Starting with bit of an advertorial from François Labet at Château La Tour in the Clos de Vougeot.

We just started slowly and our forecast looks quite accurate. We picked yesterday the young vines replanted in the Vieilles Vignes plots at Chateau de la Tour.
We expect to produce about 50% of a normal harvest!!! fortunately the buckets of sorted fruits are quite empty as the grapes used are ripe and clean. This will enable us to produce a great vintage.
There will certainly be a Cuvée Hommage in 2012 !!
François Labet, this morning

Ça y est c est parti ! Gros score hier au nombre de parcelle , clos des angles , pommard fremiers , jarolieres , chanlins, volnay fremiets , cailleret , taillepieds , chevret …. Mais très petit score au niveau des raisins entre 12 et 18 Hl / Ha !!!
Nicolas Rossignol, this morning

The are some new notes here.

The rain of yesterday has abated for today, indeed it has turned-out to be a beautiful mid-20°s afternoon, but storms are forecast for tomorrow – just as I arrive – that will be good baptism I expect.

Bumped into Fred Mugnier in his Amoureuses. Totally healthy and ok volume. Not much Marechale though

— Jasper Morris (@justjasper) September 23, 2012

Forecast is pretty mixed for the next week, so many people have advanced plans. David Clark has done Vosne and Morey, CDN Villages today

— Jasper Morris (@justjasper) September 23, 2012

Cuvee-Alexandrine
Courtesy Alexandrine Roy

home-team-ladoix-2012
Thanks Laure!

Les-Caillerets-on-the-sorting-table
Courtesy JN Gagnard

muddy-shoes
Coutesy JN Gagnard

Nuits-St-Georges-1er-Cru-Clos-des-Corvees-Pagets
Courtesy Arnoux-Lachaux

Pommard-1Er-cru-fremiers-2012-vendanges-entieres
Courtesy Nicolas Rossignol

Starting with two views…

Miserable day in Burgundy. Rain overnight and drizzling now. Not good for the grapes.

— Nayan Gowda (@vinosity) September 22, 2012

Rainfall from yest to this morning. 32mm in Savigny, 22mm in Volnay. Given the drought in the past 5 weeks, I think the vines can take it.

— Chanterêves (@TomokoKuriyama) September 22, 2012

https://twitter.com/Patrick_Essa/status/249403183401680897

At the home domaine anyway!

Today was the home-team’s start (ignoring a little bourgogne blanc must, already delivered) with grapes arriving from Beaune 1er Cras, Savigny 1er Les Peuillets and Aloxe 1er Les Valozières.
‘The Boss’ notes:

Honestly, it looks good – I’m surprised to be happy!
I’ve delayed as much as possible, but these vineyards (at least) are quite easy to triage – just some dried grapes from either hail or sunburn. So-far we’ve had no botrytis to remove, the grapes arriving this morning were cold and firm – it was around 5°C when they were picked. Of-course, every vineyard is different: some of my usual contracts I’ll walk away from due to pretty awful fruit. On the other hand some of my usual suppliers have walked away from me as they have nothing to sell. Clearly from what we have, the liquid to solids ratio is going to be quite low, yields probably averaging about 20hl/ha (some whites are lower!) but we won’t know for sure until we press…

The team is aiming to get some Meursault on Saturday, Volnays on Sunday and the Chassagne 1ers either Sunday or Monday. As noted, the mornings are cold but the harvest is being done today in bright sunshine – maybe there’s a chance of some rain on Friday though.

Many other domaines started last week for whites – in Meursault at least – to be joined by the likes of Jadot, Latour, Olivier Leflaive, Nicolas Rossignol, Thomas Bouley, J-N Gagnard, Antoinne Olivier, Chandon de Briailles and Ray Walker from yesterday onwards.

A small selection of their images:

Beaune Premier Cru Perrieres
Courtesy Louis Latour

Chassagne Clos De La Maltroye
Courtesy JN Gagnard

Corton Blanc
Courtesy Chandon de Briailles

Meursault Genevrieres
Courtesy Louis Jadot

Puligny Pucelles
Courtesy Sue Boxell (Burgundy On A Plate)

Savigny Les Petits Liards
Coutesy Antoine Olivier

https://twitter.com/Patrick_Essa/status/241138064649502721

https://twitter.com/Patrick_Essa/status/240717240301928448

Not sure to what to make of hail, mold, and mildew. When fruit gets dropped you still can end up with stunning fruit that is still there

— Ray Walker (@justraywalker) August 27, 2012

Just back from a largely wine-free weekend away. Despite the sci-fi cloud image from Manchester Airport on Friday (a quick and painless immigration check by the way!), I have the impression that the jet stream might finally be heading Northwards:

Whilst the 2012 harvest volumes will be modest (or lower!), the final quality of those bottles is far from written – it looks like a period of good weather is on the way – we just need that humidity to reduce a little – and maybe a north-wind too… 😉

And to add a little balance to the 2012 vintage commentary, let’s not forget that the major hail ‘events’ have been in the Côte de Beaune, and perhaps the largest rot pressures too. Jeremy Seysses, today, shows a cracking row of vines…

Through much hard work, vyds still looking pretty great. 2012 is still a long way from being a write off. #fatladypic.twitter.com/PcrxInkK

— Jeremy Seysses (@JeremySeysses) July 19, 2012

As far as I know, the first sighting of veraison in the Côte d’Or is this picture – taken today – by Thomas Bouley from Volnay. Thomas also has a picture of the same, taken today, in Beaune 1er Les Reversées.

A cluster of grapes from the Volnay 1er cru of Les Carelles – so we can also see that there are still some grapes that have the chance to make it to harvest 😉 You can see, how irregular the bunches are; mainly a function of the rain and cold at flowering time.