Beaune 1er Belissand…
Our harvest day 3: A cloudy day and cooler than of recent – still, a little muggy for my evening 12km run – high above Beaune I thought I saw some people still picking at 19h30, but is was a vendangeurs’ campsite above (and next to) Les Aigrots!
Just two vineyards harvested today: We started the day with Beaune 1er Belissand – and white too. This is a new cuvée for the domaine, a vineyard bought in 2015, next to the domaine’s 1er Reversées, 0.43 hectares, but it was missing at least 60% of its plants, so the domaine decided to replant, and to white. This, the first harvest (Bourgogne or grand cru, it is allowed the label after 3 years, but not before – there is practically no fruit before!), only about 15 hl/ha was produced, and the grapes showed some oïdium and a more variable ripeness vs our Vergelesses – so we had a little triage to do – mainly because the grapes of such young plants are much closer to the ground than for (more) mature vines – but there was no rot.
We had plenty of waiting around in the morning – the young Belissand vines with low-hanging fruit, despite low yielding, take as much time to harvest as a higher yielding vine – and then we (of-course!) we had to wait for the press again – two large cases of Belissand had to sit and wait. Eventually Beaune 1er Reversées arrived – time to exercise the secateurs – except no, hardly anything to cut – more a case of weeding out the dried berries and pulling out the clumps of verjus that shouldn’t have been harvested. No rot, no oïdium – excellent shape and thick skins.
2000 F&D Clair, St.Aubin 1er Les Dents du Chien
Nose of lanolin and freshness – I automatically think it’s much older. Direct, mineral, a good mid-palate weight and a really very good width of finishing flavour. Certainly a wine with acidity, but with mid and finishing flavour to balance. Enjoyable… time in the glass and the nose is a little rounder with a sweeter suggestion of peach. I would still never have guesses 2000 – more like late 1980s to early 1990s – but it’s a mature character – not oxidation.
Rebuy – Yes
And did I mention a little something about analytics in the last days?
Well, here’s a nice comparison between our Corton-Renardes and our red villages Savigny – you’d be hard-pressed to separate them:
Corton 13° natural, pH 3.2, even the Savigny was 12.6° natural with pH 3.3 though seemingly the fresher to taste. Both are very respectable acidities given many the discussion about the heat. The Corton has 1.9 versus 2.4 g/l of malic acid in the Savigny, and the total acidities were 3.5 and 3.8 g/l (H2SO4respectively.
