Shoveling Beaune Villages into the giraffe…

Just two vineyards to triage today – both red.

We began the day with the last part of our villages Savigny. Here in what is described as the most ‘humid’ part of the vineyard, was a little rot that needed to be removed, but as if to amplify the description of this parcel, something I’ve never seen on a triage table before – and how it survived our 300 kg bins of fruit I’ll never know – a small newt – just looking at everyone as it moved along the table whilst sat on a cluster of grapes! It was on the other side of the table to me and my fingers were too sticky to take a picture – somebody else helped it outside of the cuverie!

Lunch was a wholesome affair, cassoulet-style. As payback for my 1993 Corton yesterday, the chief poured a blind bottle. It was white – clearly – okay deeply golden! It smelled fresh, mineral and old. The first sip was long, narrow and implied a cool place I guessed older than 1985 – it was a 1979. I also guessed it was from Saint Aubin – the chief said ‘It’s a little more noble’ – Puligny 1er Combettes. I have to say that 10 minutes later, with air, that it was a different wine, rounder, fuller and much more impressive. It was probably even harder to guess at this stage – luckily I only needed to be wrong once 🙂

Post-lunch we had Beaune – villages Beaune from nearly 0.9 hectares – so there would be plenty of Beaune. Here was less rot – but still a little – than the second parcel of Savigny.

Not much more to report today, other than the colour is forming very quickly on the Corton and Savigny already in tank.
 

Our tumble-drier in action!

Today, like yesterday, started for us with Savigny Blanc Les Vergelesses – this time from the upper parcel. Also like yesterday, our tumble-drier (above) was the bottle-neck in our process. Once it was full the press programme lasts 2.5 hours – so we can triage some more, but then those grapes have wait for the press to finish – oh, and be emptied! Yesterday we did a little Corton before finishing the last of our white – today we were more patient and finished the white first. A great result – mainly leaves to triage and the occasional bunch with a bit of oïdium. Including all that fell through our vibrating table, we had only 25kg of ‘waste’ from almost 2 tonnes of fruit – it was that clean. And like yesterday, it was delicious.

Whilst waiting for the press we tasted the two cuvées from yesterday, and the Corton, already pink, is wow – for grape-juice, anyway – just a beautiful line of fine acidity despite the weight of flavour – or mainly sugar! Note, yesterday I didn’t listen properly – there isn’t more bourbe (sediment) in the whites this year – the opposite – there’s actually very little, so the tanks won’t need much time to settle before being moved into barrel

The last of the Vergelesses was placed in our press in time for lunch. Pernand blanc, St.Joseph and a little bottle from me as homage to our Corton yesterday; Jadot’s 1993 Domaine Corton Pougets. Despite the cork breaking in two the wine was fine. The nose got better and better in the glass, with detail, complexity, purity and all-round fabulousness – really something! In the mouth a little narrow, direct and intense – good but hardly a giving wine at this stage. So a nose to die for and a palate still to wait for, but for all that a great bottle.

After lunch we had about 4 hours worth of Savigny villages – an old-vine parcel, but a big one – nearly 1 hectare. No oïdium, rather rare porriture – mainly leaves! There’s plenty of juice at this stage and I’ve certainly seen smaller grapes, but the amount of sugar, the viscosity of the juice is impressive. There’s no rain forecast before Saturday and with more and more of the Côte de Nuits starting their harvest before that rain, there’s time for the grapes to shrink – just a little. Still, I sense finer acidity at this stage than in either 2015 or 2016. Let’s see.

Tomorrow there will be more Savigny and then some Beaune villages – it’s a great team here too!
 

Clearing the press

Only 2.5 kilos

Not much bourbe

Great 2017 Corton

Great 1993 Corton

Great looking old-vine Savigny

The next load arrives…

Time to clean…

Day one at the home domaine – and it’s a new home domaine this year! ‘Only’ Côte de Beaune fruit here, but there’s a slight chance I could make a couple of days guest appearance in the Côte de Nuits before I head home – let’s see!

First to say – what great fruit, and delicious fruit too. Grand Cru red and 1er Cru white today – it could be the reverse tomorrow 🙂 The Savigny white is from probably the best white area in Savigny – Les Vergelesses. The domaine have two parcels, high and low – this is the low and we will wait a little longer for the high. Then there was Corton-Renardes – delicious again – the later picked fruit containing both a little chardonnay and pinot gris – less than 1% – both with good ripeness. I have rarely thrown away so little – leaves, the very rare bunch that contained some rot or was a little unripe – but practically nil. The white has quite a lot of bourbe (sediment) so might need closer to 48 hours of settling before being run into barrel – we will see. The largest difference between my old ‘home’ domaine and the new one, is that here the fruit is collected in larger bins – roughly 300 kg worth. Depending on how long they wait to cross our triage table, the weight can significantly increase the amount of free-run juice – which is essentially lost under the vibrating table – I suppose it’s like a little saignée.

If we look at other vintages ending in a seven, then the whites will have some competition – 07 was very good for well-placed vineyards though a little acidic at villages and regional level. The reds, however, will have very little competition – 1947 was the last ‘7’ vintage of any renown – so 2017 looks like the best 7 for red in 70 years! The weather is set fair, so there should be no catastrophes and my prediction should be a relatively safe bet.

This is a relatively young domaine, so have the best yields that they have seen – though their Corton-Charlemagne was badly hit by frost last year, so this year the vines have only a modest quantity of fruit, but otherwise I think they will be pretty happy. That’s enough for day 1!
 

Savigny Les Vergelesses

Washing Savigny Les Vergelesses

Pressed Savigny Les Vergelesses

Careful with that!

New and sharp!

Corton-Renardes

Clean-up

Clean-up

The Clos de Vougeot about 17h00 today.

There’s a wave of new starters in the vines today and interestingly, a number of producers are noting that they are harvesting vineyards on exactly the same day as in 2015 – that will be a good comparison in the future.

In the Côte de Beaune, there are many starting their first harvests in Beaune, Pommard and Volnay – but the whites are not yet over; Dominique Lafon was picking his Montrachet this morning and Jean-Marc Roulot won’t finish his harvest until Thursday. Olivier Lamy makes today his last day of harvesting whilst Patrick Essa of Domaine Bouisson-Charles, usually a later picker, is just starting in his Meursault 1er Crus today and Fabien Moreau also started his campaign in Chablis! I note, with distaste, there were also a couple of machines harvesting in Beaune Vignes-Franches – again!

Today I took the road north, as far as the Clos de Vougeot. Perhaps a dozen different teams were active on the Corton hillside, one in Chorey too but afterwards very little. The Nuits 1ers of Premeaux all the way into Nuits were empty – just an occasional person in the vines – most likely monitoring sugars. Likewise north of Nuits I saw only one team, it looked like in Aux Thorey, but from there it was clear – just two teams in the bottom of Vosne (villages Vosne-Romanée) near the Route Nationale. Of-course no-one in the Clos de Vougeot is ready to pick; I met Sylvain Pataille there – who consults at the Château de la Tour – he explained that in the Clos they can wait at least another week as the weather is set fair. For his own domaine Sylvain will start tomorrow with whites.
 

The Clos de Vougeot

Sylvain Pataille

Old vine Clos de Vougeot of Château de la Tour

The Louis Bouillot harvest started on the 21^st with the first musts coming from the Beaujolais area. Since last Wednesday they have been picking near the Clos de Vougeot (En Bollery above), Vosne-Romanée and Gevrey-Chambertin – today they started in Savigny-lès-Beaune too. Their harvest will consist of, roughly, 30% pinot, 20% gamay and the rest chardonnay – some musts are already fermenting, and with an average of 75 tonnes of grapes per day arriving at the cuverie in Nuits St.Georges, it’s no surprise with all that volume of fermenting juice that all the tanks are aspirated out of the roof, because that’s a lot of CO₂. I hope that the birds on the roof are not too sleepy!

LB make about 15,000 hectolitres (that’s about 2 million bottles) and Frédéric has 50 tanks of juice, each with different colour labels for the different colour grapes – and big tanks – 280 hectolitre tanks! The fermentations are at low temperature – 16-18°C – the aim to keep the finesse and florals. Frédéric thinks that it looks like a good vintage; “But there are two parts to vintage; before and after the rain. After the rain the sugars were perfect for crémant, before that they were borderline high, but so-far we already have more tension than in either 2015 or 2016. The grapes are coming in very clean but the rain has made the grapes more fragile so we have to keep vigilant.”

Four colours of fermenting juice…

So-far Frédéric has 70% of his musts already delivered, but as of today, only 20% of the grapes have been cut – “It’s almost a wave of ripening from the south to the north.” And they really will finish with grapes that come from the Chablis region! Frédéric also pointed out that the colour was coming out of the red grapes so easily this year that no extra time on the skins will be needed – “There will be plenty of rosé in 2017.” Also, starting with this vintage they are evaluating many more parcels, vinifying them separately – “To try to decrypt the terroirs!” They have separated at least 10 different ones at the moment, including the En Bollery parcel – which has its own ‘baby’ press – it takes a mere 2,000 kg of grapes!
 

Frédéric Brand

En Bollery

The view across the road from En Bollery

The day starts with about 12°C but peaks around 23°C – the week seems set like this – that will be perfect.

It’s Sunday so there are not many people ‘about’ – that said I did my touring between 12h30 and 15h30 – so that’s also peak eating time – we are, of-course, in France!

First a little grand cru hommage in Vosne-Romanée – nobody was in the vines and, so-far, virtually nothing has been picked – just Arnoux-Lachaux yesterday in their Aux Reignots…
 

Romanée St.Vivant

Romanée-Conti

La Grande Rue

La Romanée

Amandier…

La Tâche

There was nothing to report in Pommard, but on the far side of the village in Volnay were two teams just starting – Domaine Clerget in their 1er Cru monopole Volnay Verseuil – quite the prettiest triageurs seen this year(!) and on the other side of the road, Mark O’Connell’s team in his 1er Cru monopole of Clos de la Chapelle.

The grapes are looking great this year – and there are plenty of them in most vineyards. The reds have some patches of sun-burn and the raisined grapes are the tastiest I can remember – all very clean. Many of the lower vineyards show some yellow leaves due to the lack of rain in the last weeks. So, it’s looking like a fine vintage, so-far.
 

Hospices Corton-Vergennes

Hospices Corton-Vergennes

Corton-Charlemagne

Corton-Chaumes

Beaune Teurons

Hospices Beaune Teurons

Volnay Clos de Chapelle

Volnay Clos Verseuil

Volnay Clos Verseuil

Amid rain-showers, a quick tour around the market – where I met a couple of Kiwis from Rippon and Carrick who are here to harvest (JM Millot and JJ Confuron) – and updating in the apartment, I won’t be touring the vines today, but I see Charles Lachaux is under way today:

Harvest started this morning with the stunning Vosne Romanée 1er cru Aux Reignots ! 🍷 — se sent déterminé à… https://t.co/uktD3bJWbX

— Arnoux-Lachaux (@Arnoux_Lachaux) September 2, 2017

14h45 this afternoon:

Light hail in Beaune – it's coming straight down – no stormy wind. The canopy should have protected the grapes – hopefully that's all…

— 🅱️ill nanson (@billnanson) September 2, 2017

A tour in the Côte de Beaune this afternoon. There’s not much red being picked yet – Lafarge was at it, and I saw red grapes being triaged at de Montille – but Pommard and Volnay seemed very sleepy – maybe it’s the weight of all those grapes on the vines! Meursault and Puligny were busier though. I bumped into Francois Bitouzet who was harvesting I assumed Meursault Santenots – but no, it was Les Corbins! He’s very happy with what he’s taken in so far – last year the frost left him only 12 barrels from the combination of two vineyards – this year it’s over 50. Tomorrow he’ll be picking his Meursaults Charmes and Perrières. Talking of Meursault (pictured) I watched a picking machine work in this 1er Cru – in such ideal conditions I feel very unhappy at such an approach – a wine that will retail for at least €40, often double, deserves to be better treated, indeed probably needs to be better wine too!

Then on through Puligny. A brooding sky this afternoon – threatening heavy rain – but apart from a short shower early in the afternoon, just a very fine day for harvesting.
 

Volnay Clos des Chênes…

François Bitouzet in Les Corbins…

Meursault Les Corbins…

Les Corbins

Meursault Les Corbins…

Meursault Les Corbins

Meursault Les Charmes – machine harvesting!

Puligny Clavaillon

Really the most important thing to note is that yesterday was a hail-free day. I believe that some of the hail canons were lit in preparation but were not, in the end, required. Still, there was 25mm of rain in some places – it’s certainly a more overcast and cooler day for harvesting today, with rain forecast for the weekend too – then dry and sunny. The rain is very much welcome for those not planning to harvest for another 10+ days – that’s the Côte de Nuits mainly…

And to compare with a photo taken by me 6 years ago today, to-date, not a bit of this in 2017:

Erwan Faiveley has been advertising his up-comng harvest on LinkedIn of all places – and as you can see (right) having a little fun on the way too!

Yesterday, the 29th, saw Coche-Dury picking a trio of Meursaults: Perrières, Genevrières and Chevalières (Armand Heitz is bringing in his Perrières today) – but it was a tough day with the afternoon peaking at just over 35°C! The team of Olivier Lamy were also in the vines – already into their 5th day of harvesting – cutting the grapes in St.Aubin Les Friones and En Remilly.

That was yesterday, but will today be something of a denouement for the vintage? Despite some rain at the weekend, the vineyards remain dry but strong storms are forecast today – thunder and lightening – let’s hope that the precipitation remains (unlike Champagne last weekend) in a liquid form. What seems more certain, is that following todays weatherfront will be much cooler weather – plummeting to 15°C tomorrow and only slowly recovering next week – maybe into the mid-20s°C.

Today, is see that (amongst others!) Olivier Leflaive and de Montille are starting their harvests, the teams of Chandon de Briailles are picking Corton Blanc, Domaine Leflaive are picking Chevalier-Montrachet, Thibault Morey is picking his St.Aubin Dents du Chien – so far, it seems a rather traditional vintage, with the whites being mature before the reds in the Côte d’Or. I also see that Le Grappin are starting their first harvests in Beaujolais – so good luck to them. But spare a thought for Nicolas Rossignol – his Volnay Taillepieds is already partially harvested – but not by him – it was either the dear or wild boar from the woods above the vines! See below:

And tomorrow, I’ll be in Beaune, my home team starting their harvest campaign on Tuesday…