05 september – 2015 harvest day 2

5.9.2015billn

WP_20150905_11_20_37_ProIt’s Saturday, and at 07h00 it’s not fully light – where did the summer go?!

Today is a cool, cloudy day – it’s also a relatively modest work-day – and for 2 reasons: 1 we only have two loads of chardonnay to triage today, and 2 there is almost no triage to do! A few leaves need removing, and from 1,800kg of fruit (first load – Meursault Vireuils) I found only one bunch with some porriture – JUST 1 BUNCH!

In the three hours that follow the Meursault (the time it takes to make the pressing), we have the chance to drink coffee, eat croissants, wash all the cases the fruit was delivered in, and take an hour to walk around the market in Beaune. Our day’s second parcel (Chassagne Tête du Clos) has more leaves to triage, seems a hint less juicy but with more dry extract – it is after-all a 1er cru! Unforunately there’s very much less if this. I find three bunches with a little porriture and one with oïdium – not too much for 2.5 barrels worth.

The grapes today have been an appealing (to me) blend of the slightly green, and more than slightly gold – and some in-between. Frankly they looked an ideal combination if you want some complexity. Clearly the skins are thick, and if you chew on those skins you can get a phenolic impression. Really, really, the type of programme on the press will make such a difference. We are running the triage and press without sulfur – only when all the brown juice (except the last press) is in the tank, and we know exactly how much is in that tank, does it receive a calming squirt of sulfur.

So a modest work-day, and we took lunch in a leisurely fashion, but the clean-up was still not complete until almost 5pm. Tomorrow will be a later start – 09h30 – and I’m already calling it ‘Volnay-day…’
 

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