The day starts with about 12°C but peaks around 23°C – the week seems set like this – that will be perfect.

It’s Sunday so there are not many people ‘about’ – that said I did my touring between 12h30 and 15h30 – so that’s also peak eating time – we are, of-course, in France!

First a little grand cru hommage in Vosne-Romanée – nobody was in the vines and, so-far, virtually nothing has been picked – just Arnoux-Lachaux yesterday in their Aux Reignots…
 

Romanée St.Vivant

Romanée-Conti

La Grande Rue

La Romanée

Amandier…

La Tâche

There was nothing to report in Pommard, but on the far side of the village in Volnay were two teams just starting – Domaine Clerget in their 1er Cru monopole Volnay Verseuil – quite the prettiest triageurs seen this year(!) and on the other side of the road, Mark O’Connell’s team in his 1er Cru monopole of Clos de la Chapelle.

The grapes are looking great this year – and there are plenty of them in most vineyards. The reds have some patches of sun-burn and the raisined grapes are the tastiest I can remember – all very clean. Many of the lower vineyards show some yellow leaves due to the lack of rain in the last weeks. So, it’s looking like a fine vintage, so-far.
 

Hospices Corton-Vergennes

Hospices Corton-Vergennes

Corton-Charlemagne

Corton-Chaumes

Beaune Teurons

Hospices Beaune Teurons

Volnay Clos de Chapelle

Volnay Clos Verseuil

Volnay Clos Verseuil

Amid rain-showers, a quick tour around the market – where I met a couple of Kiwis from Rippon and Carrick who are here to harvest (JM Millot and JJ Confuron) – and updating in the apartment, I won’t be touring the vines today, but I see Charles Lachaux is under way today:

Harvest started this morning with the stunning Vosne Romanée 1er cru Aux Reignots ! 🍷 — se sent déterminé à… https://t.co/uktD3bJWbX

— Arnoux-Lachaux (@Arnoux_Lachaux) September 2, 2017

14h45 this afternoon:

Light hail in Beaune – it's coming straight down – no stormy wind. The canopy should have protected the grapes – hopefully that's all…

— 🅱️ill nanson (@billnanson) September 2, 2017

A tour in the Côte de Beaune this afternoon. There’s not much red being picked yet – Lafarge was at it, and I saw red grapes being triaged at de Montille – but Pommard and Volnay seemed very sleepy – maybe it’s the weight of all those grapes on the vines! Meursault and Puligny were busier though. I bumped into Francois Bitouzet who was harvesting I assumed Meursault Santenots – but no, it was Les Corbins! He’s very happy with what he’s taken in so far – last year the frost left him only 12 barrels from the combination of two vineyards – this year it’s over 50. Tomorrow he’ll be picking his Meursaults Charmes and Perrières. Talking of Meursault (pictured) I watched a picking machine work in this 1er Cru – in such ideal conditions I feel very unhappy at such an approach – a wine that will retail for at least €40, often double, deserves to be better treated, indeed probably needs to be better wine too!

Then on through Puligny. A brooding sky this afternoon – threatening heavy rain – but apart from a short shower early in the afternoon, just a very fine day for harvesting.
 

Volnay Clos des Chênes…

François Bitouzet in Les Corbins…

Meursault Les Corbins…

Les Corbins

Meursault Les Corbins…

Meursault Les Corbins

Meursault Les Charmes – machine harvesting!

Puligny Clavaillon

Really the most important thing to note is that yesterday was a hail-free day. I believe that some of the hail canons were lit in preparation but were not, in the end, required. Still, there was 25mm of rain in some places – it’s certainly a more overcast and cooler day for harvesting today, with rain forecast for the weekend too – then dry and sunny. The rain is very much welcome for those not planning to harvest for another 10+ days – that’s the Côte de Nuits mainly…

And to compare with a photo taken by me 6 years ago today, to-date, not a bit of this in 2017:

Erwan Faiveley has been advertising his up-comng harvest on LinkedIn of all places – and as you can see (right) having a little fun on the way too!

Yesterday, the 29th, saw Coche-Dury picking a trio of Meursaults: Perrières, Genevrières and Chevalières (Armand Heitz is bringing in his Perrières today) – but it was a tough day with the afternoon peaking at just over 35°C! The team of Olivier Lamy were also in the vines – already into their 5th day of harvesting – cutting the grapes in St.Aubin Les Friones and En Remilly.

That was yesterday, but will today be something of a denouement for the vintage? Despite some rain at the weekend, the vineyards remain dry but strong storms are forecast today – thunder and lightening – let’s hope that the precipitation remains (unlike Champagne last weekend) in a liquid form. What seems more certain, is that following todays weatherfront will be much cooler weather – plummeting to 15°C tomorrow and only slowly recovering next week – maybe into the mid-20s°C.

Today, is see that (amongst others!) Olivier Leflaive and de Montille are starting their harvests, the teams of Chandon de Briailles are picking Corton Blanc, Domaine Leflaive are picking Chevalier-Montrachet, Thibault Morey is picking his St.Aubin Dents du Chien – so far, it seems a rather traditional vintage, with the whites being mature before the reds in the Côte d’Or. I also see that Le Grappin are starting their first harvests in Beaujolais – so good luck to them. But spare a thought for Nicolas Rossignol – his Volnay Taillepieds is already partially harvested – but not by him – it was either the dear or wild boar from the woods above the vines! See below:

And tomorrow, I’ll be in Beaune, my home team starting their harvest campaign on Tuesday…

The weekend was stormy in many parts of France, some wine-growing areas had hail – Champagne for instance – fortunately none was reported in Burgundy, in fact many producers were happy to see a little rain.

A few early pickers were already in the vines last week – Olivier Lamy for instance attacking his young-vine chardonnay – although that is still the early wave. More will be at it this week – mainly whites – for instance Jean-Marc Roulot started today as did Pierre Vincent, starting his first harvest at Domaine Leflaive with the domaine’s Mâcon – Dominique Lafon doing likewise – and then Pierre will start in Puligny tomorrow – Dominique is also planning to bring his Côte de Beaune whites this week. Emmanuel Guillot-Broux is waiting waiting in the Mâconnais until the 2nd September to attack. Armand Heitz of Heitz-Lochardet is bringing-in his Chevalier-Montrachet this week.

Faiveley actually harvested a small parcel of Volnay last week because ‘it was ready‘ (of-course!) but that was just a warm-up for them and they haven’t done more yet. It appears that not a lot will be happening in the Côte de Nuits before the 7th, though in Chablis, as an early indication, Domaine Christian Moreau seem pretty sure that they will start on the 4th of September.

Although ‘discontinued’ in the Côte d’Or, there is still a Ban des Vendanges in the Beaujolais and it’s actually today – the 28th. Without getting too excited for the moment (but seemingly still trying), the locals confirm that it’s been a dry vintage but ‘The balance between sugar content and acidity is beautiful, and we can already say that 2017 will be a solar vintage and concentrated like in 2015, but with a fruit and freshness more like 2011.‘ So no big promises then!

Saint Amour, 24 July 2017.

(Translated) From Inter Beaujolais:
Ripening takes its course in the vineyards of Beaujolais: On average we are 15 days ahead of the maturity progress in 2016 – veraison (grapes changing colour) appears to be closer to early vintages such as 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2015.

Overall, the sunny and dry weather since the Spring has both pushed the development in the vineyards and helped keep a remarkably good health, such that fewer treatments have been needed this year. There is some ‘water stress’ due to lack of rain, which will be a volume-limiting factor in many sectors. If we add to this the impact of hail in northern Beaujolais, we are heading towards an average volume harvest.

July has been very dry, leaving small berries, which provides hope for a good concentration of juice and phenolic materials.