Day 8, the Thursday, 10th Oct 2013, one week after the start of the Arlaud vendange saw us experience the worst weather to date by some margin, and for me, to then the most seriously unpleasant weather I’d ever experienced in a vendange. It had rained heavily overnight and was much colder. We commenced under dark, cloudy, skies c 7.30 a.m. by finishing Morey 1er cru ‘Cheseaux’ from the previous afternoon.

About 8.30 a.m. it started to rain and gradually got heavier. I carried on picking keeping low to the vines for shelter without realisingI’d been abandoned, not understanding the en francais calls to do so. By the time I was shouted in to join the others and got to one of the double cab trucks with a vacancy I was extremely cold and wet and with a full realisation I had not dressed that morning with enough layers. I really feared for my subsequent health. Things were so bad Herve Arlaud went back to base for unheard of coffee (none of which made it to our camion) and also boxes of gloves of some sort as many of the younger vendangeurs were picking gloveless which must have been horrific.

The grapes in Cheseaux were actually pretty nice, unlike the weather. Once the rian eventually stopped, although it was sort of in the air all morning, we finished Cheseaux and moved on to Blanchards. I remained cold and wet all morning – it really was a gritted teeth, shivering, exercise to get through to lunch – before I started to eat I spent betwen 5/10 minutes leaning on the refectory log stove getting warm again. A very, very, very testing and most unpleasant morning – partly my own fault for not being more appropriately dressed but looking back count myself fortunate not to derive at least a cold if not something more serious.

As the song says “Things could only get better”. They did for the sunny afternoon concentrating on the 5 ha plot of Bourgogne Roncevie (5 passes by the full team), but little did we know it that Day 8 was a precursor of worse horrors for Day 10 & 11 on the Hautes-Cotes.

Mid-morning-all-team-except-the-cigarette-brigade-here-are-the-huddling-in-vehicles-in-lay-by-on-RN74-beow-Morey-to-avoid-heavy-rain

In-halt-called-during-Morey-Cheseaux-for-heavy-rain-and-cold-am-sat-next-to-Vincent-Sophie-in-rear-of-Serges-double-cab-truck

No-2-of-Mid-morning-all-team-except-the-cigarette-brigade-here-are-the-huddling-in-vehicles-in-lay-by-on-RN74-beow-Morey-to-avoid-heavy-rain

Bourgogne-Roncevie-below-RN74-arguably-should-be-Gevrey-Village-looking-towards-Clos-de-Beze

Arlaud-Vendangeur-in-Bourgogne-Roncevie-looking-towards-Chambertin

Super-shot-that-really-pleases-me-of-Bourgogne-Roncevie-plot

Another-shot-of-Roncevie-aprox-45-degrees-from-super-shot

3rd-of-3-shots-of-Roncevie

Morey-1er-cru-Blanchards-fruit

Onwards…

First thing with Cyprien doing TESA paperwork for new vendangeur. Annie & Thierry in background.

Sweet loved up but v nice young couple – Vincent & Sophie.

Younger guys having breakfast

Refectory lean-to pre the off, some of the younger guys.

Now that’s what I call a sandwich or bread & jam ++ !

Refectory lean to pre the off. L-R Alice, Dede & Florent

Yard post brekkie before the off. Romain & Herve Arlaud to left.

A Motley Crew. L to R Jean-Pierre Feral, Sylvain, next two unknown, Mahmadoo, Christophe, and Romain with fag.

Finishing off in Vosne 1er Reas

Finishing off in Vosne 1er Reas 2. Jerome in space suit overalls from his regular employers, Du Pont Chemicals.

View of southern edge of Vosne from 1er Reas

Porteur Romain, a gentle giant or something else, but with ever present cigarette in Fuji close up.

Just had to snap this t shirt when I saw it. I want one !!!

Vosne 1er Reas fruit case

Departing Vosne 1er Reas – next stop Vosne Village to come.

Vosne Village looking towards Vosne from RN74 verge side

Vosne Village fruit in case

View of Vosne from Vosne Village adjoining RN74 southern edge of Vosne

Exiting Vosne Village after completion looking towards RN74

Domaine-G-Roumiers-Morey-1er-Clos-de-la-Bussiere-abuts-Arlauds-Morey-1er-Ruchots

Super nice guy, self effacing, top bloke Christophe Roumier in tractor seat by Morey Clos de la Bussieres

Domaine G Roumier’s tractor transport of the boss

Embarking on vans – lunchtime after hectic morning

Porteur Claude in atypical post lunch pose. He really did sleep & snore !

post lunch pre go again gathering. Alice C and AN Other.

Romain-Arlaud-in-front-of-Morey-1er-Ruchots.-Morey-St-Denis-southern-edge-in-background

The day after our Paulée seems more Spring-like than Autumn; there’s a cool-ish blue sky, but bright sunshine too. I thought I was going to get my hands (and probably a lot more!) dirty this afternoon, as we planned to start the first ‘decuvage’ after lunch, but the boss decided to wait one more day – shame, my TGV awaits!

The whites are looking really good, so-far no surprises have lain in wait. The reds have extracted their colour rather easily and seem to offer very nice aromatics. Fermentations are well under-way here, with many temperatures closing in on to 30°C now. Despite apparently high potential alcohols (lots of people quoting 12-13+ at harvest), the truth is in the detail – these quoted figures are almost always based on the ‘legal’ potential alcohol, which deviates from the (different calculation) actual (analytical) alcohols achieved by as much as 0.8% this year – many are the domaines that planned to add 0.3-0.5% sugar (pretty-much as ‘usual’) but are finding that 0.5-1.0(+)% is required.

Very early days of-course, but the wines look surprisingly good after the harvest and triage travails. Let’s see how this continues…

We finished lunchtime, praise be the lord, after another testing episode – it was so cold first thing back on that damn Haut Cotes de Nuit plateau, with a claggy mist exacerbating the cold, that my jacket had ice on the left arm (honestly) and you can imagine what one’s hands felt like – yes, blocks of ice. Really bad. Herve was shamed into a mid break before we turned back for a second pass with coffee and croissants supplied – sun out by then. Absolutely without a shadow of doubt THE most testing vendange one can imagine with a legacy of ailments for your’s truly who’s semi crippled. Cyprien agreed with me earlier this p.m the grapes from here were depressingly bad with rot, although deceptively looked good at the start . This is another new, first time for this year, terroir where Cyprien told me he had not had the ability to manage the vineyard how he’d have wished and that it was way too prolific. Flippin freezin again now sat typing here at the back of the cuverie and my RSI’d right arm is going bonkers – really painful. Hey ho !

Day 6 – Vosne Villages roadside along from Clos Vougeot – dragging Daniel on board to depart

Day 6 – Vosne Village roadside RN74 along from Clos Vougeot

Day 6 – Vosne in the mist from roadside RN74 plot of Vosne Village

Day 6 – Arlaud convoy en route thro Vosne to Petit Monts

Day 6 – Arlaud team commencing exit from Vosne Petit Monts (vines horizontal to the hill)

Day 6 – Looking down on Vosne from Petit Monts with R-L La Grande Rue, Romanee Conti & Richebourg

Day 6 – the relentless, impossible not to like, bundle of energy Mahmadoo celebrating exit of Petit Monts

Day 6 – Vosne 1er Petit Monts fruit

Day 6 – Vendangeur of another domaine in Vosne Petit Monts

Day 6 – Drouhin & Bouchard empty caisses en Petits Monts

Day 6 – Arlaud vendangeurs exiting Petit Monts 2

Day 6 – View down on Vosne with La Grande Rue right & Romanee Conti left

Day 6 – Arlaud vendangeurs exiting Petit Monts 3

Day 6 – Arlaud vendangeurs exiting Petit Monts 5

Day 6 – Arlaud vendangeurs exiting Petit Monts 6 with Herve phone in hand planning next move

Day 6 – Alice Chidaine, daughter of Francois Chidaine (Montlouis, Loire)

Day 6 – left to right Daniel, Dede & AN Other

Day 6 – Arlaud entering Bonnes Mares

Day 6 – Arlaud team splitting into botom & mid slope teams for Bonnes Mares, Alice Chidaine centre

Day 6 – Morey from Bonnes Mares vines

Day 6 – Bonnes Mares typical fruit

Day 6 – Bonnes Mares fruit in bucket

Day 6 – Arlaud team top of slope Bonnes Mares

Day 6 – Arlaud team descending Bonnes Mares

Day 6 – my favourite – Clos St Denis GC

Day 6 – confess cant recall where this is – Mazoyeres possibly

Day 6 – circa 8 pm cleaning triage set up one

Our intrepid vendangeur is now battling a little RSI, the cold, the wet…

Morey Village grapes

Bleep bleep long rows of Morey Village below RN74

Chambolle Village Wines before……

Chambolle Village Vine stripped by yours truly (grapes in shot are vine behind)

Serge checking his load & tired vendangeurs cleaning boots – that wet earth)

Vendangeurs in Chambolle Village

Romain – I want that coat !

Triage Waste – no ladybirds in sight

Gevrey 1er Combottes in tank

Arlaud Cuverie triage table late pm pause

Arlaud Cuverie triaging Chambolle 1er Sentiers

Arlaud Cuverie triage Chambolle 1er Sentiers

Arlaud Cuverie. Almost whole triage crew in shot

One week’s work!

After finishing last night, we tasted the juice from the Corton-Charlemagne we triaged on Tuesday – dark golden, almost viscous and really quite lovely for sweet grape juice 😉 An average ex-domaine price for Corton-Charlemagne is ~€50 (without tax) so the domaine would have to increase its price to €250 to make the normal return – it’s not going to happen is it…(?) Then we visited another producer who was just beginning to add a ‘traditional’ 0.5%. I thought it quite funny that it should be unrefined ‘organic’ sugar – but why not 🙂

I left Beaune this evening as I arrived 8 days ago – bathed in sunlight – that was rather improbable given how the day started. Sometime before 6:00am there was quite heavy rain, not for long, but wet enough, fortunately we were precipitation-less until at least 09:30 thereafter. I spared a thought for those pickers out in the cold, wet and wind this morning – including ours – and that was before it really did start raining again!

We ‘manned’ the triage table early because there were Santenay villages grapes to triage that we didn’t get around to the night before, a 21:45pm finish was quite late enough, thank-you 😉 It was palpably colder today, probably not much more than 10°, but by 09:00 there was a sneaky wind too, and damn cold it was – by 10:00 I’d added a fourth layer of clothing – dancing by the triage table had little to do with the quality of the grapes, or the selection from the team iPod! For an hour or so, rain returned to accompany the sorting. The grapes were pretty awful it must be said – the ripeness and taste were mainly fine enough, but again there had been little resembling triage at the vines – I could only describe some of what was cut as resembling turds – I flinched even to pick them up from the triage table (yuk!) Occasional cases of ‘fruit’ seemed to contain turds and unripe fruit in equal measure, yet others seemed fine enough – we earned our crusts triaging today – I even had to stop the table once while we sorted what was before us – I haven’t done that since 2004…

Lunch was über-welcome by 12:45, a French dish resembling Shepherd’s Pie, to accompany we started with Cloudy Bay 2006 Pinot, then (finally) the La Tâche 2000, we were then tempted by an 04 Latricières (had to look very hard for the P, only faintly spotted it, quite fleetingly too), a 1997 Volnay Pitures and a 1976 Volnay Champans – a tough last lunch – and that’s without mentioning the starter, the cheese and (of-course!) the tarte aux chocolat…

Back to the table; more Santenay – will it ever end? At least we were seeing a better average quality of fruit, despite the occasional turd! Finally the Santenay was finished after nearly 5.5 hours of triage – medals should have been awarded – but let’s be fair, we were awarded a pain-au-chocolat with a coffee at 10:30 🙂 Next up came grapes that I’d been looking forward to – the (traditional) Facebook grapes from Maranges from the Monday. These were also no saints, as there was a little rot here too, but we were able to make the trie at a minimum of 3x faster than before. They tasted nice too.

Finally I had to leave, at least for this week – I couldn’t stand any more Van Morrison. Maybe more next week?

That’s better – Maranges Clos aux Moine

Soft-focus dinner ladies with Shepherd’s Pie