‘The boss‘ at my home domaine was joking yesterday that (having just taken a tour through the vines of Volnay) rather than triaging when I arrive on the 29th of August, I could be doing the ‘decuvage‘ instead – i.e. after fermenting, the shovelling out of the spent grapes from the fermentation tanks for pressing…!

One or two domaines are thinking of bringing forward by a day or two their first harvests in the Côte de Beaune – say to the 20th August!

Whilst we have so-far avoided any major issues surrounding rot or drought stress, as you can see from the picture (taken yesterday) some isolated vines got an overwhelming heat stress on June 27/28th. Those small grapes not protected from the full sun by the canopy were literally grilled – locally ‘grillage’…

In the great scheme of things it matters not a jot, but just for the record the sunshine has this week brought about the first instances of bud-break in the Côte d’Or.

The forecast remains good (double-good as I’ll be there for a long weekend!) but we are two weeks ahead of the average so a wary eye will be kept on the forecast; nobody wants frost, and normally people don’t breath easily until May!