Not too long ago I was truly naive. I was looking forward to becoming busy. I had no idea what busy was before a few weeks ago. My lovely clutch on my new 1987 cheap BMW 3 got angry at my sloppy heal toe activities and grew bored with my eager turns through the roundabouts […]
A double update – from both Vicki and from Jean-Marie! Many things have already been said on the web about the 2009 Vintage, and it is already being compared to the 05 vintage. We have attached some temperature and light, and rain charts which show the differences between the 2005 and 2009 which show that […]
Things have been very busy at the winery lately. With all the fruit in tank and fermenting I have been focusing on tasting, testing, punchdowns and of course more tasting. I decided to use a fair amount of whole cluster on the Morey half way because I was curious about doing it, the otherhalf because […]
So, a few updates on resources for the Harvest 2009: Mark has managed to extract pictures from his daughter’s pink Fuji, so, added to his first and last posts are galleries from his experiences. There has been a really good commentary here from Cynthia. Finally, I can deliver you the full set of ‘polished’ reports […]
I asked a few producers how things were looking in the cuverie: Intense colors – for the reds 😉 pH’s that basically (if I may) are not increasing during fermentation – we should end up with levels around 3.60 – 3.70 which is close to my goal. Tannins, after being a bit sharp at mid […]
A few words on other matters before getting into Friday’s picking activities et al. One of the many things I have quickly come to love here is the view across the steep sided valley in which Pernand sits on one side – on the right heading up towards Echevronne. Domaine D-F is probably circa half […]
Rain overnight but by 9:30 a.m. it’s stopped and the sun is peaking through. The home team is bringing in Chambertin – it looks almost as good as yesterday’s Latricières, the grapes are a bit wet, still, the vibrating table is removing most of it and the rain doesn’t seemed to have affected the berry […]
So it’s Friday, and given the forecasts, and depending on which you believe – Météo France get short shrift from many – quite a number are aiming to end their harvest today. It’s a misty start which doesn’t whisk away the overnight damp very easily, but slowly the sun starts to poke through. By lunchtime […]
Fog and rain starts the day in Beaune – there is no morning picking at the home domaine. The report is that some growers in Marsannay have cancelled their plans to pick today. In the late-afternoon the home domaine grapes arrive from Vosne and Charmes-Chambertin – all are in very good shape. Like the previous […]
The home team 2009: Gareth, Gillian, Marie, David & Shane (Joseph is missing, he was working away from the cuverie) After the exertions of the Duvault-Blochet the night before (and it turns out the sauce was actually based on Nuits St.Georges!) it comes as something of a shock to be greeted by early morning skies […]
Morning over to Volnay. Now here’s a genuine steal cum bargain of a wine in that a la Dubreuil-Fontaine the Volnay is a blend of premier cru and village and is currently Euros 18 !!! Think I need some. Quite often when a domaine wine has been produced for tasting it has been a Volnay. […]
Tuesday – and another glorious blue sky. Our grapes during the morning are Nuits 1er Les Vaucrains – much anticipated as they are normally super. This year, we have a problem. The first case looks a bit disappointing as there is a mix of both shrivelled and unripe grapes – in the same bunches! – […]
