Beaune 1er Les Grèves

Just a quick tasting 😉

Hospices cuverie – all quiet

Hospices cuverie – all quiet

The weekend is offering a nice respite from the rain of last week – though more rain is forecast for Monday, ie tomorrow:

Much is still happening in the crus of Beaujolais. Apart from Monday the weather is set fair – so it should be a comfortable end to their 2025 harvesting. There has been some mildew in the north of Beaujolais, reducing the yields a little.

Likewise there has been outbreaks of mildew in the southern and northern Mâconnais, not to mention instances of hail, so the yields are certainly quite variable.

The Côte Chalonnaise has seen a little more settled conditions than further south, here I’ve seen some of the highest potential degrees for wines – sometimes approaching 14°.

The Côte de Beaune – higher ground excepted – is mainly finished.

The Hautes Côtes, due to a later flowering, missed the wet and windy weather of the Côte d’Or so there are fewer millerandé bunches and the quality and quantity of grapes looks very promising indeed.

The Côte de Nuits harvest is heading into it’s later phase – the later harvesters are not long underway – Sylvie Esmonin is harvesting her Clos St.Jacques today and Sirugue-Noellat were harvesting Grands-Echézeaux. DRC are normally in the earlier wave of harvesters though this year they seem a little later. They seem to be close to finishing though, with some Romanée St.Vivant this morning after making their last pass through La Tâche yesterday. Anecdotally, the degrees are a little lower in the Côte de Nuits than the Côte de Beaune – potentially due to harvesting after more rain…

In Chablis, the domaines are racing to finish in the face of an outbreak of botrytis. In Irancy it’s calmer. Some domaines are only just starting to harvest, whereas In Bourgogne Epineuil, much was already underway yesterday.

The Hospices 2025: the 165th wine auction

The team team were having mid-harvest when I went to Ludivine’s presentation of how the 2025 harvest was going on Thursday the 4th.

The domaine have 21 of their 60 hectares in Beaune, the domaine covering 125 different parcels vines. The have vines in 15 of the 42 (official) 1er crus of Beaune. This year, they are harvesting for the first time their new cuvée ‘François Faiveley’ in the Clos de Vougeot.

An interesting comment from the representative of Sotheby’s: “For the auction there been a higher demand to register for the 2025 sale than any of the previous chez Sotheby’s.”

We took a tour in three Beaune 1ers – but in the rain – I felt sorry for those that thought the electric ‘trotinettes’ a good idea; they may have been fun, but they left trousers and coats sprayed with wet clay of the vineyards !! Ludivine (right) wearing the obligatory safety helmet in Beaune 1er Cent Vignes!!

Summarising Ludivine’s words:
‘2025 is a vintage that had a normal spring – in the modern norms. Despite a colder winter than that of 2023-2024, it’s clearly not a later vintage than 2024.

Flowering started a little chaotically. Initially it was cooler, with some rain and wind – resulting in plenty of millerandé bunches. The cleanliness in the vines was satisfying though, particularly after 2024 – this year we made 11 treatments vs 17 in 2024, the last treatment on the 14 July.

The maturity came in steady fashion – veraison coming around the 20 July vs 8 August in 2024: So earlier, but we still had the time to properly prepare for our harvest.

Our first harvests, in the whites, was 24 August. We often harvest Volnay at the same time but this year those parcels needed longer, and we still have a number of parcels to finish – there are 5 hectares left to harvest, spread across Monthelie, Pernand-Vergelesses, Saint-Romain and the Clos de la Roche. Harvesting this year taking a few days longer than the average.

We can see some development of botrytis, but harvesting in any vintage is always a compromise. The quantity of rain in the last days has been equally variable – some of our sectors could be compared to 2020, others are more ‘classic.’ In some areas the grapes hardly seemed to drink the extra water, others we could see the reverse and a lowering of the potential alcohols but the acidity wasn’t ‘degraded.’

The whites look super; they had beautiful lees and good acidity. The maturity in the reds is more variable – 12.2-13.5° – the skins are thick this year and have an important level of polyphenols. Our decuvages will be starting in about 3 weeks so I still have time to make some comparisons with other vintages. The volume is good though – it’s a good vintage ending in 5…‘

Today, it’s a sunny start in Beaune (right) – the people around town have smiles.

Hereabouts, the size of grapes have generally been smaller this year – despite almost a hundred millimetres of rain in the last seven days, but it’s been a regular dose with warmer, drier weather in between the downpours. The rain itself has often been quite heavy, sometimes even bringing the worry of hail, which, fortunately, has never materialised. The grapes, already quite small from the heat of August, don’t seem to have massively grown despite all that rain.

The late harvesting domaines of the Côte de Beaune are now (just) underway – Pierrick and Thomas Bouley plus the Pousse d’Or – just in Volnay! In Vosne-Romanée we have a couple of domaines that are not long underway – Grivot, amongst others, headlining.

For the reds, it will be interesting to compare the (potentially) more concentrated but less phenolically ripe wines made from grapes picked before the rains to those harvested after – though it’s the different approaches to viticulture that will define when grapes are ‘ready’.

Most in the Côte de Beaune has been done, excepting the higher lying vines and some in Corton – though much of Corton was picked as producers worried about waiting with so many storms in the forecast. A lot of people are still thinking of waiting five or six days before they do anything with their higher vines – an example of such plots would be Vaumuriens in Pommard.

So mainly for a ‘before and after rain comparison’ we will be comparing Côte de Beaune with Côte de Nuits.

So how are things further north? I jumped in the car to find out:

In Chablis, most domaines have been harvesting since Saturday or Monday – so 3-5 days. The largest part of the crus (grand and 1er) have been picked – the majority of the remaining work lies with the villages.
Right: Les Blanchots

Today, though, I could see a couple of teams underway in Montée de Tonnerre, one manually going through the vines, the other with two giant picking machines. In the grand crus there was Bessin-Tremblay picking their Valmur and also the Chablisienne picking a lower-lying part of their Grenouilles – they own 80% of this cru.

But it’s become complicated in the last week !!

Mid-August, everything looked in good control, the problem started with the rain of the last 10 days. Like in the Côte d’Or, but more – 120-130mm of rain – but over 80mm came with one large wave over 36 hours – and now botrytis is starting to spread in the vines. Today was 27°C and mainly sunny with a strong wind – which should help control the problem – but it also spreads the spores of the botrytis. Unfortunately, storms are forecast for Thursday.

Blanchots – now you see it

Blanchots – now you don’t

Les Clos

Machine harvested Les Clos

The lost cluster !!

Not the best Vaudesir

Not the best Vaudesir (2)

Team in Valmur

Bessin-Tremblay Valmur

No names, but I did see some machine-picked villages ‘grapes’ on a moving table – and it looked more like the triage !!

But what of the base material? If you look at the grapes that remain in the grand crus, the grapes are small to medium-sized but the more sheltered clusters already have some botrytis to trie.

I spoke with a bunch of vignerons. Here are their thoughts:

Gilles Fevre: “It’s been okay up until today – with good sugar levels and the acidity is quite good too – the yields are modest though – under 40hl/ha. The crus have been harvested and we need another 4-5 days to finish the villages. We are having to speed up as the rot is coming !!”
Charlene & Laurent Pinson: “Yes, that was our (manual) picking team in Montée de Tonnerre. After last year, we’re really happy – and probably a bit more than 40hl/ha, so we’ll take that !! The low volumes are not just because of the two heatwaves leading to small grapes; the mildew of last year took its toll, so the amount of flowers was already modest this year.”
Olivier Bailly (Billaud-Simon): “The rain really boosted the grapes, which, until that time, had very small berries. But to the extent where it was starting to crack some of the skins, but then it was dry again, and things calmed. Botrytis has started to cause problems in some sectors, though we’ve got some wind now, which could further spread the spores of rot – but it will help to keep things dry, so we should finish without problems. The rot hasn’t really exploded yet – like in 2013 – but if we get another rainstorm, it really could !!”
Samuel Billaud: “I’m about halfway through. I’ve already finished all my crus, but I’ve still got about another three to five days for all the Chablis. The amount of rot depends on the sector. The volumes are variable – some are up at 50 hl/ha and I’m happy with that. The pHs are also quite good.”

Chablisiene Grenouilles

‘Le Moutonne’

Grenouilles

Grenouilles

Certainly in the context of ‘greater Burgundy,’ it’s still early days in the 2025 harvest.

That said, some white domaines pushed hard and were already finished on Wednesday evening – but why the haste? It was a simple answer – rain !!

The forecast wasn’t promising, indeed it was actually suggesting very heavy rain and over multiple days. Overall, the rain was less than had been announced but some places still got a drenching overnight on Wednesday, leaving ‘sub-optimal’ conditions underfoot on Thursday. Nuits St.Georges saw nearly 50mm of rain, but Thursday and Friday were less wet than had been forecast, indeed Friday brought intervals with rays of sunshine…

Going forward, Saturday and Monday look like nice days, Sunday and Tuesday less nice. I start harvesting on Tuesday !!

There are still a number of important red domaines in Volnay to Beaune who are yet to start. Few are harvesting on the hill of Corton and relatively few have started in the areas north of Nuits. All are waiting for more phenolic maturity.

Areas already harvested show that the yields are good: Clearly a lot more than in 2024 but less than 2023. Geographically, I know of some picking for crémant in the area around Chablis and William Fevre started harvesting yesterday. For now, just the first, tentative, harvests in the crus of Beaujolais are underway. I plan to do some harvesting in Beaujolais too!

Before I get there myself, I can recommend to you the posts of Steen Ohman on Instagram !!

More to come, obviously…

Right: Beaune’s Saturday market:

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

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

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

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

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

Puligny 22-Aug-2025, Caillerets to the left, Pucelles to the right…

Let’s get it out of the way – yes, it could be a very good vintage. Though, clearly, it’s not over until the she/he/other with above average body mass index starts to sing !!

A little background:
It’s been a vintage where growth got underway early, but not especially so, in the context of many recent vintages. If we consider vintages like 2018 and 2020, the growth and flowering in 2025 got underway as much as 10 days later. What accelerated things was the heat of June. Days of 35+°C are relatively common in Burgundian summers – but from mid-July into August – not in June. But this June, there were many such days – in fact, they occasionally came close to 40°C. That there was some rain every 5+ days avoided a drought situation. There was some concern about mildew again this year, but the intervals between the rains were just enough to avoid issues – unlike in the Mâconnais and Beaujolais, where mildew was, again, problematic.

So the June weather meant that the expected harvest dates were nudging much closer to those of 2018 and 2020 – until the cool weather of July. Still, I discussed the harvest with Pierre Lafon on the 21st July and he responded “ I’m sure we won’t be harvesting on the 20th August, but I plan to be ready for the 20th, just in case. Monday the 25th seems more likely.” But August got hot again – many days above 35°C and some touching 40°C, so Pierre was already doing some picking today! Normally, this heat might cause some blockage of the ripening, but the ground was sufficiently wet (and there was heavy rain in many parts of the côtes this week too) that the ripening continued – certainly in the whites.

This remains a very early vintage.

Jean-Marc Roulot was harvesting his Meursault Clos de la Baronne already on the 19th, and Sylvie Poilot of Domaine de la Vougeraie was harvesting her Bâtard-Montrachet on the same day – “Bill, the degrees were rising so fast – it was time to harvest them!”

And so this year, the whites are the first wave of harvests. Many of the well-placed reds – certainly in the Côte de Beaune – are already at or near 13° of potential alcohol. Only the phenolic maturity needs to ‘improve.’ I think we can look forward to many domaines harvesting whites from Monday, 25th August, and the reds, largely 1 week later, on September 1st.

The domaines always seem to like vintages that end in a 5, and it looks like this sequence will continue. Assuming no terrible storms in the next 2-3 weeks, we only need to worry about how high the alcohols might be. Otherwise, buckle up!!

Meursault-Charmes

Meursault-Charmes

“Pierre – the Charmes is ‘coming…'”

Meursault – hotbed of harvesting today

Meursault – hotbed of harvesting today

Beaune 1er Cru

But what was happening today?
Nothing was apparently underway in Santenay, but just over the border into Chassagne, where whites were being picked in Morgeot (Dugat-Py) plus another team lower down and opposite, just over the route des grands crus, too. I noted another small team in the flats of Chassagne, too.

Crossing the main road (St.Aubin had some action, but I missed it) the vineyards were quiet except for the ‘high’ part of Bâtatd-Montrachet on the Chassagne Side – two teams at work here.

Onward was quiet today except for one team on the mid-slope of Folatières. Meursault brought the most action: the team of Lafon at the top corner of Meursault-Charmes, plus a couple of teams in the middle of Meursault-Perrières. And then it was clear all the way to Meursault.

Clear to my eye, but I know that some of the whites were also picked in Beaune today – the Hospices white Clos des Mouches, for instance – it’s usually the young-vine parcels that are more precocious…

View across valley to Marey-les-Fussey from HCDN Au Vallon

Domaine Michel Gros Vendange 2024 – Days 5 & 6, Wednesday 25th & Thursday 26th Sept

A day of more kestrel sightings all through today as in over the vines between Vosne & Nuits as went both to & from the Hautes-Cotes, and in the Hautes-Cotes skies as well, with other birds of prey – the only non kestrels I could identify with confidence being the occasional buzzard.

With the Cote D’Or vines picked in 4 days (recall took 5 last year) from now on it was the Hautes-Cotes all the way. Our route into the Hautes-Cotes was always the same, albeit with a twist today in how we got there over the final kilometres as in not what I was expecting as not the route we’d followed in 2023.

Firstly, the pre-departure ‘routine’ included a less than pleasant ‘episode’. The small in number sub-team I’d been a happy part of from Days 1 – 4, as I’ve mentioned previously used two vehicles, namely the domaine’s large white ageing panel van driven by Louis and one of the two Renault mini-buses the domaine had hired for the vendange from the outset. The latter accommodated 9 folk in 3 rows of seats, being the same 9 of us from the outset – thus routine and order was by now well established. I’d enjoyed a daily front row seat alongside driver Fabian, and AN Other, usually Chrystelle. I’ve described a kerfuffle with the transport from Day 4 when we’d all come together as one large team but that had not directly impacted our van’s happy band. That changed for this morning.

I’d always been amongst the first to the vehicle as I was always keen to stash my bulky knee pads, gloves, camera etc so I wasn’t having to keep hold of all that outside any vehicle in the pre-morning departure gathering. On this morning I came to our Renault to find two young (age 20s I’d guess) female floosies sat in the middle row of seats. These two had only arrived I think yesterday & had certainly not been part of the vendange from the start. Kudos to them for appreciating transport seats would be at a premium but that said I was concerned for my yet to arrive fellow sub team workers, two of whom would be left ‘swinging’. I politely attempted, with language a barrier, to suggest to these two females they were occupying seats of established team/vehicle ‘regulars’ from Day 1. I might as well have been talking to a brick wall as they clearly couldn’t give a wotsit for what I was saying, brushed off my comments, and sat tight. The inevitable happened when the others came to embark. The two to miss out were a sweet mother & daughter local pair who came every day by car. They’d been part of the 2023 team so I guess were year on year regulars.

On Day 1 this year they’d greeted me very warmly seeing me again which was mutually very nice & were also very pleasant each morning with greetings etc. This morning I could tell they were quite shocked, if not a little upset, to be the last two to the vehicle to find their ‘normal’ seats occupied by Mesdame Floosies. Early birds definitely caught the worm(s) here. We departed leaving the mother and daughter, and others unable to find transport, milling around the yard. Am not sure how but eventually everyone seemed to get up into the Hautes-Cotes somehow. Not good, not impacting me personally, but just one of a number of issues through the vendange, the rest of which did (impact me) which I largely haven’t detailed to date but I will in my final piece summarising this harvest ‘experience’ for me and what that all means post 2024.

Our route into the Hautes-Cotes (‘H-C’) is/was always the same in that the first part consisted of cutting across the vines between Vosne and Nuits to the northern edge houses of the latter, then curving right through a residential area of bungalows onto the D25, west beyond the Intermarche, then staying on the D25 Rte de la Serree past Le Gentilhommiere hotel in the valley of the Le Meuzin small river/stream climbing towards the H-C. Arriving at the edge of Meuilley, we turn right onto the D115 Rue de Beaune then previously (as in 2023) travel only a short distance before, multiple times turning off right into the pretty hamlet of Chevrey then into the different Gros H-C plots.

Harvesting Machine in distance from HCDN Au Vallon

Single bunch of HCDN Au Vallon grapes on post

View across the HCDN landscape from Au Vallon

View across valley to Marey-les-Fussey from HCDN Au Vallon (Michel’s Land Cruiser in middle ground) (2)

Today, I’d blithely assumed we’d be headed for the largest Gros H-C site, that is the 7ha Fontaine St Martin but, no, our destination to come was actually the 2nd largest site, the attractive hillside Au Vallon. How we got to/entered Au Vallon ‘threw’ me a bit as on this occasion we didn’t turn off the D115 into Chevrey but instead, with Louis’ van leading, stayed on the D115 through wooded areas to its junction with the D8 which we turned right onto. This took us past the Maison Aux Mille Truffes, who’s truffle products I’ve bought in the past for family at home, and into Marey-les-Fussey with its number of vigneron properties e.g Joannet & Thevenot Le Brun to name two. Just through Marey-les-Fussey we turned right onto a vineyard road onto a sweeping descent then climbing slightly came to the bottom hillside edge of Au Vallon.

Quite why we took what appeared to me to be an unnecessarily long way round to get to/enter Au Vallon when last year we came out through woods on to its upper slopes having come through Chevrey I never established but who was I too question !

View downslope in HCDN Au Vallon landmark tree on boundary

View upslope HCDN Au Valllon

Well presented grape volume HCDN Au Vallon

All Pinot Noir here. Milling around to be directed where to start, and with whom as the high trained vines see workers in pairs, a harvesting machine could be seen in the near distance with its attendant tractors and trailers support. No idea who it was working for but if to hazard a guess I’d say the Nuiton-Beaunoy Co-operative, premises on the southern edge of Beaune. The fruit here in Au Vallon seemed pretty good compared to what we’d seen elsewhere and on the Cote. There wasn’t the quality or volume of 2023 but the incidence of mildew here was much lower. Conversely there seemed a bit more incidence of grey rot than on the Cote but not excessive in context. I can’t now recall whom I was paired working with, having not noted it, but partly recall might have been Guy as owner of Onyx (rather than the other Guy – my room share). The grapes were nicely presented & much easier to pick on the high trained vines than the low trained Cote one’s. Much leaf stripping though was essential. The weather was largely grey and overcast through the day with the odd patches of brief blue sky here and there. We worked steadily through the morning, initially uphill before breaking for lunch back in Vosne. Back again in the afternoon to continue/finish where we’d left off. My sub team group, which had stayed together as one of 4 or 5 small entities within the larger whole, were somehow efficiently ‘flying’ post lunch, completing our allocated rows more quickly than others. We finished earlier than usual around 16.30 and whilst I didn’t appreciate it at the time that was because the Paulee was to occur that evening.

Domaine Michel Gros is strangely odd to me in Paulee terms with that ‘celebratory’ event, curiously perhaps, coming part way through the vendange rather than conventionally at or near the end as always my experience at the other domaines I’ve worked for/at. The reason for this seems (can only be) that the Gros vendange, in football parlance, is a ‘game of two halves’ i.e the first ‘half’ being the Cote D’Or work, the second the Hautes-Cotes. I’d been intrigued in 2023 to note how many of the original starting team regulars worked only the ‘first half’ then disappeared off home thereafter. I gather this has been the case at Gros for a while hence the Paulee taking place when it does to accommodate those ‘part timers’ who will leave. Whatever !

It seemed I was the last person to hear about the pending Paulee, and only did so overhearing a mention of it in the yard on our return from the H-C prior to which I’d been oblivious as in no one had seemingly though to tell me – can only assume word of mouth had occurred elsewhere. I had to ask questions re starting time etc then hurried to get ready, badly in need of a shave after 5/6 days without one. Having got myself ready into suitably smarter clothes, with the rest of our accommodation building curiously quiet cum seemingly deserted, I made my way across the dark yard, rain now falling, through the dining cave, and out into the other yard area outside the cuverie, anticipating/assuming as 2023 that our pre dinner gathering for fizz and canapes would be in the cuverie. Err no ! Whilst the cuverie front was open, it was in complete darkness. Bemused, the location puzzle was solved for me as I turned around to see the new building across the street was open and fully lit, occupied by revellers.

Pre Paulee Fizz & Canapes in new building (4)

Pre Paulee Fizz & Canapes in new building (3)

Pre Paulee Fizz & Canapes in new building (3)

Acho with admirers pre Paulee Social (Office Lady Sarah top left)

I made my across through puddles from the steadily falling rain to join the gang. Its quite amusing, if not impressive, to see one’s fellow workers in ‘party attire’ after day to day working garb. Michel, moving amongst everybody, serving champagne (didn’t notice or ask which champagne it was), was particularly smart in blue shirt and gilet. Chapeau. One of my serious regrets this year was the minimal interaction I had, or rather didn’t have, with Michel in comparison with 2023. With Pierre largely ‘running the show’ this year, and my sub team/transport arrangements day to day, quite different from last year I didn’t see much of Michel other than at distance in the vines, and close up really only at breakfast.

3 of my sub team members

3 wise men – Michel Gros centre, Philippe right, Un autre left

Dining Cave emptying post Paulee

My room sharer Guy left & un autre

Reception prelude over we made our collective way into the dining cave, which the senior lady regulars had gone to some trouble to ‘dress’ for the occasion, and in which the tables had been moved to up & down the room lengthways format rather than the usual daily across. I didn’t note the entrée but the main course was a rather enjoyable veal and potatoes. Wine wise the evening was lubricated initially with two whites – these were 1) a Domaine Pradelle 2022 Crozes-Hermitage Blanc (a Marsanne – Roussane blend; and 2) the Domaine’s own Bourgogne Hautes-Cotes de Nuits 2022 Fontaine St-Martin Blanc (Chardonnay). The Pradelle was familiar to me from 2023 as some of you may recall. The owner of Pradelle was at wine school with Michel – they’ve remained long time friends and swap wines with each other. I’m not a huge fan of Rhone Blancs – the Pradelle was fresh & pleasant enough but I’d rather have the FSM. I’d brought a few bottles to Burgundy from the UK as usual, anticipating one or more evening socials with Bill, but as he’d returned to Switzerland said bottles were quasi surplus and, in number, potentially impacting the UK Customs regulations number of bottles I could acquire and take back to the UK, so I opened my sole bottle of Domaine Adhémar et Francis Boudin (Chantemerle) 2019 Chablis 1er cru ‘L’Homme Mort’ & shared this with a few others – was very well received, particularly by Michel and Philippe. The Paulee reds, all from magnums, were the domaine’s NSG 2012 Village, NSG 2011 1er cru, and Vosne 2013 Clos des Reas. The Reas particularly was atypically delish – definitely more than one glass necessary for ‘testing’ purposes ! And post speeches, with midnight having come around, so to bed !

Dinner White Wine 1

Dinner White Wine 1 (2)

Paulee 3rd red wine served – Clos des Reas 2013

Leaning (or not so) tower of food trays

Thursday 26th September
This was a free (post Paulee recovery !) day hence I inadvertently slept in to past 7.00 a.m. tut tut ! With heavy rain anyway working would have been out of the question. Post breakfast I spent the morning, with office lady occupant Sarah’s (such a nice lady) agreement, in the domaine office, using Michel’s desk working on ‘Bill stuff’, largely downloaded photos, re-sizing the same for email transmission, and captioning. Towards the end of the morning I took myself off to Beaune on an errand for a friend to collect a specific bottle, already ordered and paid for from the UK. Arriving at the Beaune merchant location (Vistavin – on an industrial park on southern edge of Beaune) it was just turned lunch hour so, knowing how the French love the lunch period, and with the business clearly not open, I initially chose to park up and kill time. That dragged so I decided to leave to get some petrol and come back – which I did. Subsequently a bit of a pantomime ensued with access to the business, a couple of phone calls being required, then a short trip to another close by associated wine business to finally obtain the bottle – phew !

Back to Vosne for more office work to while away the afternoon. Plenty of folk had clearly departed, including my room sharer, Guy, but bless him he’d left me a note with 3 cans of beer. Two other guys who’d been sharing the room next to us on our landing had also gone so I was alone – but that was good as it meant, with no others to consider, when I was in my room I could bolt the landing door outside my room to the stairs and so ensure no nonsense of Belgians etc trying to annoy me, leave furniture piled up outside my room door, or enter the room to misbehave with my luggage, possessions etc etc – all of which had already occurred. Not sure if dinner was on offer on this non- working day (don’t believe it was) I was content to enjoy bread & cheese in my room with wine leftovers and beers pre bed, now safe my beauty sleep couldn’t be spoilt by nonsense with the landing door bolted, ahead of Friday’s return to the H-C with influx of new faces & an improved transport situation.
MdMdlV

Domaine Michel Gros Vendange 2024 – Day 4, Tuesday 24th Sept

All the usual suspects at breakfast this day; older individuals, mostly longtime regulars, and including Philippe Durand – probably my favourite colleague along with Acho’s Italian owner. Philippe is an older guy family man from Belfort & I believe has, or had, a senior position with his local Sapeur Pompiers. For me he’s immensely likeable. His vendange role is as one of the principal tractor drivers. He’s always immaculately and neatly turned out & neat in everything he does, including eating his breakfast for which he has a very smart folding Laguiole knife to trim his fruit. Philippe is also my ‘weather man’ & today, first thing over breakfast was adamant in response to my enquiry that there’d be no rain today.

Destemmer debris Gros cuverie

Giraffe conveyors & destemmer ‘downstream’ from triage table

Gros triage table close up – Pierre in grey hoody

Pierre Gros’ intriguing looking cuverie testing bench

Two Gros employees ‘feeding’ the triage table

Our initial destination on this grey, overcast morning was a similar surprise as yesterday when we’d returned to Morey En la Rude de Vergy which I’d thought we’d finished the day before. Today, with a personal sinking feeling, having been glad to exit yesterday, we went back to the plateau of Boncourt (le Bois) beyond the railway line for more Bourgogne Rouge fruit. After the quasi horror show, largely waste of time/effort of yesterday, to day was rather better & ‘more like it’; if the grapes weren’t ‘great’ at least there were some. Our work here took us to mid-morning but, you guessed it, despite Philippe’s confident over breakfast weather assertion, as neared the end of our session we were lightly showered/rained on – and guess who had no rain jacket or hat ?

Looking north from NSG Chailots – Onyx firmly held on his chain given roadside

Looking south from NSG Chailots

Looking south from NSG Chailots

Our next destination was familiar from 2023 but w. hat wasn’t ‘familiar’ was our route to it and for quite a while I was baffled where we might be headed for. Our Renault minibus, chauffer Fabian, followed sub team leader Louis in the domaine’s large white ancient panel van. Louis took THE most circuitous route one could imagine to, ultimately, the south side of Nuits-St-Georges. Initially he headed east away from Boncourt & Vosne on the D109G which led us past the Aerodrome de Nuits-St-Georges with a couple of light aircraft and a helicopter on the apron, then turning on to the D116 into the eastern suburbs of NSG, briefly onto the D8 main road as leads to the Autoroute or into NSG Centre, then weaving through what seemed backstreets, past the Gare (Railway Station) de NSG, and ultimately onto the D35 to its junction with the D(RN)974, just south of the ibis NSG Hotel. Bizarre ! I’m guessing Louis was seeking to avoid the main road through NSG and its, to me, infamous traffic light controlled junction on the north side where the Moillard premises are. So convoluted was Louis’ route, albeit impressive in terms of local knowledge/geography, that for a time I was wondering if he was seeking to ‘kill’ time ! We were headed for the Gros plot of village NSG Les Chaliots as borders the D974 & has NSG 1er cru ‘Les Poirets’ above it. This plot is the only one south of NSG owned by the domaine. Its notable for being crossed by electricity lines and a large pylon. We parked on the roadside verge, starting our picking from there, which occasioned Onyx’s owner keeping him on his chain whilst himself working to avoid any road related harm coming to our furry friend (Acho and his owner had remained at the domaine today with a few others as on triage table duty). We made 2-3 passes here, meeting the rest of the team for the first time this week, who were working downwards, circa half way up the rows of our second pass. We finished here in time for an early lunch, it not being worth starting anything/anywhere else. Lunch was notably good as entrée of couscous with vegetables in a tomato sauce, followed by nice pieces of salmon with pasta.

Break gathering after 1st pass upslope to summit NSG 1er xxxxxxx

Descending in NSG 1er to start cutting upslope

NSG Town ‘proper’ from top of NSG 1er xxxxx

Tractor cases collection at conclusion of NSG 1er xxxxxx

Zoom view of NSG Town Centre & north residential edge from NSG 1er xxxxx

For the afternoon the whole team went to the domaine’s two adjacent NSG high, top of the slope, village crus once a transport problem I’d sort of seen coming had been resolved – somehow ! From day one there had been only two hired Renault Minibuses which, for me on first sight, clearly weren’t going to be enough. Our sub-team had been exclusively using one so I’m not sure how the rest of the main team had been getting about other than walking to the Vosne plots as had been the case in 2023. Seemed a logistical shortcoming, unless deliberate, to only have the two vehicles to supplement the various domaine vehicles. The adjacent plots, separated by a narrow grassy vertical path, had puzzled me in terms of identity in 2023 when Michel (Gros) had clarified matters for me. Just north of NSG, at altitude, such that views south over NSG town, and north towards Vosne are quite something, right at the top of the slope before one gets into scrub of grass and shrubs, we worked a part of Aux Champs Perdrix and then En la Perriere Noblot. Fruit from these sites is blend with that of ‘Aux Athees’ (by the Intermarche), Les Lavieres, and ‘Au Bas de Combe’ for the domaine’s NSG Village. We worked 3 uphill passes of long rows as, with a couple of rest breaks, took us through the afternoon to just after 17.00 hrs. Re-joining with the rest of the team though had one major negative after the relative freedom, peace and camaraderie of our small sub-team as we had joyously been spared the nonsense and stupidity of the Belgian youth scumbag yobs which this afternoon had manifested itself again in their attempts to dump buckets of crap over one of their own number or some other targetted unfortunate. Fortunately, I was always far enough away but, whilst never struck, I did ‘suffer’ with others, the odd bunch of green or other grapes whistling through the air close by directed at one’s person. The nearest one such bunch came to me was a couple of feet away into the leaves of a nearby vine as their aims were well off & the throws being at some distance away. Utter nonsense as could have caused damage/injury to anyone unfortunate to be hit. Absolutely not needed. Hey ho.

Back to base, shower, laptop photo work, dinner & bed. The above was the end of our Cote de Nuits activities, Day 5 Wednesday seeing our first trip to the Hautes-Cotes and that evening the domaine’s vendange Paulee. As I know my enthusiasm for the Hautes-Cotes isn’t, it seems, widely shared I’m minded to condense all our remaining days into my next instalment – but will see when commencing that !
MdMdLV

Domaine Michel Gros Vendange 2024 – Day 3, Monday 23rd Sept

No more rain overnight with a dry, if grey and cloudy, day promised. Usual c6.30 start for breakfast – for me banana, dried apricots and a breakfast bar – all brought from the UK. Black coffee to wash down; occasionally I’d be ‘reckless’ and have a breakfast tea !

Easy decision to consider my Wellington boots (‘wellies’) to remain appropriate as, even without more rain, the vineyard soils remained damp and ‘sticky’ underfoot from previous precipitation. One of my early morning at the domaine gate pre-departure photos this day might make some of you ‘wonder’ at the attire of a few of the older ladies. The fancy dress, or costumes, represented a pre-vendange email circulating ‘themes’ for particular days. Not something myself, or the vast majority of the workforce it seems, wanted to get involved in – tricky enough working in the vines without nonsensical attire. Each to their own though ! What did please me was the arrival yesterday of my young Italian chap friend (annoys me I can’t recall his name, if I ever knew it) from 2023 with his lovely & super well-behaved/well-trained dog, Acho, a Labrador cross type in appearance. Acho just has one of the loveliest, endearing, calm, placid natures of any dog I’ve ever come across – I was delighted to see them both. Their accommodation, for man and beast, was a large, ancient, Fiat van acting as a quasi motorhome, parked in front of the Mairie, Acho’s nightly bed being the front bench seats – not his master’s bed !

Usual early morning pre-departure gathering – some in fancy dress

Well behaved lovely Acho lying quietly on dining cave floor post evening meal

Whilst waiting for ‘kick-off’ departure a distraction from my looking around musings was the cry of a bird. This was a small falcon flying over the domaine buildings but unusually vocal, maybe seeking its mate. In the UK we know such falcons as ‘Kestrels’, quite commonly, and notably, seen hovering over motorway embankments, fields etc. This year I was to see at least one, often two, kestrels over the vines between Vosne and Nuits most days of the vendanges, with it also a year for seeing birds of prey most days in the Hautes-Cotes.

Pic taken to show Morey ElRdV very stony ground & steep slope

Our small sub team remained intact and continuing to operate autonomously. Pierre Gros’ start of the vendange advices to me that the whole team would come together to work Richebourg Grand Cru had not come to pass as that had been ‘done’ by the rest of the team without us. I wasn’t particularly ‘bothered’ as I’d had that experience in 2023 and found it slightly underwhelming for a storied GC. I was much preferring, and enjoying, the small sub team experience this year, and the differing terroirs we were going to which I’d not seen/experienced in 2023. In that vein our initial destination today first thing was back to Morey-St-Denis and ‘En la Rue de Vergy’ – again ! This surprised me simply because I’d thought we’d finished that yesterday afternoon !!! We returned to the same concrete road corner location above the Clos (des Lambrays) with the vehicles, and walked down slope on the southern edge of the Clos to the plot of the day before. In grey and overcast weather we did two more upslope row passes in this area on very steep, and notably stony (see photo), ground. Some of the grapes here were amongst the best I’d personally seen but there was little or no consistency of quality or volume from vine to vine, row to row. Walking back to the vehicles, picking completed, we had the chance to mingle and chat with the Domaine des Lambrays team who were exiting the higher up, above the road, to the tree line, plot they’d been working in. Perusing my ‘Climats et Lieu Dits’ afterwards confirmed the Lambrays personnel had been in village terroir ‘Les Larrets’. I was much taken with, and slightly envious of, their smart, uniform, mid-dark green polo shirts. I’ve never worked for a domaine with similar – nice touch I thought. Their porters were notable for the curious wheelbarrow-type ‘contraptions’ they were using to bring grape cases to the road/vehicles. These ’wheelbarrows’ were, necessarily given vines row width, quite narrow and at the same time long. Seemed to me they must have been a bit of a tricky ‘nightmare’ to push either uphill, and maybe more difficult downhill, whilst keeping level so their ‘cargo’ wouldn’t spill. The socialising with the Lambrays team was nice – seemed no rush on the part of leaders of either team to move on. Had me thinking how rare this sort of inter-action has been, for me at least, as over 15 harvests I can’t actually recall any previous inter-team mixing of this sort.

Tractor to tractor grape cases transfer at summit of Morey

Morey En la Rue Vergy grapes – rare normal look this year (1)

Louis our sub team leader in vine Morey grape sorting

Lambrays Morey Larrets fruit

Lambrays Porter with wheelbarrow in Larrets

Lambrays team mingling with us prior to both teams exiting

From Morey we went further north which, given the domaine’s holdings, had to mean Gevrey – specifically ‘La Platiere’. I believe this was the plot of vines most recently acquired by the domaine but am not able to establish just when that was. On the flatlands eastern side of the D974 as one approaches Gevrey from the south. Located well towards the railway line, La Platiere sits below ‘Grand Champs’, itself below Croix du Champs, and is not, it seems, worthy of a mention in Jasper Morris’ Inside Burgundy book in the pages covering various notable Gevrey village sites. To me, unless it’s the soil, ‘La Platiere’ has little to commend it when looking at the likes of Bourgognes such as Pressonnier and (Arlaud’s) Roncevie.

The weather had improved markedly en route to Gevrey and, parking outside a small industrial shed type building, the only structure for some distance in a ‘sea of vines’, we made our way across a track to a small pile of cases in front of the vines in the sunshine, with high clouds and some blue sky above. The Gros vines (several rows) had been very clearly identified (unusually !) by red and white tape strung across the rows, and additionally, a large piece of white paper had been hung from the tape at its right hand end with ‘Michel Gros’ written on the paper in yellow ink. I was mildly amused at this, never having seen such overt identification – we are usually pointed to the appropriate rows of vines wherever as marked with whatever coloured paint the domaine uses to indicate its ownership – a dirty white for Gros. I could only assume that here whichever of our tractor drivers had previously deposited the cases had gone to the extra effort to clearly identify the target vines. I think, belatedly, we might have only made the one pass here pre-lunch as the rows are very long which is intimidating if one has any level of fatigue ! A slightly amusing incident occurred on departure as I was at the back of van or minibus, having loaded our bits and bobs of plastic water barrels, plastic cups, odd buckets etc but my driver seemingly hadn’t realised I hadn’t embarked and set off without me but, fortunately for me, having only pulled forward a few yards the vehicle was halted by the shouted warnings of my colleagues I was about to be left behind !! Much amusement as I made it into the vehicle – and so back to Vosne.

Arrival 1st look at Gevrey La Platiere – Gros rows extent tape marked

Note for avoidance of doubt on 1st row on right at Gevrey La Platiere

Post lunch, we returned to Gevrey and undertook two more passes. I was slightly hampered as I’d somehow forgotten my knee pads doh but managed ok without this time. Departing Gevrey I was intrigued where we’d go next but in the possibilities of my thought processes I hadn’t considered Boncourt-le-Bois, or actually the vinous & agricultural areas either side of the main railway line before reaching the above hamlet in the countryside north of Nuits. I was already familiar with the plots of vines we were heading for as Domaine Michel Noellat have vines in both the locations we’d be at this afternoon and I’d worked in those in 2019 & 2020. I’d have happily continued/been at Noellat but, I think for 2022 and since, that charming domaine had moved 100% to employment of contract picking team(s), dispensing with local and intern vendangeurs – a shame (for yours truly particularly as I’d loved 2019 & 2020). I’m assuming that as Michel Gros and Michel Noellat have vines either side of the railway (Bourgogne Cote D’Or I believe) then guess that may be the case for other Vosne domaines.

Both our locations are reached by turning left off the D974 main road (coming south) just after the Le Richebourg & Restaurant La Toute Petite Auberge businesses onto the initially narrow D109G. Our first target site is before, but alongside (very close !) to the railway. Turning off the road to the right before coming to the last few houses before the rail line a track takes one along the rear of those houses to the railway then turns right for a short distance to the vines – ours were just past the railway signal box and another railway associated building which seemed to relate to the overhead power supply. Not one of the most ‘compelling’ terroirs, and for this year, far from compelling grapes in either quality or quantity – in fact pretty poor in both respects and thus a tedious exercise. The only saving grace was we didn’t spend too long here and doubled, or tripled up, to a row it wasn’t too tedious. A close eye was kept on Onyx to be sure he didn’t get too close to the railway. This section of line between Dijon and Beaune (and beyond both I assume) always fascinates me at how busy it is with a wide of variety of very regular train traffic from TGV, local units, and all manner of freight trains. The signalling must be extremely efficient to ensure all runs smoothly. I was particularly intrigued (not that I’m a serious train spotter in the UK or France !!!) to note one passing freight train appeared to be hauled by a UK rail freight company diesel locomotive – I wasn’t aware, other than Eurostar, any UK originating trains operated into France, and not this far south.

Train interest aside, we exited our first underwhelming site, the way we’d come into it and back onto the D109G, and the narrow underpass beneath the railway, following the road immediately right and then, after a sharp left-hand bend, gently upwards onto the wider plateau. From the D109G, the extensive area of vines stretching north into the far distance were on our left, to the right an almost equally extensive area of sunflowers looking very ready for harvesting. Exiting the vehicles we seemed to mill about a while for no apparent reason(s) whilst our leaders sorted themselves out and how/when we got cracking. Arriving, I’d been particularly struck (one could hardly miss it !) by an incredibly large, in relation to the myriad others around it, sunflower – almost ‘triffid’ like. A definite photo opportunity.

Our bigger of 2 vehicles at Bourgogne Rouge plot on Vosne side of railway by signal or power building

Pre start rest at Boncourt le Bois BR plot

Back to our raison d’etre – grape picking ! Well, if any site encapsulated the 2024 vintage (for Gros at least) here we had it (or lack of !). I could hardly believe what we experienced & am now trying to describe. I was paired with another, quiet, older guy with our allocated row on the far right of the plot we were working with unused land to our right. We didn’t so much work our row as just, honestly, walk along it looking for grapes of which there were precious few cum next to none, and what very few there were highly unimpressive and materially mildew affected. Our bemused ‘stroll’ to the end of the row produced an end result of a smattering of poor grapes in my bucket, with the others not much better off. Quite remarkable as I could recall the Noellat years seeing significant volume from vines not too far away. We then moved as a group some yards west to more (all long here) rows. These rows were ‘better’ in a loose sense, as not as ‘bad’ as the first ones, but still the quantity and quality of fruit was poor. All seemed a notable waste of time and effort, and if I’ve ever worked an area of vines were machine harvesting might have been appropriate then here we had it.

By the time we’d finished our ‘efforts’ here and got back to the domaine it was c17.30. There was a suggestion of rain again for Tuesday – we’d see for what, whilst I didn’t realise it would be our last day on the Cote, before heading into the Hautes-Cotes on the Wednesday. Wine at dinner capped a nice end to the day – Vosne 2022 1er cru Brulees – maybe infanticide but very Yum !!!!

MdMdlV