I read that the Morey domaines of Dujac and L&A Lignier have completed their harvests today – Jeremy Seysses bemoans the fact that he only ended up with 25hl/ha for his villages Morey, though no quality complaints – actually a little white Monts-Luisants is still to be picked on Friday by Dujac.

At the home domaine there were no new grapes, just the last of the Santenay from Wednesday to finish which was triaged in the morning – the grapes are fine at 6°C overnight! The last grapes to be brought in will be Chambertin, Charmes-Chambertin and some Hautes-Côtes. Maybe tomorrow or maybe Saturday – let’s see.

The first fermentations have started; the grapes from the new contract for villages Volnay were ‘innoculated’ via the addition of a little must from a tank that was already fermenting – ‘the boss’ deciding that despite clean-tasting juices, he didn’t want to hang around waiting. Also the white (Meursault) that was brought in before I arrived has started to ferment.

This was a very busy – but dry – day for the home team.

Grapes from Maranges, Santenay villages, Vosne-Romanée and finally Corton Clos du Roi. Maranges and Vosne were in great shape (photos later) the Corton Clos du Roi and Santenay needed more triage. The Corton had a similar amount of botrytis to the Ladoix and the grapes could perhaps have been picked a day or two earlier – but we generally hold on because of the tannins. The Santenay needed green and rotten fruit removing.

It’s worth noting that maximum triage this year (reds!) is still only in the region of 6-7% the average being much lower; only 05 and 09 have been better in the last 7 vintages.

Short but sweet – more info tomorrow.

(in absentia as I had to come home to do something less manual!)

The last thing I did before I left yesterday was to taste through some of the different cuvées. Of-course it’s only fruit juice right now, and with so much sugar the pH of 3.2 means nothing! Still the colours seem to be extracting nicely and the flavours are very clean indeed – interesting that of the two (vinified separately) Volnay villages cuvées, one seemed more powerful, the other to have more complexity. Despite one needing more triage they both seem spotlessly clean – in the end I guess it’s just down to how much you have to throw away!

Today was a dry day in the Côtes. The home team brought in Marsannay and Gevrey. The Marsannay from the southern part of Les Longerois had lots of millerandes and was quite clean – a little botrytis, but only 100kg was thrown away from 3 tonnes of grapes. The Gevrey was a mix of older and younger vines; the young vines had more botrytis in the bunches than the older ones, but again significantly less to triage than either 2007 or 2008.

I await more info on toilet seats and photographic evidence of some decent grapes – I’ll update this when I have it.