Friday: As the harvest closes we can now take time out to eat cake!

There was a chance for some sorting on Saturday and Sunday, but given perfect harvest conditions in the last few days coupled with a forecast for rain at the weekend, people have worked double-time and are aiming to finish (probably late) today. So I won’t go this weekend.

Yesterday’s grapes from Charmes-Chambertin went through the triage table very easily, and today the Gevrey-Chambertin and Latricières-Chambertin likewise – and that’s quite an acheivement given that the grapes from this grower are not usually the best, but this year the Latricières was better than 2005. As I’m typing this the Chambertin grapes are being picked and should arrive at the domaine in the early evening – these will be the last arrivals apart for some Hautes Côtes de Beaune later next week.

This producer (at least) feels so much happier after the Côte de Nuits harvest than he did after the Côte de Beaune. He heard from a friend that August gave the Côte de Beaune three times more rain (100mm) than the Côte de Nuits (30mm) – this (we) he has to check – but if so, it amply shows why there was more rot in the south.

So 2006 in summary: Potentially very good whites. Côte de Beaune reds (the grapes) closer to 2004 than 2005 quality. Corton seems to have had excellent quality grapes of both colours. Côte de Nuits grapes (on average) slightly below 2005 quality, but in some places higher. For the wines we will have to wait a little. It was a mix of hot and cold during the year so this will hopefully provide a full spectrum of flavours – I can’t wait!
Cheers

PS What better post-script than to have the words of Aubert de Villaine:

Concernant les vendanges, nous ne sommes pas du tout déçus. Nous avons récolté des raisins à haute maturité (avec des teneurs en sucre parmi les plus élevées de ces dernières années) et nous avons réussi à mettre en place un tri proche de la perfection ! Je suis optimiste quant au résultat.

Or, if you prefer, my reprehensible attempt at translation:

Concerning the grape harvest, we are not at all disappointed. We collected grapes with high maturity (sugar contents were among highest of recent years) and with sorting we came close to perfection! I am optimistic for the result.

[EDIT] PPS – I also found these great posts by Jeremy Seysses of Dujac on the very, very nice Chez Pim site:

• A Burgundian Harvest – Part I: September 19, 2006
• A Burgundian Harvest – Part II: October 22, 2006
• A Burgundian Harvest – Part III: October 23, 2006

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Thursday: The early grapes (at least at this producer, and note that we are talking about pinot noir) were visually a little disappointing; the Beaunes the Savignys the Bourgogne – all were difficult and needed a hard triage. What remained was ripe enough but didn’t instill a sense of excitement.

What came in after some wonderful Corton Chaumes on Monday was a big improvement versus the previous week and lifted our excitement levels; the Santenay was nice, as was the village Vosne-Romanée and some Volnay 1er Taillepieds too – much less sorting was needed.

Yesterday the Corton Rognets grapes were super, very close to the level of Monday’s Chaumes – with the right growers you will have very lovely wines from Corton in 2006 – and from both colours too. Nuits 1er Vaucrains grapes were also excellent, requiring very little triage. This afternoon the grapes from Charmes-Chambertin are expected.

Tomorrow it will be Gevrey-Chambertin and Latricières-Chambertin.

The grapes have been coming into the winery quite cool in a morning and are being triaged in nice working conditions, i.e. ~20°C, sunny and dry – perhaps this week’s lack of rain has also helped improve the excitement levels – at least together with higher phenolic ripeness and (typically all) brown lignified pips seen in this second week.

There’s just a slight chance that we could be finishing up on Sunday as there is still some Hautes Côtes to think about, if so I will be back onsite Saturday and Sunday.

Wednesday: Vinotas spreads the fame of the sorting team.

I had to run back to Basel – curses – but my moles (Sophie, Sally and Julia above) will keep me up-to-date on how things look. Amazingly, while Beaune and its environs remained dry, my garden recieved 30mm of rain in 36 hours – we are 250km apart.

Updates this afternoon… okay, Thursday really!

Tuesday: is Vinotas day 5.

Yesterday evening I took a tour around the grand crus of the Côte de Nuits. About 70% of the vines have already been harvested, some sections (Leroy I think) of Romanée St.Vivant and Drouhin’s Grands-Echézeaux still stand proud with their fruit. There is much less rot here than I saw in the Côte de Beaune, but it’s still around – see the picture with an affected bunch in the aforementioned RSV. The Clos de Vougeot, in-part because of the protection afforded by its wall is also mainly picked.

Parts of Musigny still bear fruit, but Romanée-Conti and (the same domaine’s) Richbourg look to have been harvested – there are still quite some bunches on the vines however – perhaps we might see a second pass if the weather allows. The grand crus of Gevrey are likewise quite advanced as far the harvesting goes.

The canvassing of candid opinion gleans that many a winemaker is disappointed with the Côte de Beaune reds, they have the required ripeness (fruit and phenol) and acidity but at least from the perspective of the harvesting, triage and the first two or three days in the cuverie, they remind of 2004 with slightly less acidity. Everyone likes the whites. As usual a good domaine will make a good wine – it’s a mixture of triage and technique.

Today is cooler again, yet despite not just the forecasts, but 36 hours of constant, heavy rain just 150km northwest of Beaune – we are an oasis of dryness – sofar! Let’s see what the day’s grapes bring…

Monday: Never judge a book by its cover!

It’s a few degrees cooler this morning – but dry – just arrived we have grapes from Corton Chaumes, 90 year old vines that have given a low (significantly sub 30hl/ha) yield – the grapes are perfect, as good as anything seen in 2005. In the picture you can see the ‘field-blend’ of chardonnay, pinot noir and at the bottom the lighter pinot beurot (pinot gris). The stems are part lignified, dry and if you chew them there is no astringency. The winemaker gets a flash-back of Saturday’s DRC and decides to go for it – we will include 50% whole clusters. The destemmed grapes are added over the whole clusters and we expect some carbonic maceration to start at the base of the stainless-steel tank and the wine will go from there.

Anyway, if it goes wrong, Nanson will be blamed and will have to buy the barrel 😉

After this perfect material, we wait for grapes from Aloxe. What arrives is from the Aloxe 1er Cru Guérets and from the same owner as for the Corton Chaumes – and it shows! The vines are a little younger – but only a little – around 70 years, and the quality is very close to the Corton; very little rot with well-formed bunches. As can be seen by the speed of the triage table, these gapes are easily the equal of 2005.

Next up (following choucroute and cake…) we have over 100 cases of pinot from Maranges. The grapes look almost good – we slow the triage table a little vs what we had in the morning – some of our cases have more rot than others but overall everything looks fine and still way, way better than the bourgogne grapes of Sunday. Apparently the winemaker buys all of the production from this plot in Maranges – as he personally feels it is about the best terroir – and despite the lowly appellation, he requests only 5-7 bunches per vine. I think herein we see the result of that decision.

Looking at the Chassagne 1er Vergers that we triaged yesterday; already it is 90% clear, which is hard to believe when you see the yellow/grey opaque material that comes from the press – sulfur dioxide is a wonderful thing! It will now be moved from it’s gross lees into another tank and from there, with its fine lees, direct into the barrels. The taste is already rather good, viscous and with a nice balance – still, this would be rather expensive if drunk as grape juice!

The rain has pretty much stayed away the whole day. We have a few degrees lower – though still T-shirts and shorts for the ‘workers’ – and the humidity is a little lower. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

Sunday:
The title is a little unfair – despite the pessimistic predictions of the forecasters – we have on-and-off rain all day, but never heavy.

About 2:00pm I find myself in Chassagne loading the picked grapes from 1er Cru ‘Vergers’ onto a truck. Optically they are nothing special, about one in five bunches have some rot – perhaps one in twenty are quite bad; The taste on the other hand is excellent as is the balance of sweetness and acidity. A good (quite easy) trie and all will be well here.

5:00pm and we have 150 cases of bourgogne rouge grapes (from Meursault) arrive at the winery; these in places have rot almost to the same magnitude as we had to triage in 2004, though on average I would say better than 04.

Tonight we deserve a dinner so head to Beaune with ‘Vinotas’, whose day 4 report can be found here. Some bottles are consumed with very above average food at Le Gourmandin in Place Carnot.

Saturday morning and it’s raining in Beaune – we delay our trip.

Actually we just stay in bed a little longer 🙂

We arrive in Beaune late afternoon and there is no rain – in fact it’s rather warm. In the evening we open lots of bottles and are all humbled (including the winemakers among us) by the understated complexity and alround excellence of domaine de la Romanée Conti’s 2002 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru – and (as you can see above) we compared it to lots of other bottles! I should add the Julia’s cooking also helped a lot – Julia is from Brasil and is here doing a stage.

Safe to say we slept very well; Sunday the first grapes of our trip arrived.