Plenty of producers in the Côte de Beaune have started to harvest their first parcels today. Fewer in the Côte de Nuits have ventured out, most of those look like they have another 3 or 4 days left to sharpen their secateurs.

My timing to join the home team looks not too bad – shame that the long-term forecast means rain might great me on Friday – that said, the long-range forecast has been wrong all year! On a positive note I feel sure that lots of producers will point to the fact that they need light as much as heat to ripen their grapes – in that respect the last days and those to come look like they might help them to generate some positive ‘spin’!

Things are very busy at Vincent Girardin’s base in Meursault; not only are they about to start harvesting, they’ve also bought a new domaine.

First the harvesting; it’s starting for Vincent Girardin with some chardonnay in the Côte de Beaune, some others are already brining in the first grapes. The storm on Sunday that delivered hail to northern Santenay and parts of Chassagne (‘just’ Morgeot mainly) mainly left a lot of fruit needing to picked sooner rather than later. The rest of the domaine’s vines will be harvested between next week and the end of the month.

Another grower confirms this, telling me:

There’s rot and it’s ok with the cold weather but there’s great heterogeneity. Anyway in general everyone is planning to pick earlier than they had first expected so harvest will probably be over by Oct 1st

Let’s see…

Now back to the enlarged Domaine Vincent Girardin – actually the new part is still a separate entity because it’s in Beaujolais – but there are 20 new hectares of vines from the estate La Tour du Bief in Chénas:

All parcels of the twenty hectares of the estate La Tour du Bief are in the village of Chénas with “lieux-dits” Les Caves, La Rochelle, Les Vérillats, Le Bief and La Tour du Bief.
A rigorous, impeccable farming plan allowed us to find an exceptional genetic reserve, with some of the vines being more than 80 years old. What more can be expected when the ambition is to restore life to this estate by producing exceptional wines?
Today, my goal is to continue the tradition of the production of great Moulin-à-Vent wines that, in the last century, competed with the great villages of the Côte de Nuits. With their structure and complexity linked to a potentially important capacity for ageing, wines from Moulin-à-Vent were always cited as examples and with age, it’s said that they “Pinotent”, meaning getting closer to their Burgundian (Pinot) neighbors by evoking aromas of cherry, matured fruits, spices and truffle.
A project of classification of the best soils as “Premier Crus” as in Burgundy is about to be studied to return this great wine to nobility. The parcels of the estate will be affected by this classification.
Winemaking is traditional, followed by ageing partly in wood foudres of 50hl and then in Burgundian barrels of 228 liters. Wines are neither fined nor filtered in order to give them as much complexity and life as is natural.
(Vincent’s press release.)

“It’s a bit early to say much about the vintage, but I get the feeling we’re heading for another mixed-bag of a year, perhaps like 2006 or 2008. The best vineyards look perfect (as they do every year – plague, pestilence and hail permitting), while the worst are beginning to look a bit sad with some rot, mildew and uneven ripening. That said, on average, I think there is currently less rot and mildew than recent ‘challenging’ vintages (04,06,07,08).
The soil was damp for much of August so perhaps 2010 is unlikely to be the last word in concentration. I haven’t heard anyone else make the comparison, but it reminds me a bit of 2006 with a hot June/July, disappointing August and then (hopefully!!) a pleasant September.
The weather is currently perfect (low 20s, breezy and sunny) and forecast to remain so until next week which looks stormy and wet. Obviously the weather we get next week and beyond could have a major influence on the style of the vintage”.