A little blustery and – not surprising given the ‘active’ cloud – there were some rain-showers here and there.

The vines go high here, with breath-taking views – though Mont Blanc was absent this morning: ‘Good‘ said the vigneron – ‘When we can see Mont Blanc, it means that bad weather is coming!‘ We talked about the development of the grapes this year, and basically there is very little veraison so-far here. I mentioned that I took a photo of some coloured grapes in Chambolle on Saturday – so, not to be outdone, the vigneron eventually found some in St.Amour too 🙂

In this neck of the woods, they normally estimate 45 days from first veraison to harvesting. Those early estimates of harvesting around the 25 August seem to have softened and they are now considering the first few days of September as highly possible. Of-course we have a little altitude here, so it will be earlier in the south of Beaujolais…
 

So first, what’s new this week?

• The first flowers were seen this week in a parcel of Louis Latour’s Corton-Charlemagne, though most are expecting to see flowers later next week – I think a weekend of wall-to-wall 33°C will help that! So we seem to be looking towards a harvest starting-time of roughly the 10th September.
• I’ve lost Claire again! Claire Forestière made great wines at Bertagna before a short-lived own-label chez Cottin-Frères. I lost sight of her for years after that, but was re-united when I found her working chez Loron in the Beaujolais. But I heard this week that she’s left Loron – nobody seemed to know where she is heading!
• There’s some hard work going on to renovate what was previously an ‘art’ gallery just across from the Hospices de Beaune, and I noticed on the placard outside the name SAS Champy. I called Dimitri Bazas to ask – ‘are you opening a shop?’ And it seems so: “Yes Bill, you saw well, Champy is making a shop to sell the wines and also a VIP tasting room on the first floor with a unique view of the « Halles » and the « Hospices » !!! It is a really exiting project and we hope to open it at the end of June – early July.” So there you go!

And before a Friday evening apero, whilst walking in Beaune we saw, on the opposite side of the Hospices to Champy’s new shop, an open door! This door is 99.9% of the time most definitely locked, but what the hell, I took advantage. This was the Couvent des Cordeliers, and today is the 1243 Bourgogne Society – or ‘club’ – where the extremely (delete as appropriate) well-heeled, or fortunate get to enjoy degustations of the most sought-after wines that Burgundy can offer. I think it is a fabulous place right in the centre of Beaune, and in its own way, almost as interesting as the Hospices. It’s a shame that it is always locked away…
 

An open door! 1243..

1243

1243

Hospices ‘strasse’

Champy’s new shop (to be)

A little extra info on 1243 can be found here.