Well, it might not be winter yet, but at least it’s starting to head in the right direction!

We’re still not seeing a lot of rain and every other day has the typical end of year mist, but finally during the second half of this week, the temperatures were often in the low single figures – 3-5°C. Though there’s hardly been any frost to speak of yet. The vines were largely dormant, but temperatures of 12-15°C in the first week of December, like much of November, saw the vines again weeping while being pruned. Sap was not the only liquid – the pruners were sweating in their t-shirts in the mid-afternoon – of-course it still got cold quite quickly from 4pm.

After fine blue skies yesterday, today we would have needed to get into the Hautes Côtes to see some sun, instead we took a tour of Givry, Rully and Bouzeron. As you can see, it was only modestly photogenic 😉

Well, it almost seems to be getting silly.

It was a couple of degrees cooler today, but still almost nudging 20°C. For virtually the first time since we were harvesting the 2015s, out came my (long) shorts, and the air-con flickered into life in the car. You expect the reality of the season to show when you walk into the shade and the breeze – but none of it. Perfect late-summer weather on the 8th of November!

Today, touring in Meursault, Saint Aubin and Gamay:

Towards Meursault town…

The edge of Meursault with the vines heading out towards Puligny

Les Luchets…

Saint Aubin…

Short-term parking?

Chateau of St.Aubin

Backstreet Gamay,,,

From Gamay towards St.Aubin…

It’s November – you should be sleeping!

Of-course, as it’s Saturday, the morning started in a very leisurely way; coffee and croissants – plus, for a change after this weeks misty weather, sun and blue sky! Friday afternoon the weather had turned warm – approaching 18 degrees, but today we topped out at about 22°C – the 5th of November too – it should be 5 or 6° – and wet!

Lunch at the Auberge du Vieux Vigneron in Corpeau – excellent – then a walking tour around Chassagne-Montrachet. There’s still nice colour in the vines, though they’ve lost 90% of their leaves – now it’s the ground-cover and the trees that are offering the colour contrasts.

Returning to Beaune I spotted a man and his horse below Criots Bâtard-Montrachet, only a village lieu-dit called Les Perclos, still on the Chassagne side. He was taking a lot of rests, so during one pause I asked: apparently the weeds/ground cover is very thick. Normally it would be dying off now, but as the summer was so dry and the last weeks relatively damp and warm, the ground cover is growing again. “Hard work for the horse, he’s not used to weather like this in November, in fact I’ve never ploughed like this in November before.”
 

Chassagne Villages…

Ove Clos de Maltroie

Saturday evening, Sunday day…

Saturday evening, towards Beaune

Saturday evening, towards Beaune

Sunday, Happy Fish at Château de Pommard…

Above Saturday’s fog of Beaune, a spectacular view and just a little ‘culture’ too…

What you hear every day in Switzerland 😉

Chassagne overground

Chassagne overground

Meursault overground

Meursault underground

Meursault underground

Beaune – on the table…

And on the table, that was just the reds 😉