Our day started with St.Romain – a parcel of older vines plus a parcel of young, 5-year-old vines. No getting the hands dirty here – triage was not needed for either parcel. The grapes looked super – with virtually no dry grapes – and the pressed juice came out with a pH of 3.30, lower even than the domaine’s Corton-Charlemagne – got to be happy with that in a hot vintage such as 2026 !!

Next into the cuverie was some Beaune villages from the climat of Point des Tuvillains. Seemingly the lowest amount of dry grapes to be removed – or at least on a par with the Corton Vigne aux Saint. The grapes looked great but given that today had temperatures of 30°C and saw the return of the sun, these grapes little warm, so will overnight in the chiller for sorting tomorrow.

So not much sorting today – but there was lunch to eat and wine to drink – the learning never stops 🙂

There remain parcels of Aloxe-Corton and Beaune Bressandes – but probably they will be harvested on Saturday as there’s some heavy rain forecast for Thursday evening and into Friday…

Beaune Villages

Young vine St.Romain

Lunch

Old vine St.Romain

So, the rain that came yesterday evening, turned out to be quite heavy for a time. It’s only five millimetres overnight, but that five millimetres is more than they’ve had for quite some time!

This morning, just like yesterday, it’s 17° but feels cooler due to a little breeze. Some of the villages were partially hidden by a fine mist, almost foggy. The rain provided a little humidity that everyone would have preferred to see a week or two earlier, but most of the vignerons are really happy, and they consider it’s going to ‘relax’ any unpicked grapes.

Today at the home domain, we started with the grand cru – and what beautiful grapes!

This was Corton Vigne aux Saint. Not the dryness of all the grapes that I triaged yesterday, but once again, beautifully shaped small bunches. The overnight rain managed to reawaken some wildlife in the cases of grapes – an occasional spider, one stinkbug, maybe a few ants and a few ladybugs too. So compared to only three ladybugs and one grasshopper yesterday, life has returned to the vines 🙂

The Corton was treated to about two-thirds whole bunch, and the rest was de-stemmed. We then moved on to Beaune 1er cru Les Pertuisots. The grapes not as optically beautiful as the Corton, but still very good – again about two-thirds whole bunch and the rest de-stemmed.

Lunch came part-way through processing the Pertuisots – and we drank wine 😉

Post-lunch, the rest of the Pertuisots before finishing the day with more Beaune 1er cru – this time from Tuvillains. Consistently good grapes – each of the crus we triaged today with a small extra amount of dried grapes, but all showed less of this than Monday’s grapes.

The boss is hoping for at least 20hl/ha from today’s crus. Like yesterday, nice pure flavours and nothing negative to report, only the consistently low volumes…

Perhaps a little white tomorrow(?)

Away from the home domaine – but still close in the Côte de Beaune – the Hospices de Beaune finished their harvest today, whereas Thomas Bouley is about to start! Occasional domaines are finishing in the Côte de Nuits too, but most ‘in the north’ are about mid-harvest. Did I mention the north? More and more Chablis domaines are starting to harvest – almost none have finished at this stage…

To be continued…

Today’s pics:

Corton Vigne aux Saint

De-stemmed Corton…

BOB! Our Blanchefleurs from Monday

Beaune 1er Pertuisots

Lunch !!

Beaune 1er Tuvillains

It was a cool start in Beaune today, 17 degrees at nine in the morning – in the context of August 2026 that’s as cool as it gets, and with a little bit of a breeze too – order was restored in the afternoon with 31°C 🙂

At 09h00 this morning, the picking team of this year’s home domaine were obviously out in the vines, but their start wasn’t too early today, they start at just 08h30. The casual starting time reflects this year’s modest harvest volumes – usually 50-70% lower yields for the reds, better for whites but still often not more than 50% again – in 2026 it’s all about the lack of juice. More on that later.

It’s the northern part of Beaune that we’re harvesting today, plus a small parcel in Savigny-lès-Beaune too – villages. It won’t be a long day…

Our first grapes are from Beaune 1er cru Cent-Vignes.

We are harvesting and sorting 4 different parcels – two on high, and two that are lower. The lower parcels are on a more alluvial soil that drains too well for this vintage – the higher, usually more draining parcels on the slope have fared little better due to their excellent drainage – no advantage here in 2026, so due to the hydric stress, it’s one of the most affected areas with lots of vine leaves turning yellow. The grapes, however, look not bad at all. In fact, there are plenty of grapes – it’s just that I’ve never seen such consistently small bunches. With our chosen approaches for sorting, there’s not that much triage to be done; in fact, I’ve rarely seen such minimal intervention during triage – but there’s so very little juice.

This year, the case collecting the ‘trie’ under our vibrating table doesn’t collect very much, and what it does collect is bone-dry – something that I’ve never seen before.

We’re making a mixture of whole cluster and fully de-stemmed – the whole clusters in the bottom of the fermentation tank, which were then covered by the de-stemmed grapes. The whole bunches/clusters are self-explanatory, but we used a special sorting machine, the Mistral, to further sort the de-stemmed grapes. I last used a Mistral during the 2013 vintage; it uses compressed air to blow away the sub-optimal (different density) grapes. In the circumstances of 2026, it worked very well; the ‘Mistral triage’ was around 90% dried, hard grapes. And the other 10% of good grapes that we lost? The boss observed mordantly, “At this stage, if you’re talking about the difference between 15 and 13 hectolitres per hectare, who cares, provided it’s been well triaged!”

Lunch had some lovely Champagne, Chablis and red Chassagne.

During our afternoon session, we finished the Cent-Vignes, then had a small Savigny-interlude – it’s not a big parcel. These were the largest clusters of the day, with more juice than the Beaunes, but versus a typical vintage, the clusters were still below average size. Not much to triage again, and kept as whole bunches.

Our last parcel was from young (5-years-old) vine Beaune (villages) Blanchefleurs. Just the second vintage here and the domaine’s own massale selection. Such tiny, but beautifully presented clusters of pinot – fit for La Tâche rather than Beaune! This small parcel was placed into a ceramic Klever, with some foulage (pressing of the grapes) and then sealed for a carbonic maceration. It will be fun to see how that turns out.

By 5pm, there’s only the clean-up that’s left for today. There was one novelty though, around 19h00 came thunder and lightning – oh, and by 19h30 there was plenty of rain too !!

Day 1 learnings:
Very small grapes rather than a lack of grapes are defining the vintage volume here.
Impressively dry on the triage tables – very little lost juice – probably just because there is so little juice.
Almost no fauna was found in the triage – the world of insects had to find different places for refuge and water this year.
Even the dried/drying grapes showed zero ‘off-flavours’ – that’s a first for me, since I started to triage in 2004. It’s a shame that I can’t compare to 2003…
The pinot-fruit is ripe-flavoured but pure; I see no prune or overdone flavours at this early stage

To be continued…

Today’s pics:

Baby bunches

One side good – the other (sunny) side dry…

Carbon dioxide …

Pinot through the CO2 mist…

De-stemmed on top…

Lunch !!

Tool of the day…

Looks like sorting by Hoka…

Trie – as dry as can be…

Arty giraffe !!

“Why prefacing – it’s almost done isn’t it?”

Not at all, the harvest is not yet halfway through – and I only start my harvest on Monday – in the Côte de Beaune. Those reports will come daily, but unfortunately not in the old, inimitable style of sadly missed Marko de Morey…

1976 Tollot-Beaut, Aloxe-Corton
But to kick things off, why not a nice bottle of 1976? A fifty-year-old vintage but one with (dryness) parallels to 2026… Of course, this cork breaks, but the pieces come out easily.
Plenty of colour. This nose has some sweetness of fruit but also a hint of balsamic, almost Madeira – every cork will be different – this one came out too easily; the last cork from one of these 1976s (I started with 12 about 20 years ago) was more like concrete! Flavours of Madeira are not uncommon in older wines, and this still tasted sweetly delicious with a nice mouth-watering energy. Ripe fruit, a hint of caramel too. I enjoyed two ample-sized glasses. The wine wasn’t as good on day two – but on day 1, it was a lovely wine for its age…
Rebuy – No Chance!

The earliest vintage for 500 years, cry the headlines
Well yes, but one could just as easily say the earliest recorded harvest, rather than trying to quantify the unquantifiable…

So, as the headlines dissect the regions in the form of ‘the earliest crémant harvest‘ (etcetera), like everything else Burgundian, if we make the definitive statement that it’s the earliest ever, for everything, we are guaranteed to be 95% correct 🙂

Storms hit the Côte d’Or on the 15th and 18th July – Marsannay (& Dijon) being badly hit by the hail – potentially losing 60% of their crop – but the volume is a moving target – losing 60% of what? It already looked like half a harvest before the hail…

The relative drought and very high temperatures in August actually delayed the harvest. Many growers were anticipating picking pinots mid-month, but the maturation slowed due to some blockage – so it’s still a record early harvest despite many domaines postponing their harvest by a week!

It seems that, this year, Benoit Ente has taken the trophy for fastest out of the starting blocks, even ahead of most of the crémant harvests; having harvested at almost 13% potential alcohol his Puligny-Montrachet 1er (Folatières) En la Richarde on Saturday 8th August – and clearly the last of his vines have been harvested for a few days now. Returning for a second to crémant harvests, I understand that a few of the most quality-minded producers have (here and there) rejected lots of grapes this year for having too much potential alcohol – the limit should be 11.5°…

Mid last week (12-13 August) amongst the (mainly chardonnay) pickers there were even some brave souls picking reds – mainly from parcels of younger vines in the Côte de Beaune, but including by important domaines from the Côte de Nuits.

Monday the 17th August brought a welcome 20mm of rain to Gevrey-Chambertin, but only 1mm to Beaune.

The flow of pickers into the reds remains quite modest, so far, though I watched a small team from Comte Georges de Vogüé picking in the higher (Grands) Musigny section on Tuesday this week – the 18th August – even if these are young vines, that’s surely yet another record.

The same day (Tuesday morning), close to the cross of Charlemagne, teams (vans!) from DRC, des Croix and (PY) Colin-Morey jostled for position as all were picking at the same time – in this area, Louis Latour had already picked. Yields here were not to bad considering the vintage – like the reds, there are enough grapes but with not much juice in those grapes. So maybe half a harvest – my contact indicated about 26 hl/ha in the Charlemagne – and more like losses of ‘only’ 30-40% in the pinots. It’s harder to generalise with the pinots – some plots look great, in other areas the veraison remains incomplete – some bunches still have both green grapes and shrivelled grapes on the same stem.

Rain was forecast for Monday 24th August, and many domaines preferred to wait for that and start on Tuesday – but like the rest of this summer, rain was often forecast but never arrived. It’s starting to look just the same for Monday…

Tasted this week – I was just passing, so why not?! Now bottled for approaching 18 months…

2023 Bourgogne Blanc
From the wrong side of the road in Couchey, across the road from from Marsannay villages vines. Elevage in foudres…
A fresh, quite incisive and zesty. Wide, easy but with a juicy style to the flavour. Holding with intensity and zestiness. Modest but attractive bitters… Super and so moreish…

2023 Marsannay
From 2 parcels, the majority coming from Grasses Tetes
Hmm, this is broad and deliciously attractive – the perfume has depth and a fine blend of fruit and flowers. More direct, a frame of velvety fresh fruit – also juicy, and the last drops in the glass smell of violets. Super!!

2023 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos Prieur
More vertical aromatics; larger-scaled perfume. Wider and with extra intensity. Plenty of tannin but with a little of the wood tannin too which softens the texture, certainly still some of the flavour of the wood. Really impressive – keep it 3-5 years…

2023 Chambertin
Freshness but still some tightness to the higher tones of these aromas – the lower notes are dark and brooding though. Everything framed by the subtly grained but not drying tannin. Growing more and more intense with complex bitters. The barrel is only modestly visible today as everything else is so forward. That’s going to be a very impressive Chambertin – it’s already tasty, but I wouldn’t hesitate to wait for 20 years – and that’s only for the start of many years of wonderful, mature drinking.

2019 Trapet Alsace, Schoenenburg Grand Cru
4g residual sugar here.
Deep, rich, almost musky – a slightly sunny, honied style of aroma. Generous, complex, delicious but a little richer than my favoured style from here. The flavour fades, but holds impressively…

A strong selection over the last 10 days…

2014 Verret, l’Ame du Domaine, Irancy
A good strong cork – it’s over 10-years-old but it doesn’t break.
Older colour but a nose of freshness and clean, leafy depth. Really wide over the palate – how delicious is this?! Slowly fading, complex, absolutely ‘ready and mature’ pinot. As great an older Irancy as I have ever drunk – I must find a reason to open that magnum of 2012 from Cantin! Bravo !!
Rebuy – Yes

2023 Dubreuil-Fontaine, Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Sous Fretille
This nose has a lovely, direct citrus energy. Detailed flavour. Energetic again in the mouth with almost a rasp of citrus and a quite pronounced minerality in the middle and finishing flavours – properly complex and delicious too. Excellent wine !!
Rebuy – Yes

2023 Weingut Schlössli, Mariage Noir
A local wine from the Swiss Bielersee region. A ‘mariage’ of gamaret, pinot noir and diolinoir grapes.
I’ve had a few different vintages of this and each has been delicious – from memory, this was just under 30 swiss francs…
Rebuy – Yes

2019 Thibert, St.Véran Champ Rond
Wax-sealed and with a high-quality, sweet smelling cork – all is good.
Young colour. Almost pear, but not too ripe white-fleshed fruit, initially lightly toasty but this is more towards reduction than oak – it’s also quickly gone with air. Hmm, this has a lovely combination of minerality and fluidity coupled to a stony depth of fruit – here with the smallest sensation of oak – of the now you see it, now you don’t variety. The problem with such a fluid style is that the wine gets drunk too quickly !! Oh well, that’s a great wine from the Mâconnais…
Rebuy – Yes