The weather has caught a few out. Midweek it was forecast to be dry and mainly sunny for the weekend; it has actually lightly rained today, and will probably be the same tomorrow and maybe Monday too. A few domaine’s that planned a quiet(er) weekend have been in the vines today, others wait.
As Ardhuy finished their harvest yesterday, there is now time for Carel Voorhuis to share some of his ‘holiday’ (I mean harvest) snapshots…
Carel Voorhuis of Domaine d’Ardhuy provides today’s scribbled summary while on the move:
Triage : potentially nothing, or at least not much. Quite amazing, it really came to a surprise, but I had a whole crew ready for the sorting table, but the worst we’ve had was Clos des Langres (organically grown, even if not certified), with maybe 10% in the vineyards plus another 2-3% on the table.
Potential alcohols were OK : I expected them to be lower, and even feared that we sometimes wouldn’t reach the legal minimum, but in fact, they were quite comfortable, starting with an 11.1 for the Bourgogne rouge, and reaching 13 (clos des Langres) to 13.5 (Charlemagne)
Colours of the first pinots we’ve picked seem a bit light, but the ones we picked later seem fine. But we’ll see.Have to go back to work, cheers, Carel
Carel provides us also with some pictures of this year’s last grapes to be picked at Ardhuy, today in Corton-Charlemagne:
Les vendanges, débutées le 24 Septembre, se déroulent sous le soleil malgré la fraîcheur matinale. Le vent du Nord qui a soufflé ces derniers jours a favorisé la concentration et la pleine maturité est atteinte partout. Les degrés en rouge se situent entre 11,8 et 12,8 %. Du fait de la grêle, la récolte est relativement peu importante et lres rendements en jus sont peu élevés. Les poudrage à l’argile et les pulvérisations de silice après la grêle, nous permettent de rentrer une vendange très mûre et saine.
Merci la biodynamie!
Chantal, Domaine Michel Lafarge
Wow – harvesting in October – that’s getting rarer!
I would take the weather forecast with a pinch of salt as we’re coming out of a settled period and it seems to change every few hours, but it is what it is right now.
Anyway, as soon as you leave they get all sorts of stuff;
Just a little rain this afternoon, but it was light stuff. The vintage was very scary for growers two weeks ago, but it really has been saved by the weather. The grapes are a little more fragile than 2005 (less thick skins), in that respect they are similar to 2006, but sugars are okay; one cuvée was down at 11.7° but most are 12-13 and a couple are over 13°. Fermentations have already started on some and colour extraction looks not bad.
Anyway everything is in at this domaine except the Corton-Charlemagne and the Gevrey grand crus – a forecast of a fine weekend has delayed picking these until Monday!
Alas, ‘Mark de Morey’ seems lost in action, I hope he didn’t slip into the destemmer…
Who stole the sun?
The sun has been the backdrop to everything in the Côtes for almost two weeks, but a little cloud-cover yesterday potentially heralded a change, and today it is emphasised – complete cloud-cover until about 10am when some blue sky re-appeared, it even looked like we had some slight precipitation overnight; perhaps it was a heavy dew. The forecast is a mix of sun, cloud and rain for the rest of the week – and getting colder again!
Today Gevrey (villages) Les Crais and perhaps later, Beaune 1er Les Avaux. I chided our proprietor that Les Crais wasn’t really Gevrey villages standard – it’s a giant 20+hectare vineyard way out east over the N74 – he was adamant that it was and that he would let me taste the 2007 to see, but of-course we didn’t have time for that 
More tomorrow including a double-update from ‘Mark de Morey’, aka Mark Gough.
Domaine de la Vougeraie have their harvest log now online.
Moving on, let’s start with today’s update from Mark in Morey:
Bonjour,
Petit dejeuner day 3 a Domaine Arlaud vendange 08.
Thought we had done a fair chunk of Bourgogne Rouge on day 1 mais non !!
We started there again at 7.30 yesterday for another hard morning’s graft. My back was feeling day 1 quite badly and by lunch I was an object of some amusement for my fellow vendangeurs. Am starting to get to know them better now. 2 brothers, Georges et Fernand are in their 70’s but incrdiedibly fit – and so quick along the rows. The peer pressure to keep up is quite something. Tremendous roast pork lunch after rice salad and salade tomatoes from Berthilde Arlaud who’s mass catering is very impressive – a bit different from her dayjob ploughing the rows of vines with one horsepower employee, Nougat, for Arlaud and other domaines – am not allowed to say which, honestly, the family were most concerned it is a secret – bit odd but I recognised a couple of Gevrey names. She seems to have fair demand for her and Nougat’s services .
Tremendous sunny day, really warm a day wore on. After lunch we picked really great looking grapes in 1er cru Millandes (some one said Aux Combottes but Romain corrected this for me in the evening over dinner). He agreed the grapes from the 1er cru pleased them greatly – exceptionnel. We
then went back again to the Borgogne Rouge !!!! And by 5.30 we still haven’t finished it.Over dinner I fascinated Romain and German stagiste Peter (just started a course at Geisenheim – his parents have an estate in the Rhiengau) with Clive Coates latest book. Fortunately Arlaud gets a strong, favourable mention !!!!
And then to bed before this morning.
Gotta go – 7.10am and still quite dark but v clear sky with star formations visible. My muscles are a bit stiff but the back seems a lot better. We’ll see soon. No idea where we go today yet – variety would be nice.
The Bourgogne Rouge large plot is going north from the village a mile or so – opposite near the top of the slope is a large concrete retaining wall. I’ll try and get a better fix soon.
Mark. G
News from Domaine Vincent et Denis Berthaut:
We started the harvest last Friday by Fixin Les Crais.
We save quality and quantity thanks to good weather, no rain and sunny days with 18°C tempreratures, who will last till we end …
Best regards, Denis Bertaut
Until tomorrow…
As a post-script to the last 2 days, I think I do note drinking a glass or two. Here a modest selection drunk over the last two days:
2000 Camille Giroud, St.Aubin 1er Les Charmois
Medium golden. High tones over slightly creamy base – quite vibrant if not an integrated whole. Ripe fruit offset by slightly bright acidity. Quite long, and certainly very tasty.
Rebuy – Maybe
1987 Camille Giroud, Meursault 1er Les Perrières
Medium golden. An understated nose that shows a little creamy wool. The palate is linear – perhaps (old) boney – but very smooth and rushes you into a reasonable – creamy again – finish just a little faster than you might wish for the appellation, but it’s probably the appellation that saves it given such an inauspicious year and a maker with little track-record for whites. Enough for a last glass was was left in the bottle overnight and it was even slightly better the next day – not a hint of oxidation. Will make even older bones!
Rebuy – Maybe
1998 Fougeray de Beauclair, Bonnes-Mares
Medium, medium-pale ruy red. A nice, rather aged but still fruity nose edged with a little funk. In the mouth the fruit is okay, but the remnants of the tannin still show an astringent edge – this must have been close to undrinkable in its youth! It’s quite long and it’s a tasty length, but the fruit is way ahead of the tannin in termes of the age curve. I wouldn’t touch another for 5 years and I still think it will be a long way from silky.
Rebuy – No Shame I bought 6 – sales are such a lottery without a chance to taste.
2007 Blind Trail, Pinot Noir
From New Zealand. Deep cherry red. The nose frankly explodes with vibrant fruit – this smells just like a barrel sample. The texture is hampered slightly by a little dissolved gas – but not too much to enjoy. The acidity seems to keep the whole thing in order. Clearly would (should?) be spotted as non-burgundian in a blind line-up, but the bottle was finished to the last drop – mind-you we could have been trying to take the taste of our ‘dodgy’ main-course away! I’d love to taste this with 10 years bottle age; would the gap versus burgundy remain so wide?
Rebuy – Maybe
1976 Camille Giroud, Gevrey 1er Lavaux St.Jacques
A nice core of colour. The nose starts – just like a lot of older Giroud wines – like an Italian wine that’s spent a few years in a giant foudre – that ‘sort of’ oxidised note. Very slowly there is a little funk, finally a very nice and clear red berry note. Smooth on the tongue with nice acidity – also a little ‘gout de foudre’ but a nice little sparkle of something extra on the mid-palate. Has reasonable length and it’s certainly quite interesting – but unless you’ve the patience to open 3-4 hours before consuming, it’s a long way from a typical burgundy experience.
Rebuy – Maybe
1955 Camille Giroud, Volnay
‘Found’ in a Swiss auction for the price of a 2004 1er cru. Drunk at the domaine – and why not – despite their cellar of old wines, even David Croix hadn’t tried a Giroud ’55. The bottle, label and capsule were absolutely correct, and the level was only about 4cm from the cork which, by some miracle, I removed (about 1 hour before pouring) in only two pieces without dropping bits in the wine. The colour held a very nice core of deep salmon red. The nose was most intruiging; deep and apparently oaky over a few truffle notes. Slowly the ‘oak’ fades and reveals something much more like coffee – little fruit but clearly very alive – over about 1 hour (it was shared between 9 of us) it continued to change. In the mouth it was a soft entry and a rather metallic taste, the acidity seeming a little coarse before a long and very engaging finish. With food the coarsness faded almost into the background. Not a great wine by any means, but captivating to spend an hour with!
Rebuy – No Chance!
Pictures from Pommard
Picked up for a song in a recent auction. The thought should see us through the cold but sunny morning – talk about a carrot and stick…
Cool photo reportage from the harvest.
I won’t make any big summaries based on fruit from just 2 vineyards, but safe to say I’m positively surprised versus my expectations. Not just the fields of Pommard were full of pickers; the densely planted section of La Tâche was picked today, as was at least some of La Romanée – Louis-Michel Liger-Belair has over 50 pickers this year, and should be finished by Tuesday.
Nice report here from Mark Gough in Morey:
Deuxieme jour pour le vendange Arlaud.
Arrived Friday after leisurely drive from off the ferry at Zeebrugge circa 9.00 am. Noted lots of activity on the Montagne de Reims and the Aube vineyards from the autoroute.
Sharing a rustic (basic – very !!) flat with 6 mature French guys who have been coming to Arlaud for yrs – but 4 of them do only driving and chais work!!! Also one brave Belgian girl Sophie shares with us.
Tricky first morning in 5 hectare plot of Bourgogne Rouge (for Arlaud’s Roncevie) after far too much ‘sampling’ of the product on the first evening. Herve Arlaud kept us hard at it until 12 dejeuner in increasingly warm sunshine and same again afternoon until ‘Arret’ at 6 when most of us had just about had it !! No mid morning and mid afternoon’s breaks here as at Magenta in 06. We have almost finished the Bourgogne – not sure where we go after this. Grapes look better than I expected but I have been amazed at the savage selection on the table even for the Bourgogne. Romain Cyprien, Arlaud’s chef de cave, tells me only circa 10% kept from 2 tries. He also told me the grapes had improved massively in the run up to the vendange and that drying wind had helped concentration.
Got to go now, les autres vendangeurs locale arrivee noisily ! I love the camaraderie of the vendange and the banter.
Musnt forget my bottle of water tomorrow!!!
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