A little harvest (if not wine!) pause, with friends who were visiting, in Pommard.
2013 Gilles Bouton, St.Aubin 1er En Remilly
Starting a little toasty – slightly reductive – becoming more open and prettier with air. Good line and even a little minerality here. A modest but tasty wine with a little finishing sweetness. Tasty. Rebuy – Maybe
2012 Alex Gambal, Corton-Charlemagne
Ooh! Now this has a super nose with a profound bass line and very attractive top nose – this is exceptionally inviting. Volume, power, growing intensity and waves of stony fruit that (only) slowly fade into the distance. This has opened and relaxed versus the last time I had it. Simply top-notch Corton-Charlemagne and very yum! Rebuy – Yes
2002 Nicolas Potel, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Gaudichots
My second bottle from this case – the first had some kind of problem so I had my fingers crossed for this – but it’s super. It really is in that ‘middle-age’ where the palate and aromas are a little pinched, but both are beautifully complex, focused and show excellent clarity. Really a brilliant wine in the making, yet at 15 years old it is still such a baby, but a beautiful one. Rebuy – Yes
There followed a very enthusiastic and global use of water-hoses – to many shouts of ‘No – not on my phone!’…
Starting our day with the last white – a small parcel in Pernand-Vergelesses Les Pins – here just 0.2 ha in a high sector that was once predominantly planted to aligoté behind Sur Frétile – not Sous Frétile – i.e. the unplanted viewing area at the top of the hill in Pernand. From relatively you vines. Very easy to triage versus the Charlemagne yesterday. Very nice, and today we cheating with the press a little – the first load getting a sneaky short press so there’s enough space for the final delivery!
Following on from my discussion of reds with the consulting oenologue yesterday, the acids are pretty classic for the reds with the balance of tartaric and malic acids, so will reduce a little after malo. As for the whites, one sees why some vignerons chose to go relatively early – I spoke with a well-known Puligny-based producer yesterday and in our discussion he told me that “pH 3.2-3.3 is certainly good for the reds but for whites that’s getting borderline us.” I chatted with the oenologue about this, and he said that based on the analysis of the musts, there has certainly been a little ‘modest’ acidification at some domaine’s in the core of the Côte de Beaune’s white production area, but they do that more than half of the time anyway…
Suddenly it was lunchtime! A Champagne start (Deutz) a 2002 Pouilly-Fumé middle (I at least guess the grape!) and a 1981 Clos de Vougeot finish – the Mongeard-Mugneret CV certainly had aromatics and structure that you could describe as austere to start, but despite being narrow in the start the dimensions and complexity of the finish were clear – here it was obviously grand cru (blind). Given air, there’s an aromatic phase that’s captivating. Almost a fresh orange note in the finish, still with a touch of phenolic bitterness and a suggestion of coffee… I would open this at least a couple of hours before serving, because all the faults and rigor of the first 30 minutes are gone with air. Very robust and super, only getting better and better in the glass!
Pommard Vaumuriens…
After lunch a small parcel of Pommard Vaumuriens – once worked by Coche-Dury. Fine looking grapes, not too much to triage. Post water-fight, dripping, we finished with our second parcel from Beaune 1er Reversées, not quite to the same level of our first parcel but fine none-the-less. And that was 2017, just around the corner from my apartment in Beaune!
Of-course we finished with our Paulée yesterday evening…
Pernand Les Pins
Waiting for Pommard
Pommard Vaumuriens
Champers
Chicken Nuggets!
Very minty Pouilly-Fumé
Time to go collect the last grapes in the vineyards!
An overused descriptor, but really, practically caviar…
Our penultimate harvesting day – and today was a grand cru day.
We started with Corton-Charlemagne – and we had quite a lot too. There was a little rot to remove, but as all our whites go over the triage table that was no problem – many white producers trie in the vines and don’t do a separate triage back at the domaine – the grapes going direct into the press. One surprise was how much pinot gris we had in these vines – less than 2% (I would guess) but it still looks a lot when in the bins – I also thought that only pinot blanc was allowed as a ‘cépage accessoire’ – but hey-ho… Of-course we had our pregnant pause again today – our press was too small to accommodate all the Charlemagne grapes, so we had to wait for that to finish its cycle before we could finish-off that parcel’s grapes.
I spoke with a consulting oenologist this morning about how the harvest was shaping-up. We mainly discussed reds today “The acidities of reds this year are on a good level – most reds are showing pH 3.2-3.3 and unlike the 2015s, there’s plenty of malic acid this year. The degrees are pretty good with early pronounced florals in tank and specific gravities are falling easily so far.”
Lunch was par for the course – very tasty! As it was a Corton-Charlemagne day it seemed natural that it was also for the table. This 2011 was a beautiful, linear, but expressive and mouth-watering wine – great lines! Like the food, yum! The RSV was very nice – luckily as the first bottle (2 years ago) from this 6-pack was a little tired. This had wide and attractive aromas. The mouth was freshness and like the CC was quite linear and fresh before opening out beautifully from the mid-palate onwards. The best comment about these two wines, was that not a drop remained in the bottles!
After lunch we started with Beaune Montée Rouge – villages, not 1er cru – very good ripeness but starting to show some rot – I wouldn’t have wanted to see how bad this would have been if the grapes had waited another couple of days in the vines – but that’s why we triage 🙂 Last year the Montée Rouge was frosted, so from roughly 1 hectare they produced only 1 barrel – we have more this year! Easily the best was for last today – Beaune 1er Les Reversées – directly the smallest berries of our 7 days of triage so far, and easily the cleanest too – 99% of our work was removing the leaves. Great stuff!
Nothing much to add today – except that there were a number of tonnes of Chorey-lès-Beaune grapes that crossed over our triage table. But we finally finished the parcel at just past 6pm! Two more whites and two (or was it three?) more reds to bring in and we are done!
After yesterday’s rain, today was clear and sometimes bright with temperatures hovering around 20°C. The weather was nice enough that the bins of grapes delivered to us from the vines, stopped bringing in mud with them by the middle of the afternoon!
It’s a little boring for me to keep saying that the grapes were nice – even if they were. Maybe better to think of the lovely fillet-mignon with lentils for lunch – and a new cheese discovery for me – Cantal cheese from the Auvergne. A little creamy, crumbly – similar to an aged cheddar with a nice salty tang – very yum – indeed, so good that I passed on the Epoisses today! Oh, there was another 1979 too – it started spicy like a Nuits or Vosne, slowly adding depth and almost a smoky coffee – right from the start, this was delicious. A surprise – a Beaune. Delicious all the same. Think I’ll have to find something nice for lunch tomorrow!
There really is a lot of colour coming out of the grapes this year – there’s a much more disgusting view of my hands, but I can’t hold a camera and press the button at the same time – lucky you! The ultimate was 2015 when my hands looked like I had a long-term smoking habit after just 3 days – but 2017 is not far behind – and still more than I remember being the case in 2005. I’ve been told that the level on phenolics/anthocyanins was a record in 2015, so it’s pretty high in this vintage – evidenced by the deep colour coming through in tanks that have macerated only two days…
A band of rain came through about 5am today, but you’d be forgiven for not noticing in Beaune at 8am – as it was practically dry. Rain, not heavy, but consistent waited until closer to 11am to properly set in – thankfully the afternoon became brighter nd brighter – we even ended up with a little sun. Our pickers were in Chorey today – poor them – heavy clay in the soil here and not many stones – their boots must have got bigger and bigger – caked with mud as the rain made its mark. We had both colours of Chorey today – starting with roughly a tonne of chardonnay – planted by Sylvain Pitiot where previously pinot was in the ground – he liked the look of the clay there – was his reasoning. The vines are now about 25 years old and the grapes were good. Then came our marathon – Chorey red – we have over two hectares – which filled the rest of today and probably will fill all of tomorrow too!
Lunch, as every day so-far, was delicious. I brought along a 1978 Pierre Boillot (the father-in-law of François Mikulski) Meursault-Charmes which did indeed charm us with its truffly nose, but at least compared to the 1976 – the last bottle of mine drunk during my last harvest, I think – it was a direct and less open and giving palate, good flavours but with no weight and no caress. Super wine in super condition for its age and I’m only being harsh in the context of that great benchmark!
Tonight a few bottles with a certain Australian winemaker who is visiting Pommard – hopefully I’ll still make tomorrow’s 09h30 start time!
Today started with beautiful white grapes but then it was red, red, red…
Following the (white) Sous Fretile was red Savigny 1er Les Vergelesses then a pair of Pernands – first En Caradeux and then a smaller parcel of Les Fichots. The Vergelesses comes from a plot of old vines – roughly 60-years-old, and although needing very little actual triage (the amount of concentration on the grapes passing across the table is the same) the berry size was not the smallest – it is like this every year with particular plat material. The two Pernands were very, very similar in the amount of triage – particular this year is the very modest amount of under-ripe grapes that I’ve been discarding – even in vintages like 2005 or 2015 I’m sure that there was a little more. Despite the ripeness of the grapes – you only need see how brown the pips are – the degrees are not too much – 12° for our Savigny villages, 12.5° for the Corton – despite how sweet the grapes and grape-juice tastes. The acidity seems to offer a little more freshness than either 2015 or 2016 at the same stage, yet analytically it’s really only average.
Note that our chief was up to it again with his blind bottle – this time I was sure that it was (once more) an Ampeau of similar vintage to yesterday’s white. So it was – 1979 again – but my guess was a Volnay – I would never have come up with a Blagny! Like the white this wine was unrecognisable after 10 minutes of air. Bot the aroma and flavour being earthy, pinched and not that tasty to start. Time brought a lovely red fruit note and much more width and richness to the flavour and texture. Definitely worth a refill!
Tomorrow is Saturday and we will be be bringing in grapes on Saturday and Sunday – but tomorrow will be different – we will have rain!
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.
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!
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!
