mile before coming to the Arlaud plot of, also high trained, Chardonnay. I’ve never counted how many rows Arlaud have here but there must be perhaps 5 or 6. The vines are planted up/down slope which is notably steep. The gaps between the rows are very wide, why I’m not sure, more than wide enough for a vineyard tractor (though too steep for one of those me thinks), probably wide enough for 2, possibly 3, such machines. Being high trained means picking is something of a joy compared to the Cote’s low vines and little serious bending is required. We work these vines normally two vendangeurs to a row, but either side, so one has to be careful unless between you it might be you agree to individually work different sections between posts. In this case I was paired with always highly enthusiastic 17 yr old youngster, Ugo, but as we had enough bodies, the sole, very pleasant Japanese guy (never knew his name, shame on me – in one photo from here with white top, blue neckerchief, grey pants) on the team also joined us. I really like this plot, the vines always seem highly productive in terms of Chardonnay grape volumes, this year no exception. The wine I’ve had in differing vintages has always been very much enjoyed (I must get some !) but is not, as far as I’m aware, imported to the UK – a sad omission, someone’s ‘missing a trick’ imho. What is utterly essential, as seemingly always key in picking white grapes properly, is thorough leaf stripping to make sure no fruit is missed. Its ‘easy’ to pick the big bunches, naturally less so with smaller one’s, when leaf growth is exuberant. It was quite a chilly morning here as we left Morey and arrived on the site but as the sun got going it was just glorious. The rolling, lush green, topography and view over to Arcenant all quite picturesque, with a pleasant, satisfied feeling of accomplishment stroll back to the transport (see photo captioned ‘picturesque walk etc). So, all quite smartly over & done with, and off we go to what will, somewhat differently, occupy us for the rest of the day.

From the grassy sward roadside below Arcenant we drop back down the D25 until it’s ‘back on itself’ turn off/junction with the D109 just by the roadside, interesting looking, Restaurant Le Meuzinc. The D109 initially climbs steeply uphill until levelling out somewhat heading to Concoeur but before we arrive there, we go right, taking a narrower twisty road with a couple more turns onto a track until we come to the expansive, plateau area, crossed by large electricity pylons. On our right are the innumerable area of vines, to our left a large rough grassed area (see ‘team rest’ photos) which goes into the distance. If one were to continue up the track and down the far side of the plateau/ escarpment one would come to Nuits or Vosne. The lower edge of the plateau is shielded by trees/hedge as is the ‘top’ boundary we initially work our way up to which has a lovely, small, house in the top right corner (looking up site from bottom left). The site slopes gently upwards from the bottom corner where we arrive to the top boundary, also wooded, before the ground drops away on the far side. Beyond the top edge, and through the hedge to the left, is another large area of high trained vines. I’ve no idea who’s these are (maybe multiple ownership) but I’ve often, in previous years, seen this worked/cut by the ‘dreaded’ harvesting machine(s). In terms of machines I’d hardly seen any this year so far, literally only one or two, and those on the main roads, but Bill told me he’d seen many more than I. One of my memories from 2017 was being shocked to witness a harvesting machine picking next to us one morning in Chambolle Bussieres, not least as it was working for Raphet, with Gerard Raphet observing. So much for the domaine claiming, or at least the North Berkeley Imports site claim, ‘Harvest is done by hand’ – well, not for the above site, last year, at least.

Initially, we ‘tooled up’ (buckets, secateurs etc) and Climent commenced allocating us our individual rows. Speedy, always Crocs footwear & pink bandana wearing, Laetitia had the first, outside, row which was shorter, as angled to the track boundary, with me next, full length row, and Cedric inside next to me. We were about to start, indeed I recall I might have picked a bunch or two, before we were called to a halt, told to leave buckets at the start of one’s row, and assemble for the drinks/casse croute break – made sense but why we’d been about to set off I’m not sure – maybe Climent had initially forgotten the break ! Since leaving the near Arcenant Chard site and arriving here the temperature had climbed, and to some extent continued to do so, but whilst by now an utterly glorious day on this plateau, it never got ridiculously hot as around Morey and there was the occasional gentle, most welcome, breeze. I’ve seen some very ‘varied’ weather up here over the years since we first came here in 2013, memory particularly always to remain ‘scarred’ by the horrors of Oct 2013’s late harvest freezing cold and wet, to say nothing of the extensive rot, but 2018 is absolutely the best visit ever – everything ‘just right’. The grapes were as clean as ever and plenty of volume, again if not just to 2107 level. Indeed, it seemed, as we progressed, getting much further up the rows (away from the trucks until the latter were moved to plot top edge), that the porteurs were struggling to ‘keep up’. Laetitia finished her shorter row in good time, although I was slightly chuffed she hadn’t left me too far way behind, and I was ‘up’ on Cedric and feeling good/going well. Laetitia moved into the top of my row and worked down towards me, such that we eventually met. By then I’d come to an enforced stop as my bucket was full to overflowing, if not way over full. I managed to pick a few more vines by adding to the by now adjacent/approaching Laetitia’s bucket before the inevitable – her’s became as full as mine leaving us both ‘stopped’, as was Cedric, & having to wait a few minutes to be relieved of our burdens by easy going porteur, Jackie’, he of the extravagant, well manicured, twirl ending moustache.

We continued methodically working the rows, helping others we might finish before, up until lunch. There was quite a lot of aerial activity up here on this day of both the natural and ‘man made’ varieties. I think we must have been maybe directly above, or on the flight path to, the aerodrome near Nuits (think I’m right in saying there is one ?). That aerodrome though would not have catered for the French Air Force jets that overflew. The most spectacular was a formation of five such jets that, if not an actual aerobatic team, certainly looked/flew like one, coming over very low, late morning, slidingly inter changing formation positions in ultra slick fashion as they did so. Jaw droppingly impressive. Individually almost as impressive, maybe more so in noise and speed, were the couple of delta winged (Mirage ?) fighter/fighter bomber jets that also came over singly at different points. The first one must have been travelling at ‘some’ speed as initially I looked towards the noise, failed to spot anything, then looking right realised the actual jet was way further on, disappearing rapidly into the distance going north. A number of light planes also flew low over during the day together with a large, noisy, very low helicopter in the afternoon. Lunch, the full monte of entrée, main and dessert, was ‘al fresco’, being brought to us in the outside caterers sealed (for keeping warm) boxes, by Cyprien in his Volvo along with drinks, cutlery, etc etc. Made sense as to return to Morey for lunch & come back would have cost a lot of time. Wife, Carole, also arrived with the three youngest pre school age children. I can’t now, for the life of me, remember what we ate. Was a relaxed affair with individuals sat on upturned fruit cases, buckets, or in open vehicle doors/rears. Having eaten I initially had a wander, first going along the plot edge (we lunched at the top, the vans having been brought up) to the top southern corner to have a look at a lovely small house I’ve always admired/coveted which sits there. Must just be a superb place to live, if remote, and maybe not a bundle of laughs in the winter (more of that below). I didn’t want to get too close and be too nosey but its an ace property. All was so still here as well, my colleagues some way from me, just birdsong and breeze in the foliage behind me. Lovely ! Retracing my steps back past the team and vehicles I took a right, thinking I would progress beyond our boundary and maybe look over the escarpment edge to any views down on Nuits/Vosne. More vines were on my left, shrubs and thickets on my right. It was getting a lot hotter ! I went some distance without coming to the vista I anticipated, the ground not dropping away as quickly as I thought it might but, wary of picking re-commencing with me stranded, thought it best I get back quickly just in case. I had no need to fear as everyone was still in post lunch relaxing mode. As I turned back onto our site I noted a green post box set back from the track on my left, not quite in the bushes. I was quite surprised, if not quite taken aback, to note the names on the box, which was clearly for the house above, were Denis Berthaut (of the eponymous Fixin domaine), his wife, and charming daughter Amelie who, of course, has now followed her father as the Domaine Berthaut winemaker and seems to be making quite a name for herself. I have some of her 2013 wines (Fixin, Gevrey, Vosne) bought EP, as yet untried. Getting back to the vehicles, I saw a pair of some sort of raptor (birds of prey) coming towards the vines from the north, seemingly quartering the ground for prey but, seeing us, they moved away amongst the pylons and disappeared. I came to Cyprien and Carole and mentioned noting the Berthaut ‘presence’. Cyprien explained to me the house is for summer occupation as it only has gas bottle, and small wind turbine, energy, plus of course he cited winter weather and access as ‘out of season’ issues. All very interesting. With the team still lazing about I noted Herve was cleaning all the team secateurs in a couple of buckets so gave him a hand. As we finished washing them he counted them from bucket to bucket, arriving at a total of 30 – the one he was looking for. He’s always been appropriately very keen on accounting for the secateurs. Was interesting for me to be aware we were now a team of c30, still quite sizeable, and adequate for what we were doing, if some way off the peak number of 47 (listed anyway) at vendange start.

Eventually we re-commenced the afternoon ‘shift’. A word, mentioned in past years, but for any new readers, about the ground on this site. It’s the normal/usual type earth interspersed with small rocks/stones from the bottom edge of the plot where we started but, as one progresses up the rows, the stones/rocks become progressively more prevalent and larger, such that by the top edge of the plot the ground is covered by very large rocks and flat stones which can be difficult to walk on, and worse to kneel on ! I’ve not walked amongst Chateuneuf-du-Pape’s galet vineyards but am guessing the top section of ‘our site might be vaguely similar. The afternoon continued with solid graft. The rows are long here. In addition to the full team circa mid-afternoon drinks break either the porteurs, Herve or Climent moved amongst us with water vessel and plastic cups for quick drinks. And so to late afternoon which would have finished unremarkably except, for your’s truly, with another porteur ‘clash’. Am not wishing to wrongly give any impression I’m picking fights here & there but if something’s palpably wrong and working against the greater team good I’m not just going to rollover and accept it. In this instance, I’d finished my last full row quite well and as usual used my own initiative, or was directed, to help others. Initially I helped finish a couple of rows that were almost done. I then volunteered myself to Climent who pointed me to 3 or 4 rows adjacent where the pickers were quite a shocking distance up the rows, some way from finishing. The guys here were not the quickest and it wasn’t necessarily a surprise to see one or two of them understandably ‘lagging’ nearing the end of the afternoon and in long rows. I made my way up one row to join the individual therein and started at the next piquet (stake post) from where he was. I’d noted, with a little inward disquiet, as I’d walked up the row that the common denominator for this lagging group was their porteur. This was a big, local, guy – a regular annual porteur by the name of Cyril. I think it would be fair to say that probably even Cyril’s family, friends & associates would not credit him as a gentleman of ‘finesse’. I’d long noted his lack of mechanical sympathy, if only with vehicles, it being notable that whilst he often drove a truck aggressively from domaine start in the morning to whatever our first site might be, he was never then called upon to drive between sites and cuverie, but then became a porteur. I’ve never seen him cut grapes and doubt he ever would which is ok if he’s first class in his chosen area. It didn’t take me long to grasp just what might have been impacting this ‘lagging’ group to impinge on performance/efficiency. After about the 4th or 5th quasi bullying demand from Cyril to me (and others around me) that I empty my far from full bucket, such was his demanding frequency, often when I was on my knees, or might have just dropped to my knees, that I ‘snapped’ and in the best limited French I could muster sort of gave a shocked Cyril a ‘piece of my mind’. He responded with something unintelligible to me, not with anger, but by then I was picking again and ignored him. Within a couple of minutes, seemingly from a pathetically tale telling Cyril going straight to him, Climent arrived on the scene. Fair shout to Climent, his first words to me were “Did I want another porteur”? The answer to that was “No, not necessarily but, hang on, we need to talk……….” as here was the chance for the moral high ground, then and for the future if necessary. Abandoning picking for the moment, with the guys around me standing & listening, and in my best mix of French & English (it helped Climent has some English) I avoided undue personalising but, genuinely stressing and coming from the team efficiency and best working practice angles, I outlined to Climent (whom I think had ‘got it’ already) that it was no coincidence the guys around me were behind and needed help, and that a large influencing factor thereto was the ridiculously inefficient, bogging down way, that Cyril had ‘brought to proceedings’ by constantly seeking not full bucket emptying at far too regular intervals, and in so doing constantly having the guys up and down. Only as I now type this, as didn’t occur to me at the time, am I now realising there was more than likely ‘method in Cyril’s madness’ in that, doubtless once he had a part filled case, he could troll off to the truck and have a rest, drink & smoke before coming back & causing more discord/slowing down. To digress slightly here, Cyril was one of just a couple of guys who’s embraced vaping, something personally I abhor more than smoking. Cyril’s vape (correct term ?) of choice was something with a particularly obnoxious, sickly sweet, odour which I seriously objected to having clouds of blown in my vicinity, albeit this was nothing to do with the current spat & I never mentioned it. Back to the issue, I guess the guys who’s buckets he was insisting on emptying didn’t realise the collective ‘disruption’, as in one or two cases first year participants, or otherwise not realising what was going on. Coming new to the scene I quickly did and wasn’t for taking lying (or kneeling) down ! The discussion between self and Climent concluded with his nodding, not disagreeing, but leaving us to continue with not just Cyril who stationed himself in the row farthest from me (!) but with another porteur or two of the more sympathique variety, one of whom winked to me. Climent also rounded up the by now resting, nattering, rest of the team and applied them to work from the bottom of the rows we were struggling in such that the efforts of the whole team soon wrapped things up in a suitably peaceful environment. There were no interested or intrigued questions to me as we walked back to the vehicles, nor was I avoided, hence I’m quite sure the collective knew what had gone on and were in total support or doubtless I’d have been in for different treatment ! Vendange politics eh 😉 ? There can be a lot more to ‘this game’ than just a bucket & secateurs ! As a postscript I heard nothing more, be it from Herve as we left the site (and he’d have surely mentioned if I were in the wrong, nor afterwards from Cyprien, and most intriguingly the next day Cyril seemed to go out of his way to pleasantly greet, and even high five, me !!! Definitely a moral victory but all wholly unnecessary in the first instance.

And so we left the Hautes-Cotes plateau for another year, but I’d definitely seen it at its ‘best’ this year, and in a wholly different, more positive, light than any previous year. It had been just glorious. Our route back to Morey was wholly different to the one we came in by but of course we’d come thro Nuits & to the Chard site initially. Coming off the site, past all the blackcurrant cultivation (which must have irrigation judging by the flexible hosepiping along the rows of bushes) we turned north on the D109 with Concoeur off to our left and headed towards Corboin but taking a right at a crossroads and heading on down into Vosne-Romanee still on the D109. This is an interesting drive as leave the wooded slopes behind & emerge into the Vosne vineyards. The road initially passes between ‘Les Barreaux’ and ‘La Combe Brulee’ before passing through ‘Aux Brulees’ (ummm makes me thinks of the Rene Engel version – sadly no longer !) with some nifty, posh stone walling in these sites, then sweeps right now between ‘Les Suchots’ to the left and initially ‘Les Richebourgs’ to the right before also on this side coming to Romanee St-Vivant. Then into the village on the north side, past various well known vigneron name properties, Herve also pointing me to the premises of DRC before we headed to, and left onto, the RN74 and so back to Morey for bucket/secateurs cleaning, own gear cleaning, and a reviving biere or two from the Pub d’Arlaud. I don’t think it was this evening, but maybe 2/3 before but, after cleaning duties I’d been heading for my room which direction had taken me towards the entrance gates and noted a BMW X6 in our gateway (shared with the old Raphet premises). The driver called towards me that he was looking for the Arlaud premises with my confirming he was in the right place. By way of further explanation he told me he had a beer delivery! Honestly have to say I’ve never seen beer in bulk (here 6 x small metal barrels) delivered by a BMW X6 !! I helped his reversing all the way to the top of the yard (the passage way for vehicles to the open yard from the road is a bit tight and narrow) where the relaxing guys enjoying their late afternoon beers were more than happy to help the BMW driver unload. Needless to say he was from the company who’d supplied all the beer dispensing equipment and liquid itself. Curiously he didn’t want to take any empty barrels but left them for a later date. Our beer supplies were assured to the end of the vendange – well done whoever ordered the additional supplies !! Reckon it would be fair to say no one was missing previous years end of day red or white wine !

The above was more or less ‘it’ for the day but I had another evening appointment in Beaune so, getting changed and presentable, I headed off leaving the other lodgers to their liquid refreshments and pending evening meal. My soirees to Beaune involved a little personal responsibility which came with the keys to the roadside huge, metal, front gates. These are always locked at night and wall side attached metal bars put in situ, with a pair of inner gates also shut, one of which has a reinforcing bar to the passage way wall . I’d learnt in a previous year, thro bitter experience of being locked out late at night, due to ‘someone’ who’d been deputed to leave locking the gates until I returned forgetting me (!), that it was vital I had the keys. On that historic occasion I’d only got in by making so much noise, including car horn, to waken someone to let me in, that I’d probably woken most of Morey – but the undesirable alternative then would have been (trying to) sleep in the car on the Morey car park !! Herve was always happy for me to take a set (of the very large keys) trusting me to do the necessary. This was fine, the only ‘issue’ being the lock was a complete ‘so and so’, badly in need, I think, of lubrication. I struggled on every occasion with locking the gates from the inside and always for some reason could only lock via reaching through the bars and locking from the outside. On this night I’d expected, as the norm, everyone to be in bed, but was surprised to see a few of the guys still in the refectory entrance playing cards & drinking beers. Joining them briefly with no intention of staying I quickly realised domaine full timer, Cedric, a Dijon resident and boyfriend/partner of sweet Japanese, Kaito, was present (which he ordinarily certainly would not have been by this time). Its not uncommon for some of the domaine full time guys to join us for evening dinner but they disappear to their homes thereafter. Clearly Cedric hadn’t and, worse, he was ‘rocking’ and rather ‘worse for wear’ – I could only assume too many beers !!! He was the only one of the group, all of whom were ready for bed as I walked up and about to disperse, who was so ‘well oiled’ but clearly he was (absolutely) in no fit state to drive his Toyota Auris hybrid back to Dijon and thus needed a bed – which he asked me for there and then !!! Why me for heaven’s sake ???? Not only did he ask me for a bed & state himself he could not drive (he had trouble standing suitably straight & upright !) but, whilst I was taking in this state of affairs, he took out his phone, rang Kaito, then passed me his phone & asked me to speak to her – great, thanks a lot !!! Why me 2??? Needless to say Kaito (thank heaven her English is pretty good) was as surprised to have me on her partner’s phone as I was to be thrust into speaking to her in such circumstances. I’m pretty sure, I’m quick like this 😉, that she was far from ‘best pleased’ at Cedric’s absence from Dijon and why but, bless her, she took it well (with me anyway) and seemingly at least relieved that the ‘responsible Englishman’ would look after her well oiled partner. Next ‘problem’ was finding the wobbling, speech slurring, Cedric a spare bed as I could not immediately think there was a spare anywhere, be it in the gate house or the other atelier rooms myself and the other lodgers occupied. Fair to say desperation was coming to mind but, doing my best to try and not wake anyone, looking in the other front room on the landing before mine, I was hugely relieved to see just one spare bed. This, I’m sure, ordinarily belonged to one of the four young guys from Brittany but as he clearly wasn’t occupying it, and seemingly would not (I’d locked up after all), I took a chance and guided the inebriated Cedric to it for sleeping off/overnight purposes.

And on that bizarre note I quickly got myself into bed to end a very full Day 10 – one day to go !
Marko de Morey 29th September 2018

Arlaud Vendange Day 9, Tuesday 11th September 2018

Was something of a relief to know Roncevie was finally behind us. I mused to myself over breakfast, and pre-departure, what we might have left (that I could think of), and as a result where we might be bound. A quick digressing word on the sunrises in this part of the world and, additionally, the night sky. With every morning thus far this vendange a largely clear one we had had some spectacular sunrises with the sky orange before the golden sun comes up over the far horizon. From our village yard premises the sun comes up over M.Raphet’s vegetable patch which, bless him, he attends to assiduously every day (even Sundays), coming from Gevrey in his little white van, always in shorts, and absolutely always with his flat cap on his head – I’ve never seen it off, only sometimes pushed back whilst he scratches his head for comfort or to ponder something. He’s a fantastic man for his age. One morning near the end of the vendange, maybe one after this one, there was some broken white cloud initially which saw a spectacular initial sky with the cloud shot through with orange colours. At night, every one I could recall also clear, and with little or no light pollution away from the likes of Dijon, the night sky and star formations are utterly fascinating with the latter standing out sharply. I’m no astronomer cum star gazer to my chagrin otherwise I’d be happily identifying formations – is one a saucepan ?
 

Departure, for us in our van at least, saw an unusual change to the norm in that Cyprien (not normally seen first thing, other than on opening vendange mornings, as he usually goes direct from home to the cuverie) jumped into the Mercedes driver’s seat to surprise myself and J-P Feral as the other regular front bench seat occupants. As we left Morey I grinned and suggested to Cyprien maybe a role reversal with father, Herve, which he smiled and acknowledged as correct with a nod. I didn’t probe further as to why but curiously we didn’t see Herve again until later that morning – maybe simply he just had something else on. Quite quickly it was apparent our destination and starting terroir was the RN74 roadside Vosne Village (negoce) plot a little along from the southern corner wall of Clos Vougeot and adjacent to what had been ex-vigneron, David Clark’s, Vosne vines. I’d love to know what David C is up to now since selling his domaine (to Yann Charlopin, son of Philip) – David, per chance you might read this please get in touch, sir !

It’s a little tricky to get the vehicles off the road here & with traffic whizzing past. I always wonder about any unseen impact of road fumes, detritus etc on the vines/grapes. Quite nice looking fruit again from these vines, and with dry ground under foot another plus, as this soil can be quite soggy when damp/wet. Fairly straightforward easy picking, the only stand out for me quite large bunches of white grapes from two or three vines – we take these as well, they aren’t dropped. I swear, see photo one vine had both ‘black’ and white grapes on the one vine which I’ve never seen before but maybe it was two vines and I didn’t look closely enough. I really must ask Cyprien or Herve what grape variety this white fruit is. The ‘agent’, a small black bearded man, of the vines owner turned up as usual to oversee matters and doubtless record the number of cases. We said a cheery ‘hello’ to each other as from 2013 he’s got to know this strange Englishman in the Arlaud team. Last year I discovered who is the owner of the Echezeaux, Petit-Monts and Vosne vines but am not at liberty to confirm whom this ‘big cheese’ in the Burgundy hierarchy is as I’m sure my days at Arlaud would be over if I divulged – so my lips & ’pen’ are ‘sealed’.

A small, break-away, group had split from us at the outset leaving Morey. They’d gone further on south, led by Damian, and tackled a few rows of vines from the roadside just as the road goes out of Vosne, rising uphill, after the houses and a restaurant – terroir known as Au-dessus de la Riviere, the rows going up and over the hill towards Aux Reas. I’d picked here in previous years, and the rows aren’t short, so wasn’t fussed at not going there. From our first plot we moved on to another which is bordered on one edge by the RN74 and on another by the Avenue du Monument leading into the village, with the premises of Domaine Robert Sirugue the first buildings one comes to at the top right of the Avenue. I’ve always liked this second plot and in previous years have twice managed to be first to finish my row here – no mean feat for an old man 😊 though I say it myself. However, my favoured location for speed is the outside row on the Avenue side, which has a number of gaps in the vines (all the rows do to some extent with re-planting but the outside has more). I tried to be first to get ‘my row’ but Speedy Gonzalez picker (bless her, she is quick), shy but sweet local lady Laetitia, an experienced vendangeur, was directed to it before I could get there with my ending up 5/6 rows in from the Avenue. I wasn’t feeling at my fastest either, it was getting too hot, but managed to finish my less favoured row respectably, maybe in the top 8 finishers, thereafter assisting two or three others to complete before we all ‘broke’ for casse croute, water and/or coffee, with Herve now having made a re-appearance, Cyprien disappearing, doubtless back to the cuverie. Post break we managed another pass of the vines then embarked the vehicles to move through Vosne to Aux Reas (maybe, looking at the map now, including Les Jacquines) with views to the west to a patchwork of vines along the rising slopes which must be NSG village and premier cru, & to the NW, Vosne terroirs. These other vineyards looked quite ‘busy’ judging from distance at the number of small groups of ubiquitous white vans and other vehicIes dotted about. I’m not sure what the area of negoce vines is here (Aux Reas) but it seems sizeable with longish rows. Good fruit again and very dry, dusty, ground underfoot. Completion here took us thankfully to lunch which I was glad came when it did as I really was feeling tired now and very hot. I was feeling every bit of 8.5 days graft, and the heat, being as far from frisky as some of the youngsters. I can imagine lots of folk might have romantic notions of the grape harvest, and working it, BUT I would caution consideration of ‘reality’. Basically, its agricultural labour, and its tough (and/or can be ‘worse’ than that). Long hours, all weathers (sunny & dry this year throughout but too hot !), lots of bending, getting up and down (hard on the knees), danger of self-inflicted cuts, dirt, sticky juice, potentially annoying colleagues etc etc. But, equally, lots of balancing positives, for me anyway, e.g being close to/at the start of the winemaking process, being ‘in’ the Burgundy vineyards (including Grand Cru one’s here), camaraderie, being paid for something one might really want/love to do, fed/watered/ accommodated, being in the open air (when its not raining !), variety of terroirs and, overall, the experience not ‘that many’ might have the opportunity for. There are issues coming to the fore with the historic manual picking but I’ll address those in a later piece.
 

Our afternoon was somewhat different to the Vosne ‘experience’. By now, Thursday, 13th September 2018, Day 11, was being openly discussed as being our final day. I reckoned we had the Hautes-Cotes to do (probably a full day) and then probably finishing off local ‘stuff’ e.g Arlaud have a polt of Gamay we hadn’t yet been to and I could picture some Bourgogne Rouge we hadn’t yet visited. So, end in ‘sight’ to a degree. Meanwhile this afternoon started with us leaving the village towards the main road cross roads traffic lights, crossing over and moving east of the mix of commercial and private properties ‘below the road’, then turning north along what I think is a road known as Chemin des Aires to a site (some way below Morey Les Crais) next to what I call a ‘grand maison’, a large private house with extensive grounds, wall etc which is the last before/bordering the vines. A quite impressive large, new build home was in course of construction opposite the ‘grand maison’. En route I was stunned to see what must be the relatively new (very new Bill ?) cuverie and premises of Domaine Raphet. This looked very impressive indeed, quite a sizeable building indeed, quite a bit of glass and large ‘Raphet’ lettering. Anyway, we pulled into our Bourgogne Rouge plot, adjacent to cut wood piles, the vehicles on open grass, and got ‘stuck in’. There aren’t that many rows here and we were enough in number to be spaced out 3 of us to each row. The modus operandii when doubling, or here, tripling up, is for the director (Climent in this case) to direct his individual workers to start specific rows, and then add another picker/pickers to that row, with the additional person(s) normally being directed to start either circa half way along or more commonly one, or a few, piquets (posts carrying the wires) along. As picking proceeds the individuals, completing their ‘section’ of vines in the row, will then ‘leapfrog’ their fellow row companions and go to (re-start at) the next piquet and so on/so forth until the end of the row is reached. With 3 per row here we moved quite quickly. This particular plot is, or can be, very low yielding and is another which can be susceptible to rain/wet but again was as dry as I’ve ever seen. The yields were ‘ok’, not pitiful as I have seen here, but not mega either. Quite a bit of millerandage grapes as well, another feature here.

We then moved across/south of Morey, still on the railway side of the RN74, to more Bourgogne Rouge which I couldn’t recollect having been too previously. The vines here are almost below Chambolle looking upslope, and must be nearly in the commune of Gilly-les-Citeaux. The rows here were long, going quite some way towards the railway line, if not to it, such that passing trains were very noticeable (freight and passenger). The line between Dijon – Beaune seems a very busy one with trains at quite frequent intervals. Nothing remarkable about this latest BR. I did wonder if the grapes go into the ‘& Arlaud’ Bourgogne ‘Oka’ and if, maybe, these aren’t domaine owned wines but maybe negoce. I can imagine these vines more than probably were badly frosted in 2016 as, if the Chambolle premier crus suffered (and did they – we didn’t go to them that year), then these very low lying vines would have had ‘no chance’.

A bit bizarrely after the above we went back again to the other side of Morey (quite why we hadn’t stayed that way from the first plot after lunch I’m not sure), still ‘below’ the main road and about 15.15 had a rest break then, looking up almost directly to Morey in the distance, tackled more Bourgogne Rouge for the rest of the afternoon until cessation of proceedings. Here, one of my photos, for amusement of us both when I took it, is of a very tall individual, bare chested on this occasion, being one of the first time at Arlaud two guys from Belfort, France – lodging, who shared the room behind mine with a youngster. I never knew the name of this chap but called him Monsieur Belfort & we got ‘on’ from the outset. He had some English which always helps ! He was clearly into the (muscular) ‘body beautiful’, or rather sculpted, and I think is probably a gym/weights fiend. I’m sure he was mixing/taking what were probably body building supplements at breakfast time. Build wise he was ideal as a porteur, incredibly so, as strong, very tall, with long legs. In fact, the way he got from one row of vines into the next, with incredible ease, flipping one leading leg over first like a mega hurdler was like nothing I’d seen before. Another of his occasional ‘party pieces’ was to very athletically indeed actually run, yes run (or at least jog), up and down the rows to/from the truck with fruit case on it’s carrying frame on his back, either full or empty. Quite amazing, especially in the heat we experienced. M.Belfort was an excellent porter. Not only was he quick, but he was sympathique/understanding of picking (his friend) did this, and endeared himself to me by doing leaf stripping in the row he was stood in of his own volition (rare for a porteur, trust me) whilst awaiting suitable moments to empty ‘his’ pickers buckets. Belfort was also remarkable for another facet – his music Soundbox, Beatbox, or whatever one calls a music speaker box. I’m not sure if he had music recorded on this device, or connected to it from his phone via Bluetooth, but I think he first carried the thing in Morey Ruchots. The battery life didn’t seem outstanding so the music broadcasts were somewhat infrequent (unless he couldn’t be bothered carrying it all the time) but when the music was playing/broadcast it was quite something. His music tastes were a bit eclectic but he certainly liked punk, but lots of forms of punk – he did tell me his favourite punk genre (up to this I’d no idea there were so many). However, he also liked heavy rock, and notably, Led Zeppelin. I gained a vast amount of ‘brownie points’ with him when I conversationally mentioned I’d seen Led Zep live in concert 3 or 4 times – he hasn’t, more’s the pity for him. The stand out songs I remember from his device were ‘Anarchy in the UK’ by The Sex Pistols and ‘Dazed & Confused’ by Led Zep (played many times) plus other Zeppelin tracks. There was one hilarious moment, if faintly ridiculous on my part but hey, when both Belfort and I broke from what we were doing to have a brief air guitar session dans les vignes to the particular amusement of those around us. I only saw him go bare chested the once, this day, doubtless a sign of the unrelenting heat, but I ‘snapped’ him and jokingly advised he’d be appearing on the internet and should possibly be ready to be inundated from female admirers. He was horrified, or tried to be, I don’t believe he was really !

So that was ‘it’ from Day 9. The next day we’d saunter up to the Hautes-Cotes & be there all day – more on that to come.

To close, a ‘footnote’. If anyone reading my random nonsense is keen on understanding some/all of the terroirs, locations etc then, other than internet maps, I reckon I can do no better than to mention a book which is certainly well used by me (I took it to the vendange with me and it’s a heavy beast), probably my most used Burgundy reference work, and I believe might also be a ‘bible’ for Bill as well. My version, the original, in French, is entitled ‘Climats et Lieux Dits des Grand Vignobles de Bourgogne, Atlas et Histoire des Noms de Lieux’, authors Marie-Helene Landrieu-Lussigny and Sylvain Pitiot (latter of Clos de Tart ‘fame’). An English version now exists and I would acquire one for myself and a friend from Beaune’s Athenaeum shop before returning to the UK. A superb book with excellent maps, not cheap but worth it for me. Disclaimer:- I’m just an owner/user with no connection to authors or publishers. I guess other books are available.
Marko de Morey 26th/27th September 2018

Arlaud Vendange Day Eight – Monday, 10th Sept 2018

Another day, a week in from our start, another day of Roncevie ☹ ! My original recollection some days after was that we finished entirely/at last in Roncevie by lunchtime but my photo timings remind we actually went on to circa 15.00 hrs before finally being ‘done’ here for another year. Otherwise, from morning start to conclusion it was just row pass after row pass. The fruit though, in the higher (higher meaning towards/just below the road) parts of Roncevie we were now in was pretty darn good (see photos), amongst the best in size & appearance I could recall from anywhere. The sun and heat continued, to be my stand out feature of this vendange. I can recall other pretty warm/hot vendange weather conditions (2009, 2015 ?) but this year seemed ‘something else’. Unremarkably this diminishing element of Roncevie continued to, and after, lunch but ultimately we finally finished as above with a decent rest break before departing. I can recall it was by now seriously hot and, whilst not sure about the others, by now I was seriously fatigued.

A couple of ‘side notes’ before detailing the rest of our afternoon. Firstly, on either the Saturday or Sunday late morning (cant recall which now), whilst we were working near the road a convoy of noisy, hooting, vehicles with large pink flags being vigorously waved from windows etc and shouty occupants passed us heading south. I was bemused but deduced from the comments of others this related to some political grouping, presumably on the way to a rally or just demonstrating. I’ve no idea what political party/group were passing us but one of our number was a young guy, a regular in recent years, always friendly with me, also called Mark (maybe whilst I’m universally referred to as Marko). I’m not sure what started it but the passing of the noisy convoy prompted a most unusual impassioned & argumentative debate some rows away from me which involved my namesake, seemingly on his own with his views (pro or anti the convoy I’ve no idea) against a number of the others. Matters seemed to get heated quite quickly (I kept my head down having no idea what it was all about & sensing I didn’t really want to know !) but, as threatening to continue and cause real discord, Climent authoritatively stepped in, shouting to Mark to essentially ‘Shut Up’. Calm descended but we didn’t see Mark again for the rest of the vendange – whether he re-appears next year we’ll see. Politics eh ?

The other side note relates to a new vendangeur to the Group, whom I think started today having worked elsewhere, who quickly made her presence ‘felt’ as a source of amusement which became almost a feature of the vendange – in fact in the latter stages it was !!! This girl/lady was known as Marie (she can be seen nearest to the camera on the back row of the photo captioned ‘My Sprinter Van crew end of day 10092018’). I initially, actually for a day or two, thought Marie to be Portuguese or Spanish from appearance but was stunned in due course to learn she was/is Japanese – yet another from what seems quite a Dijon population from Japan who have been living there some years. Kaito, for example, who started cutting with us before moving to the triage table, had told me she’d lived in Dijon 8 years and outside the vendange had a full-time job as a patisserie chef at a Dijon Japanese restaurant. To digress for a second Kaito has an impressive vendange history of which I’m extremely jealous !!! She has worked previously at Dujac for a couple of years but also 3 years at Rousseau – one day with us wearing a red 2016 Rousseau vendange t shirt. Kaito also told me Marie had done administration work previously at Rousseau. Anyway, back to Marie, she has an endearing & distinctive way of talking which I can only think to best describe as ‘sing song’. This aside though what made her talking, which at times seemed non stop chatter to be heard many rows away, notable was her unwitting ‘catch phrase’ which was taken up by many others and was undoubtedly the ultimate catch phrase of the Arlaud vendange. This was “Oooh la la” !!! I’ve no idea where she got this from but it was a feature of her chatter & quickly caused much amusement amongst the rest of the team and was taken on by quite a few for their own purposes and mimicking Marie in friendly fashion. In the initial stages of her joining us Marie was working with Porteur Nico. Nico is a great guy & one of the best porteurs I’ve worked with in 9 years. It was quickly apparent, with no malice aforethought that Nico was encouraging Marie’s chatter, and particularly her use of ‘Oooh la la’. All very funny and whilst I slightly worried at Marie being upset by the mimicking, amusement etc she never showed any signs and took it all in good heart. I even found myself succumbing to an odd ‘Oooh la la’ to myself to apply to a suitable situation.

From Roncevie we moved initially to the first of two additional plots to be tackled for the remainder of the afternoon. The first of these was the most seriously unpleasant cutting experience I had through the whole vendange – horrible, frustrating, and just what one didn’t need after three quarters of a day of Roncevie in mega heat. This location was our second and final bite at Morey Clos Solon. Arlaud have two parcels in Clos Solon- one I know is negoce, the other I think they own but am not sure about. We’d done the higher of the two plots of course on Day 5 which was wholly unlike the horror that was coming. Before disembarking as we arrived on the track which goes thro Clos Solon Herve had to brake slightly/unexpectedly as a young dog (large gambolling puppy really – all floppy legs and ears) of long legged bull terrier like breed crossed in front of our van back towards the truck of another domaine already there just by us. The older gentleman with the truck admonished the dog which flopped into the shade between two rows of vines. I enquired which domaine this dog was accompanying but couldn’t pick up the response. Once out of our van and equipped with my gear as always a dog lover I looked for & found the dog who came out of his shade to greet me, twisting himself with pleasure at my greeting & stroking him. I picked him up with some difficulty as he was a growing boy to receive a squirming loving face wash for my trouble. Called to start I put him back in his shady place with a final pat or two intending to return to him later for a photo or two – as it happened ‘his’ domaine people subsequently moved higher up the plot and him with them, so no doggy photos.

Clos Salon Part Deux – what a bar steward (pardon me) this was. Blimey. When I mentioned it later to full time domaine employee and fellow bucket washer Cedric he surprised me with his own agreeing vehemence, saying en francais he detested it – so I was not alone ! The issues ? Different type of Pinot clone here me thinks but the vines were low, the leaf growth the heaviest I’d seen anywhere or could recall for a while which made ‘normal’ leaf stripping inadequate, small & infrequent bunches of often well hidden fruit, and difficult ‘presentation’ of fruit which didn’t accord with normal vine training pattern, all of which made picking one’s way through this ‘jungle’ a flippin nightmare. Doubtless due to fatigue I was having one of those times when, after I had cut a bunch of grapes, I constantly seemed to miss getting it into the bucket – either the fruit going straight onto the ground or bouncing off the rim of the bucket. Frustration, curses and grim determination took me to the end of my row near the road and, boy, was I glad to be out of there after that. Suffice to say no photos from Clos Solon – I had other things on my mind !

Things could only get better (as the D:Ream song says) and thank goodness they did with a plot of Morey Village ‘below’ the road although, sorry, I can’t just now remember exactly where this was & thus identify it by name. At least I think it was Morey Village but it wasn’t Clos Solon or En Seuvrey. Refreshingly as the day was now heading to a conclusion the fruit here was really nice and also straightforward to cut.

Can’t recall if I made one of my several trips to Beaune this evening but, if this evening wasn’t one of them, an example of the day’s heat on one evening occasion was my car’s dashboard reading 29.5 degrees Centigrade and that at 18.45 p.m. evening – which makes one wonder what the peak temps might have been that same afternoon. We had two days in the latter stages of the vendange were the peak temps were certainly over 30 degrees Centigrade.

And so onwards to Day 9 – a Vosne Village morning and local Bourgogne Rouge to come. I should add that by now, with it clear there must be a limited number of sites for us to go to, there was occasional ‘gossip’ as to when we might be totally finished – suggestions, depending whom one spoke to, of 2-4 days to go – all will be revealed how many !

Marko de Morey 25/09/2018

Arlaud Vendange Day Seven – Sunday, 9th Sept 2018

Another day, another visit (or two) to Roncevie ! I’m not intending to make this diary note ‘that’ long (hurrah I hear some of you say 😉) as there’s only so much one can write about picking in Roncevie over what would be spread across 3 days and 4 half day sessions in all. Be bored not though as Day 9 to come will see matters ‘spiced’ up as a Vosne day !

I’ve actually gone back to my captioned photos from this day and added the time taken which is relevant to whereabouts in Roncevie we are/ have been generally. I should also add that I only took a few photos this day as a full Roncevie day thus not much to stand out & Bill should not have ‘selection’ issues. There should have been a rare one or two full Group photos (see later comments) but, annoyingly, as outside my control these weren’t taken on my camera.

So, day’s start saw us, in a reverse of the day before, start just below the road, ‘at the top’ of the site as it were and work down towards the same edge of the woods we’d started from on Day 6 but jusy more rows along. Rest break occurred c9.30 a.m as we finished the first rows. The kennelled hounds soon ‘got wind’ of our presence and kept up their cacophony through the morning with the sanglier & goat hunters gunfire adding to the ‘ambience’ ! After the rows from the first section we’d finished that abutting the woods and moved higher, more along/towards the road edge. Cant recall now the number of passes we made here but coming towards lunch it was clear something ‘unusual’ was about to occur. I say that on account of as we finished our rows we were, collectively, directed to the track at the side of the plot running from the road but it was clear we weren’t embarking en vehicule to return to the village for lunch. Also, there were some extra cars etc which had arrived and some more folk. Turned out the teams from the cuverie and the triage table had joined us, along with Cyprien, his wife and children. Not being the ‘sharpest knife in the box’ on occasion it took me a minute or two to figure out what was going on/to transpire but when I clocked the Audi Q3 as driven by the professional photographer girl from Vosne Petit-Monts (see Day 5) and then spied its driver ‘the penny dropped’ we were about to be marshalled for a major Group photograph I’d never been privy to before. I had actually asked Herve as we left Petit-Monts if I could then grab a mini group photo but my request had been declined with a comment I hadn’t understood at the time but now realised he must have made a reference to ‘Sunday’. I’d tried to take a full picking team photo (excluding cuverie & triage teams) in either 2016 or 2017 but had been thwarted, despite successfully getting the group together (no mean feat) as my camera battery went flat as I went to take said photo. A word on my Canon G16 and its battery. This camera, owned a few years now, has taken, and stood up to, some serious vineyard ‘stick’. I believe this year I put it the test more so than earlier years but it never failed me. Many times during this vendange I had to wipe off dust, earth, and particularly sticky juice. Once or twice the expanding lens seemed to stick as crud had lightly gathered around the fore edge but carefully wiping sorted this, and crucially, the on/off switch has never seemed compromised. That the camera has a view finder has been essential as the sunlight, sunshine etc has often meant I cannot just tell from the rear screen just what I was about to photo. Any replacement camera in future will have to have a viewfinder but finding something more up to date & at least comparable to the G16 and no more bulky, prima facie, seems a challenge – suggestions welcome please ? The battery life has been excellent, and this is the original battery. Ultimately, I only ended up needing to re-charge the battery on the evening of Day 10 i.e the battery lasted almost the whole vendange & I took a few photos !

If I need to say so I have no connection whatsoever with Canon and other cameras are available 😉 !

Anyway, Madamoiselle Photographeur set to trying or organise a not inconsiderable number of folk how she wanted them. This also involved one of the flat bed trucks as a centrepiece cum platform for the an element of the group to stand on. Whilst all the arranging was going on, realising I was never to going to have the opportunity to ‘snap’ myself, I asked the young lady if she’s take a photo or two for me with my camera after she’d done her own business. She readily agreed and slung my G16 over her shoulder whilst wielding her ‘monstrous weapon’ with huge lens. Arranging the group went on for some minutes during which I contemplated my own position. I abhor having my photo taken & despite entreaties to climb on the truck, stand elsewhere etc etc, when the moment came I’m maybe ashamed (well, I’m not really !) to say I ducked out of site at the back – successfully having later been given a copy of the photo taken as we all were at the end of our vendange. What did then annoy me was, as the Group all split up from the pose and headed for transport with lunch awaiting, was my seeking return of my camera which was passed back to me with a very weak, half-hearted, apology from the pro that she had ‘forgotten’ to take a photo or two with my camera – yeah, right, thanks for nothing ! Not impressed was I to put it mildly.

To lunch. A nice one of some sort of pressed ham slabs, plus chunks of super cheese with mashed potato and a good sauce over. The evening before I’d sampled, with a couple of others, a very nice Julien Brocard Chablis 2017 Vigne de la Boissonneuse from Bill (understand organic et eleve en concrete egg) and had fridged the remainder, with note on to the effect was mine and hands off ! I finished this off with great pleasure over my lunch and yum, yum, yum it was too – delish. I was maybe a bit selfish, and could feel searching eyes on me, but there were too many bodies around me and not enough wine to meaningfully share, so I drank it to myself, reminding myself the others had the Arlaud red or beer as lubrication.

Bank to Roncevie and soooo warm again. Must have been (warm) as Herve had brought out his hat, only worn when the sun is really strong. We went a bit further along the roadside to start the afternoon. The access to Roncevie and the other, down slope, sites is (unless by full track, top section of which is often tarmacadam for a few yards) by earth ramp and on this occasion Herve, presumably for amusement (as he’s almost always super careful), took the van’s descent from the road at some speed which was split second exciting, had us grabbing for something to hold onto, shrieks from the rear incumbents, and accompanied by the noise of crashing buckets from the rear load area. Amusing. Nothing notable to report from an afternoon of solid hard at it picking apart from a minorish brush between myself and the Belgian female I had words with on Day 3, subsequent to which she had largely avoided me or been nice & polite when in my proximity. On this occasion someone had decided she could have a go at being a Porteur – in other words ‘escape’ what can be the drudgery of picking. I wasn’t sure who she’d conned into his singularly inappropriate change of role for which she was wholly ill suited. But, I think I knew who – my room mate, Remy, first year man himself, always a porteur, and a guy himself with ideas above his station (e.g attempting to organise us until I enquired was he assisting Climent when he stopped and denied my question). I’d ‘wondered’ about the relationship between these two previously as Remy had been missing from his bed more than one night& I knew la Belge (as madam was universally known) had a room in the ex Arlaud parents house. Anyway, madam (who I couldn’t fault for enthusiasm but could for over enthusiasm) soon started ‘throwing her weight around’ in demanding we proffer our buckets to empty into her porteur’d case. After her making several such demands of me, often when I was on my knees (picking, not through fatigue) my patience ran out when, after I’d just dropped to my knees to clear a vine, she demanded I cough up the limited contents of my bucket i.e got back to my feet again. Keeping it short, and as polite I could muster (with difficulty given my simmering nature !), I pointedly refused her request, and with additional choice words and some venom, made it abundantly clear to her that, whilst we all had our roles, I saw her’s as servicing our bucket needs and NOT vice versa, that she needed to be sympathique, it was a complete joke to ask someone to rise who’d just dropped to the ground and if she wanted to be really helpful she could stop larking around at the truck & maybe do some leaf stripping for us suitably whilst waiting for our bucket contents – she never did the latter, no surprise there. I was blunt and cross deliberately, not for my own account (I’ve been doing this 9 years & seen plenty of rubbish, lazy, incompetent, porteurs in my time), but more for the picking colleagues around me, or rather behind me, as I was having a strong afternoon and had already stormed one row & assisted elsewhere before she ‘gave up’picking. Mission accomplished as she became suitably wary, much more polite cum acquiescent, and well behaved.

Regular drinks, with main rest break lubrication taken circa 15.50 p.m. Another team were hard at it, some way north of us were the ground rises somewhat, not possible to see who they were but plenty of bodies & vehicles. Finish after 17.00 hrs sometime, In the most northern section, with a goodly chunk of Roncevie now done, the remaining element to come for the morning of Day 8 – we’d eventually go to a challenging Day 11.
Marko de Morey 22nd/23rd September 2018.

Arlaud Vendange Day Six – Saturday, 8th Sept 2018

A largely Gevrey day here (excluding the already done first day Combottes).

Morning started a little chilly with our return to finish Morey’s Aux Cheseaux from the previous evening. Our team numbers were enhanced by weekend availability which, for me, happily included my good Japanese friend from 2017, Ako, and husband, Arnaud (Lippe), who’s a top bloke and ‘petrol head’. Arnaud’s aunt, also a Lippe, has a small domaine in Brochon which I believe she has only taken on in the last few years (two ?) but does not yet commercialise any wines, just selling either grapes or juice (can’t recall which). I was much amused to see Ako was wearing the same pair of black rubber gloves I’d given her in 2017, then taking pity on her lack of protection. Ako & Arnaud had not been able to extract themselves from their ‘day jobs’ this year to work other than the weekend but told me they were keen to participate, not least as they are buying a new Dijon apartment in the coming weeks, for which vendange wages would be useful for decorating materials etc.

Starting Aux Cheseaux, curiously, seemingly as no more than a coincidence, Climent allocated me the same row as I’d been in before and as one of the outside one’s it was a little shorter than those in the main block. No doubling up here so plenty to go at. I was well used now to what I was seeing grapes wise, very clean for the most part, easy for the triagers, and volume ok, if not at 2017 levels. Can’t recall if I’ve mentioned previously but later in the vendange in conversation with a relaxed & wholly unstressed Cyprien he told me he was seeing this vintage thus far as comparable with 2014’s. I’ve also accidentally found one of his weaknesses – fruit drop sweets !!! When talking to him I proffered a sweet from a few in my pocket (originally from a bag in the car bought for the long drive, along with a bag of wine gums). Cyp took the sweet with alacrity such that an amused me dug in my pocket and put the rest on his desk. I suggested maybe share with his children then quickly corrected myself, suggesting sweets not a good idea for young teeth – parentally he agreed ! Back to the subject of Aux Cheseaux, the previous evening, initially over our post day beers, and then over the evening meal, I’d listened to much chatter, without fully being able to grasp/participate, relating to Aux Cheseaux & Echezeaux which my colleagues seemed to be confused over ! Ultimately, clarity and an end to the debates, was provided by Herve Arlaud. Not everyone amongst us knows their terroirs ! Its interesting to what extent, or little extent, the French and my co-workers, know their wines but, bless them, most if not all of us can’t afford the prices of the wines we are contributing to. The terroir which does seem to invoke the most awe/respect is always Bonnes-Mares – quite why I’m not sure/have never yet asked why that might be. I also encountered some more healthy bunches of ‘white’ grapes in my second cut of Aux Cheseaux.

Finishing my row I helped out with completing two to three more rows such that we eventually wrapped up Aux Cheseaux before circa 10.00 a.m. and moved to a plot of Gevrey Village known, checking my maps, (Mike Lange pls note 😉) as Les Seuvrées which lies just below the RN74, and between Arlaud’s Morey (Village) En Seuvrey and Roncevie. We had the usual break here before tackling the Gevrey, no fruit photos taken, which took us ‘neatly’ up to lunch.

Post lunch a convoy journey to Gevrey itself for the other contributor (see domaine website) to Arlaud’s Gevrey Village cuvee, La Justice. The entry to this site always amuses me as incongruous, to me anyway. Take the Avenue de la Gare from the RN74 traffic lights past Domaine Marc Roy and Domaine Phillipe Rossignol until taking a left into the grounds of two apartment blocks near the premises of Agir Technologies SA, skirt around the furthest back apartment block, and onto a track right in the vines. This was, doubtless due to the long, hot, summer a La Justice as I could not recall seeing in my previous 8 years coming here. It’s a site which can often have soft ground or, when its (been) raining, can be very muddy/boggy indeed. Leaf growth here has always been a feature and large, pendulous, bunches the norm. I can recall historic prodigious fruit such that one’s bucket can be filled almost with the ‘output’ of one vine. None of this was apparent this year though, quite the contrary, and ultimately if one site reflected the summer and the baking hot sun on the day then La Justice. The ground was dry and dusty like I’d not seen here before. Whilst the majority of the vines had reasonable foliage there were any number, in my row at least, that had leaves that were distinctly crispy and frazzled, a few vines with hardly any leaves at all and shrivelled, burnt, grapes. There was absolutely no need for the serious leaf stripping per vine to get at the fruit and I didn’t see what I was looking at as a result of the domaine’s June leaf stripping. Anyway, I was selected in a group to go, in our individual rows, halfway across the vineyard and start there. Suited me and as a bonus I had Monsieur Belfort as my preferred porteur. We will come to his music dans les vignes in another day’s output ! It was hot !! I was ‘perspiring’ freely, sweat running into my eyes, down my nose and dripping off other parts of my head such that if I shook my head it was almost akin to a dog shaking itself coming out of water. Battling on, we (the halfway across starters) were ‘caught’ before we completed our rows by the rest of the gang who’d started behind us – I guess they’d doubled up and finished what they had done before us as we hadn’t ‘hung about’, far from it. The full team soon saw the remaining parts of rows completed although I went back to help Maxime some way behind who seemed to have been abandoned.

The exit from La Justice for us is from the side we finish on, from a vineyard track onto the Chemin du Saule, then past the Mazoyeres Plant Hire company premises, back to the RN74 via a roundabout. Our vehicles are moved across to the far side of the vineyard to be waiting for us when we finish. A badly needed water and rest break was taken by the deserted gated/wire fenced premises of the Cote D’Or Services Techniques Departementaux with impressive radio mast before we embarked en vehicule for our final destination of the day.

That destination turned out to be our first of several visits to come to Roncevie. I was glad we only had part of the afternoon left as 5 ha of Roncevie can be, and is, a real hard slog (for me anyway). Don’t get me wrong – I 100% agree with Mike de L from his response to my Day 5 ramblings on the quality and affordability of Arlaud’s Bourgogne Roncevie, have bought & enjoyed it for years and don’t disrespect the Roncevie vines at all but taking up to two days to pick it’s a hard place to be ! We started this year furthest away from the road by the edge of the woods. This section was the one that was very badly frosted indeed during the severe winter weather of 2009/10 with a considerable number of mature vines killed, necessitating much re-planting. The new vines from that re-planting are now, at last, very much into their stride in terms of growth and fruit return. They were a pain in the proverbial to deal with from year 3 on as they hadn’t fully developed and initial fruit was very small and hard to pick. Then there was post frost 2016 which, whilst we made the usual pass through this section, saw a ridiculously sparse fruit ‘return’. I suppose Roncevie isn’t quite the finished wine it was before the 2009/10 devastation but it remains a very tasty Bourgogne indeed & we are only ‘talking’ a part of it, I’d have to guess but maybe one fifth (if that), that was impacted – the rest has all the mature vines it has always had. On our left as we walk down to the edge of the wood to commence picking back up towards the road there’s another area of shrubs, trees, grass, cut & piled timber etc all as a form of island in the ‘sea of vines’. In this area there are a few huts and low buildings, some of which are dog kennels with wire meshed pens. I always feel a bit sorry for the canine occupants here, being generally fond of dogs, as they seem, doubtless deliberately (see below re noise !), to be kept ‘isolated’ far from the village. There are a goodly number of dogs in the several kennels, all of a hunting variety e.g hounds, spaniels, beagles and a terrier or two etc. When they hear & see us I guess they perhaps think they are about to be fed, watered or maybe taken hunting. The cacophony of barking & baying which ensues, particularly from the hound species, is quite something and relentlessly kept up all the while we are there.

On the subject of noise I should, lest I forget, mention more noise which became apparent early on from the start of our vendange and has continued, sporadically, daily and throughout the days from early morning to late afternoon. This noise is gunfire and emanates from the forested areas above and to the side of Monts Luisants and above Combottes/Latricieres/Chambertin. When I first heard the shooting, without then realising the scale of what was to continue, I just assumed some particularly keen chasseurs (hunters) were pursuing their sport. Chatting to some of my colleagues I mentioned my assumption of hunting sangliers (wild boar) but hadn’t bargained for the response. What I was told was that what we were hearing was professional pursuit, not just of wild boar but also wild goats ! Apparently, the goats have developed a liking for the vines and become some sort of real nuisance. The shooting was described as driving them away from the vines – whether this meant shooting to scare/drive them away up and over the hills, or whether it meant killing them I never figured out but the scale of the gunfire over many days was quite something and seemed to be more than just shotguns.

So, the first sortie into Roncevie, took us to ‘close of play’ – we would return ( a few times !). Bucket cleaning was taking an interesting form. The dry ground meant the exterior of the buckets were not requiring ‘serious’ cleaning as when the ground is wet or muddy but what was an issue was the ripeness of the grapes meaning the insides of the buckets were getting very sticky indeed. A sweep with a strong hosepipe jet wasn’t enough but filling each bucket with a modest amount of water was necessary, with that water then to be worked around the bucket sides with a brush before rinsing again with the hose. It was taking 5 of us some time to clean the not inconsequential number of buckets before beer reward.

And so to Day 7, more Roncevie, and an unexpected, in the vines, lunchtime ‘experience’.
Marko de Morey (written 20/9/2018)

Arlaud Vendange Day 5 Friday 7th September
Aligote x 2, Morey Villages (vers Roncevie), Vosne P-M, Morey Clos Solon, Morey Aux Cheseaux:

Friday turned out to be another very warm day but in terroir & picking terms a very varied one. We ‘kicked off’ with two separate parcels of Aligote in the area just south of the village’s main road traffic light junction and ‘below’ the road. The Aligote is looking really good this year (2016 was a disaster). I like picking Aligote and white grapes generally but one has to be thorough in leaf stripping or its all too easy to miss a bunch. One can almost guarantee if you don’t strip a leaf, or look behind it, then some grapes will be hiding. One of the two parcels was a little unusual in that Arlaud ‘only’ seemed to have a part of each of the very long rows, with the white paint splodge on a post coming also part way along the row to signify where to stop. I must have picked in these rows before but can’t recall ever noticing this. The Aligote took us to c9.30 when we re-embarked in the vans for a relatively short hop north of the village, still below & next to the main road, in a location similar to, but not as far as, Roncevie. This was Pinot classed as Morey Village which just shows how ‘daft’ are the inter-village politics which causes Arlaud’s Roncevie to be a Bourgogne as the upper part of Roncevie and the Morey Village we were about to tackle aren’t ‘that’ far apart and similar. I guess though not all of Arlaud’s Roncevie could be classed as ‘village’ i.e those sections further away from the road. Anyway, the slog that is Roncevie’s 5ha was still to come, meantime today’s section of the Morey took us up to lunch. I didn’t take any photos here which belatedly can only attribute to the fruit being unremarkable i.e good, but could also have been down to picking speed.

Lunch was another good one with some sort of pale minced up meat wrapped ‘en croute’ in pastry (almost like a sausage roll or similar) accompanied by pasta with a crunchy cheesy topping and sauce. My early refectoire dining room seat was opposite Maxime, whom I took to be from one of France’s former African colonies although I never asked him where he (or maybe family) came from. He told me he was from Chenove when I asked if he lived in Dijon (as many of the team do). Maxime takes his lunches very seriously which is endearing to watch. Maybe too seriously on occasion as he often seemed to have the non meat element of his meals (e.g potatoes, pasta etc) piled high on his plate but left a goodly portion. More unusually he declined wine (and I never saw him with a beer either) & seemed to drink only water. Right from his first greeting of me, & me him, when he learnt I was English (or British) he was obsessed with the UK’s Brexit (I’ve no idea why – language abilities on both sides prevented political exploration) and thereafter he always greeted me, without fail, in his heavy accent as ‘Mr Brexit Man’ – which became and was amusing to us all.

Post lunch then a moment I’d been eagerly anticipating ever since we ‘did’ Echezeaux & CSD. When the usual call to vehicles came I went, as usual, to hop onto the front bench seat of one of the two ageing, white, battered Mercedes Sprinter vans (perhaps the most unusual looking rental vans one might come across !) with my outside perch alongside J-P Feral & with Herve on the driver’s side. However, Climent grabbed my arm & directed me to the black, almost new looking, VW Caravelle mini bus which he drove throughout. The reason for my vehicle direction was quickly obvious – a number of us were off to Vosne for tackling premier cru, Petit-Monts. This is just a fantastic location, high up above Vosne with a superb vista looking down on Vosne, and with Nuits St-Georges to the north. Lamarche’s team were ‘hard at it’ in La Grande Rue as we climbed. The road narrows and takes a very sharp right a little before we go no further, other than on foot. A short walk from the vehicles takes us to the vines but the Arlaud (negoce) parcel requires a left turn upwards, then a right along the hill slope to come to ‘our’ section. Unusually, this parcel of vines as I’ve recorded in past years (but do so again for new readers) is planted longitudinally across the slope whereas the earlier vines we walk past in different ownership are conventionally planted ‘vertically’ i.e up/down the slope. Its quite steep hence picking grapes from vines so planted, with minimal room between rows, can be trickier than might be imagined in terms of one’s stance and making sure one’s bucket doesn’t go somewhere down slope it shouldn’t ! Arlaud have had/worked these P-M vines from 2013 inclusive and the benefits of Arlaud’s husbandry has become clear to see over the years. A very good advertisement for biodynamism. We’d just started picking when I became aware there was a human figure some way ahead of me in my row. For a split second I assumed this must be a picker for another domaine on adjacent rows but quickly realised as the figure approached I was looking at a young lady, smartly dressed in leisure clothing (included a Blancpain Series top) and carrying a camera with one of those huge grey lenses which made my slung Canon G16 look puny ! It turned out this presumably professional photographer had been commissioned by Cyprien to take vendange photos for the Arlaud website. We’d see more of this girl on Sunday to come but for now she moved amongst, sometimes, very close, ‘snapping’ us in action. I generally do not like having my photo taken at all, with my long joking the ‘first rule of vendange is Mark takes photos, Mark does not appear on photos’ so I’m rather hoping I will not be making any website appearance in due course. My Canon was however approved of by this professional as ‘a good camera’.

Our number quickly & efficiently dealt with Petit-Monts. Our walk back to the vehicles initially brought us to a small white pickup piled high with thin cases. Standing on the down position tailgate were two youngish muscular individuals who’s polo shirts identified them as staff of Domaine des Comte(s ?) Liger-Belair. I could have fancied one of those polo shirts or an Arlaud equivalent but Cyprien’s moving with the times haven’t yet extended to any ‘uniform’ for his domaine staff, let alone our motley vendangeur crew !

Back in the vans we dropped down into Vosne. I tried a couple of photos of La Grande Rue from the moving/bouncing mini bus window and when I came to download was gratified to see at least one photo had ‘worked’.

From Vosne our return to Morey saw us re-join the rest of the team who’d not been Vosne bound. They were in Morey Clos Solon where we helped them quickly finish their rows before we all moved on as one to Morey 1er Aux Cheseaux, the final of our premier crus (as often seems the case). By now it was blisteringly hot with water intake essential and much needed (by me particularly) hence we had a break before commencing. I never asked directly but assumed the hot, & occasionally, humid weather was behind another new for this year development which could see Herve or Climent (occasionally one of the porteurs) move amongst us in the rows whilst we worked, morning and afternoon, dispensing welcome drinks from those plastic barrel type things bulk wine might come in or similar. We also seemed to be finishing regularly at c17.00 hours, an hour earlier than I’d been used to in past years (but I wasn’t complaining ! I put this down to the energy sapping heat.

We only part completed Aux Cheseaux before the day’s closure – we’d return to finish the next morning. I’ve noticed I’ve captioned a couple of late afternoon taken photos from here, seemingly without thinking/automatically, as Aligote. Now, thinking about it, I did have a couple of vines at least which, whilst they should of course have been Pinot Noir, bore ‘white’ grapes. These may not necessarily have been Aligote but could be something else – if someone can identify (assuming Bill includes said photos) then please be my guest !

And so wearily back to base, bucket cleaning and a beer, then one’s own gear & self cleaning.
Marko de Morey completed 15/9/2018

Arlaud Vendange Day Four Thurs 6th Sept

I should belatedly, apologies, start with an apology for an absence of as it happened ‘material’ from 2017’s harvest. The lack of words and photos was not, believe me, for want of trying to get such to Bill. The photos were taken as usual but the issues were twofold and related to what was then my longstanding Sony Vaio laptop ‘giving up the ghost’ and before that I had inordinate trouble with my Hotmail, reasons never established or understood (but such have not re-occurred since. It was all highly frustrating at the time with my spending several bits of evening at the cuverie trying to sort matters out. Matters were all the more frustrating as April 2017 I’d bought a new i7 laptop but had chosen to leave it at home for family (who never used it), not foreseeing the Vaio issues.

Anyway, another day, routine now firmly established, and we’ve already done most of the best sites with the exception of those Vosne related and our destinations this morning. First off was the domaine’s second parcel of Charmes-Chambertin Haut. This is a little further along towards Gevrey than that first parcel we picked on Monday the 3rd, and is just past & across the road from the stone gateway (Remy ?) to Latricieres. If anyone fancies themselves at identifying the Arlaud vines the rows at each end of any parcel have posts marked with an area of white paint maybe a foot deep. Other domaines do similar with different colours or tieing something to their posts. The latest Charmes grapes were every bit as nice as those from the earlier parcel, just some minor individual grape issues which could be easily dealt with by the table de trie. By c9.30 a.m we’d finished the Charmes and decamped lower to Mazoyeres but before tackling the latter we refuelled with casse-croute, coffee and water. I’m still disbelieving of the casse-croute !!!! In the past the Mazoyeres has seemed a real slog for me with long rows but this year it all seemed relatively easy – I can only think our numbers made it so – good !

From Mazoyeres another relatively short move to Morey 1er cru Les Blanchards. We always ‘do’ this going upslope towards the village and the Cosson premises. The start point is maybe half way between village and the RN74. I’ve always liked Blanchards, as a site, to pick, and as a wine – it being my preferred Morey 1er cru after Ruchots. In past (good) years Blanchards as produced a hefty weight of fruit and large, heavy, pendulous bunches. The fruit this year, whilst super clean and attractive, wasn’t though of such a volume as sometimes seen previously. I was allocated the outside row on the right hand side and set to whilst the others were being set up by Climent who definitely has a much greater in the vines direction/management role this year and seems to have superceded Damian who it appeared might have been Herve’s possible successor. I like both Climent and Damian, and have a great deal of time for them both but I had had my doubts previously at Damian’s wanting, or being suited, to a leadership/management role and it seems I was not alone. Damian I see as someone who prefers to work hands on & with machinery, seemingly well suited in this respect. His role for this vendange, other than at the cuverie at the end of the day, has been taking the fruit cases from the porteurs onto one of the flat bed trucks and shutting backwards and forwards to the cuverie. We have 3 flat bed trucks this year, Damian and colleagues taking on the former lorry roles undertaken for years by the Besancon twosome, Rene (ex French Army Colonel) and Serge. Neither Rene, Serge, nor the third of the trio, Daniel, have made the vendange this year. I believe Rene has decided he’d had enough but Serge has had some health issue although his return next year has been mentioned. Back to my row of Blanchards I was making good progress but it seemed, probably because I started before the others and, head down, was probably out of sight for the most part, Climent had ‘forgotten’ about me as the others were all doubled up in rows (on small plots elsewhere & when there plenty of us there can be 3, 4, or even 5 pickers to a row). The Blanchards fruit was pretty damn fine & I hope Bill will include a specimen photo within the number he allows me.

And so to lunch – a nice piece of chicken today with mixed veg. Part way through lunch le patron Herve Arlaud entered the refectoire and made some sort of announcement which went straight past unable to understand me. Fortunately one of the other guys realised my plight and told me Herve had advised lunch would be extended to 13.50 (we normally get back to work c13.15). I’d previously been aware of a threat of rain in the forecast for today but had almost forgotten about it as the morning’s weather had been fine. The lunch extension was to see if it might start raining, in which case, we would not go out as there would be little point sitting in the vans watching the rain come down (done that before in other years – no fun). Needless to say an extended break was well received, not least by your’s truly as it gave me a chance to catch up on photo downloads, edit re-sizing & captioning. Some ten minutes or so before 13.50 Herve re-appeared to say he’d been on the phone to someone in Vosne-Romanee (or vice versa) who had told him it was raining heavily in Nuits & Vosne. On that basis, and the assumption the rain would arrive on Morey very soon, Herve told us any afternoon’s work was cancelled. This seemed splendid to me as:- a) there’s not much positive working in the rain, and b) when it is/has been wet the ground can soon turn very muddy indeed with consequent effects on our equipment (buckets & secateurs), us and our clothes/footwear, and the vehicle interiors. A free afternoon would also give me badly needed, useful, photo and word laptop time. Some younger elements of the workforce seemed disturbed by Herve’s announcement and a few sought individual conversations with him. I could but assume maybe loss of wage income might be the issue.

So, everyone soon drifted off so I got a beer and set to on the laptop for an afternoon. As time passed I was conscious no rain had arrived but I had an evening appointment in Beaune and driving south could see some evidence of rain around Vosne and more so Nuits but not a great deal. The roads were dry, little impact on dried verges etc from what precipitation might have fallen, just the odd puddle or area of water at the border of vines, in driveways etc. So, bizarrely, in Morey we’d been rained off but had had no rain at all ! A convivial evening in Beaune passed quickly but accompanied by the sound of occasional very heavy showers of rain. Sure enough, when I came out on the street to walk back to the car, everywhere was very wet, as was the road back to Morey. In Morey itself it was clear the evening had finally brought rain – just several hours post forecast !

To come on Day Five a real mixture of activity & including a stunning visit to Vosne 1er cru Petit-Monts.
Marko de Morey 14th Sept 2018.

Arlaud Vendange Day Three – 5th Sept 2018.

Day three dawned bright & sunny again, or it did when the sun came up ! My days actually start in pitch darkness at around 5.30 – 6.00 a.m illuminated only by the outside yard light(s). In deference to the other two companions of my room, one of whom will moan/grumble at the slightest aspect, I get up and post any shower/wash will dress etc using the torch of my mobile phone and taking clothes etc onto the exterior landing outside the room. A degree of prior night pre-planning is a major plus re everything I want for the next morning and placing so easily comes to hand. Once dressed & ready, collecting knee pads, gloves, water bottles, camera etc breakfast for me is a cereal cum fruit cum chocolate breakfast bar with the black coffee. I don’t have the appetite for the elaborate large piece of baguette smeared with chunks of butter, confiture(s) and/or cheese. Quite how some of my companions put this stuff away, especially now we have casse croute later, is quite impressive & beyond me ! The other longstanding habit of the others is to drink their coffee from a bowl with milk added, seemingly so they dip their baguette creation in the milky coffee – presumably for softening purposes.

And so to our first ‘appointment’ of the day, not too far to travel (we never seem to go far first thing, any distances seem to be ‘saved’ for after lunch), to Chambolle 1er cru Sentiers. This completes our ‘sweep’ of the three Arlaud premier crus and will be our last visit to Chambolle terroirs this harvest. Always very hard for me to work out just where Sentiers ends and Morey 1er Ruchots begins. We came to Sentiers via part way down the road down from the village to the RN74 but turning right into the street where Dujac are located, then out into the vines and round a couple of large edge of village properties surrounded by a wall which continues past Roumier’s Clos de la Bussieres. I mention the above as coming to Dujac, who’s vendange (starting before I arrived on the Cote) has concluded, and as we approached the property, a white Toyota Prius with Jacques Seysses at the wheel was reversing out into the street and despite Herve Arlaud sounding our van horn long & hard, the Toyota initially seemed to continue for a near miss.

Setting to in Sentiers the grapes were looking as good as usual so far although, having seen a few sites now, I’m coming to the conclusion that volumes, whilst ok, aren’t just what they have been in better past years (subsequently confirmed to me by Cyprien who describes this year volume was as like 2014 & perhaps average). I’m not seeing, in my rows anyway, the number of very large, pendulous grape bunches I’ve seen in past years – the largest, most productive vines I’ll come to in a later note (as well as the most difficult vines to deal with – not the same ones). Whilst head down in my row I heard a lot of hilarity and shouted stuff backwards & forwards between individuals. Looking up this related to much banter between Herve Arlaud and, making another appearance, David Duband who was with two of his guys several rows away nearer to the village.

Finishing Sentiers we just ‘shuffled’ along below the wall with road to Chambolle above to Ruchots for our first ‘pass’ here back down to Clos de la Bussieres. Some pretty nice grapes here (Ruchots), good to see from a terroir who’s resultant wines are firmly one of my favourites, year in year out. Quite longish rows here hence can be quite tiring unless doubled up. Critically adjudging/ benchmarking my own cutting performance so far I’d say I’m doing ok, not quite up there with the first division speed merchants (mostly ladies), but not far behind and much quicker with accuracy than others – good !

After the first row we ‘broke’ for the now established break by the Clos de la Bussieres wall. Roumier’s team were also having a break here just inside the wall of the Clos but no sign of the boss. Break time here saw an irritating ‘incident’ of a type I’ve come across in past year but not for a while. This (and I’m not bothered at all if she subsequently read this – but doubt she will) involved Estelle, a masculine looking Belgian’lady’. She’s a staying resident in the house by the gate but chose this break to start ‘having a go’ to the other vendangeurs around her/me as to Herve’s instructions over the yard exterior light and whether it should be on/off at night. On my first night (the Sunday of arrival) Herve had asked me to attend to various ‘housekeeping’ aspects for the night, doubtless as he knew I would know the ‘necessary’ – I did. Such involved making sure the outer gates to the property were locked, the inner gates closed but not locked, the hot water was turned off, and – he was quite clear to me here – the yard light be turned off. Anyway Madame Estelle had made an issue the second night to me, whilst I’d been passing her sat on steps having a fag, that henceforth the light be left on, implying I’d been wrong to turn it off the night before. I’d simply shrugged and indicated I’d done as told but doubtless with many more folk now in residence it did not surprise me Herve might now wish the light to stay on. She chose the Ruchots break to sound forth to those around her as to my implied ‘incompetence’ re the light and also seemed to imply this related to my being English. Fair to say this did NOT impress me one jot hence I responded with some anger and icy disdain, in short making clear what I thought of her & her troublemaking pot stirring, before walking off back to my row. An unpleasant individual who I’d ‘cross swords’ with some days later when, for some reason, ludicrously she was given a short stint as a porteur & needed to be put in her place as to trying to bully the picker.

Ruchots concluded without more ado up to lunch, some more impressive fruit evident in my row on the second pass. The high temperatures and degree of humidity continued to prompt significant perspiring ! By now the bucket washing gang had settled into a fine routine, making ‘light’ & efficient work of cleaning up to c40 buckets. One of my colleagues here questioned why on earth Arlaud had chosen to buy all white buckets. I laughed, responding maybe they got a discount, but also pointed out the colour at least showed all the dirt, marks etc & as such made thorough cleaning ‘easier’.

Nice lunch here today. Quality pieces of pork in nice sauce with sweet potato. Pretty yum !

Post lunch a very short move to Morey 1er Millandes, even closer to our old domaine buildings than Clos de la Roche. Start point was the roadside just past Odoul Coquard’s premises. We’d passed the latter a few times so far and I’d been surprised to see no activity and all quiet. I’d asked Herve as we drove past previously if OC had finished their vendange (a la Dujac, Lambrays etc) but he’d startled me considerably by advising they hadn’t yet started. I’d been finding ‘our’ grapes as very clearly ripe so to find a domaine quite similar to our’s as not commenced was a surprise. I like Millandes, as I do Blanchards, as the vine training, fruit set and fruit presentation without too much leafage all lend to ‘clean’ picking. Can’t recall now but believe we may have had two passes here.

From Millandes to one of my absolute faves, the always to me totally uplifting Clos St Denis (CSD). Since we started going to Vosne Petit-Monts (details of that in 2018 to come shortly) CSD has had a competitor for the ultimate place in my heart/head but I still feel CSD ‘is the one’. I suppose the wines might be an influence for now as I’ve been lucky enough to drink a few CSD’s in my time, and own some more, but whilst I’ve been buying the Vosne more pro-actively in recent years I cannot actually recall having drunk a bottle (be it mine or that of AN Other). CSD maybe looks pretty ‘ordinary’ and/or much like any other vineyard/terroir from the bottom edge road but for me it becomes special with the altitude as one ascends the plot & becomes just a magical, gorgeous place when one reaches the top of Arlaud’s plot. The vista is stunning either side and across the plain below. It always seem so eerily quiet. That one is standing in one of the great Grand Crus, and might be about to pick/cut these special grapes adds to the aura. I’ve joked in recent times, but have been semi-serious, that I might ask for my ashes to be scattered in CSD but maybe that might be a problem biodynamically ! Anyway, no time for musing, the afternoon was pushing on, as hot as ever, will it ever cool, and we had to start heading down to meet the rest of the gang working their way up. Real mix of grapes here as always, some nice supa clean bunches, no mega large one’s, but also (as is also a feature of Bonnes-Mares, CdlR & Gevrey Combottes) those thin, spindly, millerandage berries. I think we just about won the race to cover the most ground but we were heading down hill rather than climbing.

Another weary, if satisfying, end of the day with not far back to base at all and just the usual cleaning before the now regular biere at our very local bar – what an inspired idea that has been (must find out who’s claiming the credit) – every domaine harvest team should have one (their own on tap cold beer supply) !!!
To come in Day 4’s expose a little conundrum:- when is rained off without rain ?

Marko de Morey 11th Sept 2018