The harvest is in. With mostly glorious weather conditions prevailing from mid-August through this past weekend, September 28th, the grapes, both white and red, gold and deep purple hued, arrived in the cellars in excellent condition. Except for those vineyards hit by the hailstorms of June 28th, quantities are substantial and quality appears to be very high. Not much rot, more talk than actual acetic effects from drosophila suzukii, and a natural degree of ripeness that will require little, if any, chaptalisation.
Very healthy yeasts came into the cellars on the grapes, and fermentations have begun quickly. In many cellars the whites proceeded to barrel to complete their primary, alcoholic fermentations within a week to ten days. The reds are just finishing up in vats and tanks, with pumpovers and pigeage to extract fine, deep ruby-purple tones with ripe, fleshy flavors and the tannic backbones that should make for a very fine vintage. The dry weather of the last month has had only one sad effect: the brilliant colors of fall in the vines, with shades of autumn in New England, are more brown than yellow, red, or lively orange.
Beautifully ripe Chambertin at Domaine Pierre Damoy in GevreyBrown grapeseeds, no greenness here. Again Domaine Pierre Damoy in Gevrey
Until today’s overcast sky and periods of light rain, we have enjoyed a true Indian summer, with warm, sunny days and starry, cooler nights as we move past the autumnal equinox into fall. The days grow shorter as the sun moves south in the sky, and yet people here are reluctant to give up their summer pleasures: bicyclists are out in the hills in force, and yesterday, a national day of walks called Frandonee brought out hundreds of people for a 20 kilometer walk from Morey-St. Denis through the valley of Vergy in the Hautes Cotes de Nuits. A weekend exposition and book fair at the Chapter House of the Clos de Vougeot was packed with interested consumers. It was a wonderful weekend to be outside.
Piles of marc (seeds, stems and skins after pressing) await the distillateur just outside Pommard.
And yet the elation of the harvest, the open doors to all domaines bringing in grapes, the ritual lunches, dinners, and paulees of the harvesters with the growers after the vendange, has finished, has dissipated. The open excitement of another vintage drawing to a close is replaced by a quiet reserve as nature, in the form of fermentations that were once thought magical until Pasteur’s discoveries, takes its course.
For this writer it has been a complete change of rhythm. There are so many fewer people in the vines. Appointments must now be made to speak with vignerons and their oenologists about the vintage. Burgundian reserve has returned. We wait. This year the fruit has been so healthy and the weather so warm and gorgeous that fermentations are quick and easy. As the alcoholic fermentations wind down, the next issue will be how swiftly the malolactic fermentations take hold. If they, too, are swift and easy, unlike the previous two years, we could very well be watching an awesome vintage being born in 2014. Until the wines are more ready to taste and evaluate, I must find other forms of entertainment. Thankfully, Netflix has just arrived in France.
Grey, cloudy, moist, warm weather has moved up the Rhone and Saone valleys this morning, and is forecast to hover over the Cote d’Or until Wednesday afternoon. On cooler evenings one can already smell the wood burning in fireplaces and wood-burning stoves. I, for one, hope for more sunshine and a pleasant fall before the cold and grey of Burgundian winter sets in.
From the falaise above St. Romain. The village of St. Romain bathed in sun, with the village of Meursault beyond.
It is another glorious day in Burgundy’s Cote d’Or! Yesterday’s clouds and foggy morning gave way to clearing blue skies by 2pm, which continue today with low humidity and lovely temperatures (midday: 17°C, 63°F). A line of clouds should be rolling in from the northwest later today, but the forecast is for continued splendid weather through most of next week. This continued Indian summer is making everyone smile. (Yes, the French use the phrase too, eté indien) Just for the sake of contrast, here is what the same view from above looked like yesterday morning, and indeed for much of rainy July and early August:
Meursault shrouded in fog Saturday morning, September 20th, 2014
Almost all of the white wine grapes are now in the producers’ cellars. There are some parcels of Puligny and Meursault 1ers Crus whose ripening has been delayed by the hailstorm of June 28th, but plans are to pick those early next week. The white grapes were nearly uniformly clean, ripe, and, except for some hail damage where shriveled berries quickly dried and fell off the vine, showing no signs of significant rot or botrytis. For most growers the white grapes went straight to the pressoirs, there was little need for any triage.
Potential alcohol levels varied between 12.3° and 13.5°, and the fruit and juice that I have tasted has a wonderful sweetness, complemented by brilliant, tightly wound acidity. These will be classic white Burgundy wines, with chaptalisation rarely necessary, and if practiced, only to bring the wines up in alcohol a half to at most one degree. Fermentations are proceeding very rapidly in the cellars, as a healthy crop also brought in healthy and copious yeast populations on the fruit. The INAO has set the maximum yields for regional and villages white Burgundies at 60 hectoliters per hectare this year, and except for the hail-ravaged 1ers Crus in Meursault and Puligny, and some other plots of very old vines, this should be a fine vintage for quality wines with enough quantity to replenish stocks in the marketplace.
One of my neighbors in Puligny, Francois Carillon, reported that his alcoholic fermentations began almost immediately after debourbage (the settling of the juice’s gross lees), and took only a week to complete after the must was transferred to barrel. His Bourgogne Blanc and Puligny villages yields were in the range of 50 hectoliters per hectare. At Domaine Michel Niellon, Michel Coutoux was very happy with the quality and quantities of his Chassagnes from villages as well as 1ers and Grands Crus levels. Potential alcohol at harvest was between 12.5° and 13.2°, and the vats were bubbling away when I visited Saturday morning the 20th September.
Fermentation getting underway in this vat of Chassagne villages.Fermentation in full-tilt boogie in this vat of 1er Cru Vergers.
Most growers transfer their juice from vat into barrels when the fermentation begins, and that process is now underway in most white wine producing cellars throughout the Cote de Beaune.
This vat of Chassagne villages bubbling away happily.Niellon Chevalier Montrachet continuing its fermentation in barrel.
Laurent Pillot finished his harvest on Friday afternoon, bringing in the Aligote adjacent to his cuverie at the bottom of the village near the RN6/74 interchange. He and his son were just finishing cleaning tanks after debourbage, and transferring the must to barrels for fermentation.
A very happy Laurent Pillot in his Chassagne winery.Laurent’s son Adrien prepares the barrels to receive the must.
As I mentioned earlier, the latest parcels to be picked seem to be those most impacted by the hailstorm at the end of June, as well as the higher slopes of Puligny, Blagny, and Meursault where cooler temperatures usually mean a later harvest. More on these wines in a later post.
The Pinot Noir harvest is in full swing as I write this post, with most of the Cote de Beaune reds in the cellars, and in the Cote de Nuits, most grapes are being brought in under superb conditions. Many of the producers of the Cote de Nuits’ illustrious Grands Crus will wait to bring in their fruit next week, under what is forecast as continued near-perfect weather. As of yesterday, I saw some fruit remaining in Corton, the upper slopes of Aloxe-Corton and Ladoix Grands Crus parcels, and quite a few parcels waiting to be picked in Vosne, Morey, and Gevrey Grands Crus. For the most part, the harvest of reds in Volnay, Pommard, and Beaune has finished, with spectacular fruit brought in, just not much of it. The 1ers Crus and much of the villages parcels in these communes were severely impacted by the hailstorms, and yields will be down significantly. Some growers report parcels that produced only 5 hl/h. The quality is beautiful, but the quantities will be miserly.
Triage at Domaine Marquis d’Angerville sorting Volnay 1er Cru ChampansA lovely bin of Volnay 1er Cru Champans at d’Angerville. Yields are down >50%.
Guillaume d’Angerville estimates that in the last 5 years (2010 to 2014 vintages) he has produced the equivalent of only two average crops. The quality of 2014 is superb, with little rot and very little damage from vinegar flies in the Cote de Beaune. But there will be little wine to sell from the 2014 vintage.
Guillaume d’Angerville with a handful of beautiful Volnay. Excellent quality, just not much of it.
There has been widespread talk, and a bit of quiet fear, of a new pest that has arrived in the Pinot Noir vineyards of Burgundy. I have heard a lot of discussion about drosophila suzukii, the invasive species of fruit fly that has been found in several vineyards. The flies thrive in heat and humidity, particularly in places where the air is stagnant, without much wind. The flies puncture the ripening fruit, introducing a vinegar yeast to the bunch, and can decimate surrounding vines quite rapidly, turning wine grapes to vinegar juice.
For many growers, 2014 marks the first year of this new pest, and I heard varying comments on its presence, effects, and vectors. Everyone agrees that the issue is localized in small parcels this year, mainly in the Cote de Nuits, but reported to be quite problematic in the Cote Chalonaise as well. Many maintain that heat, insufficient ventilation, and humidity are causes, and point to parcels where leaves were not pulled from the fruit before harvest, especially in the lower, frequently wetter areas. Others claim to have no problems whatsoever, due to the sanitary conditions of their organic and sometimes biodynamic plots. The highest estimates of the effects of the vinegar fly that I have heard are that 3 to 5% of the fruit was affected in the Cote de Nuits. Pickers and sorters have been extremely vigilant this year, sniffing boxes and bunches for the telltale vinegar aromas, and even where the fruit arrives in beautiful condition, extra care and time are being taken on the tables de triage.
A bunch of Pinot Noir affected by drosophila suzukii vinegar fly. This bunch smelled of cheap red wine vinegarRichebourg getting special attention on the table de triage at Domaine Parent-Gros, Francois Parent was very cautious.Extra personnel were added to the sorting table at Domaine BertagnaVictoria Damoy (front left) supervises her triage table at Domaine Pierre Damoy
Most growers with whom I spoke did agree to one thing: that drosophila suzukii has indeed arrived in Burgundy, and that it will become another significant issue that will require vigilant attention in the vines for the coming years.
The next several days will complete the harvest in the Cote d’Or vineyards for 2014. Growers will continue their work as the wines begin to take shape and reveal their personalities. But confidence is high that a quality vintage is being produced in 2014.
It is a foggy, misty, quite murky day in the Cote d’Or. After two weeks of brilliant sunshine that has seen most of the whites safely into their wineries, Thursday evening brought thunderstorms that lasted several hours. Lightning, thunder, and several significant downpours doused Puligny and Chassagne, but most of the fruit was already in. Lesser amounts of rain fell in Volnay, Pommard, Beaune, and points north into the Cote de Nuits.
The rain continued off and on through most of yesterday, Friday 19 September throughout the Cote and was especially drenching between 10:30am and 3pm. The gloomy weather continues today, and is forecast to remain until Monday, when we all hope the sun will return to ripen and dry the Cote de Nuits and the Grands Crus north of the A6 motorway, most of which have yet to be picked.
In over 25 years of visits to Burgundy, I cannot recall two more glorious days than Monday and Tuesday, September 15 & 16, 2014. Absolutely perfect blue skies were complemented by hot but dry temperatures and minimal humidity. Yesterday, Tuesday the 16th, was especially gorgeous, with temperatures close to 30°C (85°F). Teams of pickers were out nearly everywhere, and the landscape from time to time looked like a swarm of ants with people, minivans, and even small busses converging on the slopes of the Cote d’Or.
The Cote de Beaune continued its frenzy of Chardonnay picking, and began the difficult task of sorting out its hail damaged reds in Volnay, Pommard, and Beaune. The Cote de Nuits was really out in force for the first day yesterday, with fruit being harvested from Chenove down to Premeaux, mostly in the villages and 1ers Crus parcels. I stopped to check in with many growers, occasionally helping at the sorting table, lugging or cleaning caisses, and taking pictures while getting a sense of the quality and quantities coming into local cellars.
The last week to ten days of warm, sunny, hot, and dry weather has had a dramatic effect on the grapes and potential yield of the 2014 harvest. After the rains of July and the first two weeks of August, grapes were quite swollen and potentially diluted. Even with hail damage, there appeared to be sufficient fruit in many but the most severely damaged vineyards to return a reasonable yield for 2014. The hot and dry weather has significantly reduced the swollen grapes in size, and estimates vary as to the eventual rendement. I have heard that the INAO has authorized crops of up to 60 hectoliters per hectare in villages appellations, and up to 50 hl/h in the 1ers and Grands Crus. No grower with whom I have spoken has estimated anywhere close to these numbers, with most guessing at yields of around 40 to 45 hectoliters per hectare. Of course in hail damaged vineyards, yields will be significantly less. In reality it is too early to tell what yields will be, as that can only be done when the fruit has become wine. But outside of Beaune, Pommard, Volnay, and the 1ers Crus of Puligny and Meursault, things do not look too bad, and the quality of fruit that I have seen and tasted is top notch. It will be a very good to excellent vintage in 2014.
On the whole there are broad smiles nearly everywhere. The whites at the villages level are fairly abundant, with little if any rot, and any hail damaged fruit was so dried out that it fell off easily on the sorting tables. The 1ers Crus whites in Chassagne are spectacular in quantity and quality. While the hail storm of June 28th certainly limited the quantities harvested from the 1ers Crus in a swath from northern Puligny through northern Meursault, there is little rot to worry about, and the hail-damaged, dried berries were not a problem. Some growers used their tables de triage, while a few others sent their fruit straight from the fields into the pressoirs, as they saw nothing but perfect fruit in the picking boxes.
Thierry & Pascale Matrot’s Puligny 1er Cru Combettes looking beautiful. This from lower parcel as upper was replantedMatrot Puligny 1er Cru Combettes had 50% hail damage, mostly already fallen off the vines. 20-25hl/h if they are lucky.Adelle Matrot gets the Puligny Combettes fruit into the vat…While Elsa Matrot checks the potential alcohol – 12.9% !
Thierry & Pascale Matrot have reason to be proud! Three beautiful daughters who make their lives easier – two in the vines and cellars, and one who is running Le Chevreuil, one of Meursault’s top restaurants (as well as the attached hotel).
Meanwhile in Chassagne-Montrachet, Philippe Duvernay of Domaine Coffinet Duvernay was positively elated at the quality of his Chassagne 1er Cru Fairendes, harvested with no rot or hail damage. His fruit went straight from the picking boxes into the pressoir.
The quality of fruit bunches from Domaine Coffinet Duvernay Chassagne 1er Cru Fairendes was phenomenal. No hail, no rot.
My first stop in the Cote de Nuits was at Domaine Bertagna in Vougeot, a domaine with outstanding 1ers and Grands Crus holdings, where the four previous years have seen only miniscule harvests, amounting to the equivalent of two normal vintages since 2010.
Eva Reh had a delighted smile on her face, and cellar-master Denis Rozat was excited to be beginning another harvest. Their joy will be mitigated by severe losses from hail in the Clos de Vougeot and their prized, adjacent monopole Clos de La Perriere, but the harvest is clean, beautiful, and very tasty.
Great to see Eva Reh of Domaine Bertagna smiling about the harvest! Son Philip assisting on the table de triage.Domaine Bertagna cellar-master Denis Rozat extremely pleased with the quality of Nuits 1er Cru les Murgers.Domaine Bertagna reds are all fermented in small stainless tanks. The Nuits 1er Cru Murgers goes into vat.Beautiful Domaine Bertagna Nuits 1er Cru Les Murgers waits for the sorting table.
Fruit from Domaine Georges Roumier’s Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru Les Cras was being sorted when I arrived there, and after the sorting, entire whole bunches were being sent to the vats. There was a small amount of rot which was quickly excised, and great care was being taken to smell any bunches suspected of vinegar fly acetic development.
Delphine Roumier (middle right) leads the table de triage in ensuring perfection for the Chambolle 1er Cru Les CrasThese Roumier Chambolle Les Cras whole custers were beautiful. I am not sure what percentage of the total will be whole cluster.
Pierre Damoy hastened his schedule by a day or two, and yesterday, Tuesday, September 16th, he began his harvest with Marsannay. No problems with fruit here, and he expects to bring in his Grands Crus in comparable condition, with about 10% hail damage in his Chambertin and Clos de Beze, less in the lower slopes of his Chapelle-Chambertin.
Victoria Damoy (on left with gloves) on the sorting table at Domaine Pierre Damoy, Marsannay harvest.Beautiful destemmed fruit from Marsannay (Couchey) lieu-dit Bretigniere, one of two Damoy Marsannay parcels.
After Sarah Bastien of Domaine Henri Richard finished her Gevrey villages aux Corvees, the team took a small break by harvesting her new Pinot Blanc from Brochon (destined for a new Cremant de Bourgogne Blanc de Blancs). After lunch she began the reds again with the domaine’s Grands Cru Charmes-Chambertin. Cellar-master Guillaume Berthier will use about 25% whole clusters in the Charmes-Chambertin, and up to 40-50% of whole clusters for the parcel of Charmes which will be labeled Mazoyeres-Chambertin.
A very warm day in Gevrey. Sarah Bastien of Domaine Henri Richard (in hat, left), sorting whole clusters of Charmes-Chambertin.Beautiful Charmes-Chambertin fruit from Domaine Henri Richard. Many of these boxes went to the vats as whole clusters after the sorting table
When I arrived at Domaines Parent-Gros in Beaune, home of Domaine Anne-Francoise Gros and her husband Francois Parent of Domaine Francois Parent, I found that they had just begun harvesting their parcel of Richebourg Grand Cru. The sorting table team was closely inspecting each bunch of grapes for any signs of rot or acetic odors. The fruit was beautiful with a small amount of rot, a few vinegar bunches, and some dried out hail-damaged berries, but overall in great condition. It tasted delicious.
Richeburg triage. Caroline Parent-Gros, her brother Mathias, and her father Francois Parent were all smiles.Richebourg Grand Cru after destemming, soon to go into vat. Great looking and great tasting!Surgical precision on the table de triage for Domaine Parent Gros’ Richebourg Grand Cru. Mathias Parent-Gros supervising (far right).
As I write these notes on Wednesday midday September 17th, the mornings clouds have burned off and the sun is shining brilliantly again. The clouds of this morning were probably a welcome sight to pickers and workers in the vineyards, after yesterday’s relentless sun and considerable heat.
The wind and clouds are moving from south to north again, and the radar shows some unsettled weather ahead, moving up from the Mediterranean. It remains quite dry, but predictions are for possible storms tomorrow through the weekend. Hopefully these will hold off a few days and the rest of the harvest will finish with a wonderful result for vintage 2014.
Looking southeast from the Chemin de Moines de St.Vivant on La Montagne in Vosne-Romanee towards Nuits St. Georges. Splendid weather still prevails.
I am bouncing all over the Cote d’Or on my first experience of the harvest in Burgundy. After thirty years of visits as a buyer and tourist, I am finally witnessing how some of the greatest wines on earth are made. The harvesters are in the vineyards by 7am, work until noon, usually have a fine lunch and rest until 2pm, and are back in the vines (or in the winery) until 7pm. It is a long day of hard and monotonous work, but feels immensely satisfying at the end of the day, when the juice is in the vats and the wine begins to make its personality (climat, vintage, quality & quantity) known.
I began this Saturday morning September 13th by assisting at the table de triage in Gevrey-Chambertin with Sarah Bastien & Guillaume Borot of Domaine Henri Richard. My job: to pick out the stems, leaves, and other detritus that make their way past the destemmer.
Pick out any green, brown, or leafy bits. My job at the end of the sorting table, after destemming.
But many pictures and a full vat later, I took our dejeuner de vendangeurs complemented by jus des raisins de Gevrey villages aux Corvees (12.3° ) ! Of course wine was also served.
Harvest workers are fed well! Sarah Bastien of Domaine Henri Richard dishes up Choucroute a l’Alsacienne for the vendangeurs.
After , I made my way south to help lug caisses (the harvest grape boxes that contain about 25kg of grapes – around 20 bottles all finished) with Philippe Duvernay and his son Sebastien of Domaine Coffinet-Duvernay in Chassagne. Heavy lifting, mostly in 1er Cru Fairendes, where the fruit was being brought in at 12.5 to 12.7° potential alcohol.
Lovely fruit from Coffinet-Duvernay’s Chassagne 1er Cru Fairendes. Old vines produce clusters with quite a few millerandes, highly concentrated in flavor.Small caisses or boxes for the harvest. Each box has about 25 kg of grapes (about 55 lbs), which produces around 20 bottles of wine (750ml) per box.Philippe Duvernay slowly presses whole cluster fruit for almost two hours, while others, like Niellon, use a screw device to break up the clusters a bit before slowly pressing the grapes.
The harvest in the Cote de Beaune is progressing nicely, while many in the Cote de Nuits remain on the sidelines as the marvelous weather brings the Pinots to superb, near perfect ripeness. Crews were out in force in Savigny, Aloxe, and Ladoix, but Corton Charlemagne saw nary a vendangeur.
Harvest crews out in Ladoix 1er Cru. Hardly any teams were out in the Grands Crus of Corton or Charlemagne.
Next week will bring more harvest teams out in the Cote de Nuits, as the superb weather is forecast to change to cloudy and rainy by Thursday. But the wonderful thing about weather forecasts here in France is that they are rarely accurate and often change twice a day. Several important growers with whom I spoke this week were planning to hit the vines further north on Monday, September 15th.
I learned of a new pest in the vineyards this week, one rather specific to red wine grapes, and caused by the small fruit fly relative named drosophila suzukii, the vinegar fly. The fly punctures the skins of ripening grapes, allowing botrytis acetic to take hold, decimating grape bunches and turning the sweet red juice into vinegar. It can be prolific and exceptionally damaging in warm, humid conditions, which will be another factor in when the big red producers of the Cote de Nuits decide to begin their harvests. With unsettled weather possibly returning on Thursday, it would not be surprising to see more vendangeurs in the Cote de Nuits early next week.
A Pinot Noir bunch affected by the drosophila suzukii vinegar fly. Botryitis takes hold producing a pronounced vinegar smell and taste. This can be ruinous to fermenting vats, and is far more dangerous, and luckily, far less frequent, than normal grey rot.
Stay tuned for more harvest reports from the 2014 vintage in the Cote d’Or….. and for immediate gratification as well as more pictures, follow me on Twitter at @amitiesjerome.
This writer left his home in Puligny-Montrachet early this morning, not only because of an important rendez-vous to taste with a new friend in Gevrey-Chambertin, but also to drive the RN74 and Route des Grands Crus to see what was happening. My neighbor Francois Carillon began picking on Wednesday, and I wanted to see who was following suit and where. There were several crews of pickers out and about by 8:00am south of Beaune, but as I traveled northwards, there were fewer and fewer vendangeurs.
It was a glorious day – cool wind from the north, and brilliant sunshine only intermittently interrupted by puffy white clouds. Returning to Puligny this evening it is clouding up a bit, but the forecast is for continued cool, north winds and plenty of sunshine, as a high pressure system dominates our weather until at least next Wednesday. Temperatures are lovely, 20-24°C (68-75°F).
After two weeks of fairly decent weather and consistent sunshine, and only a single day of clouds and rainfall on Tuesday, September 9th, many growers have decided that ripeness has arrived or is quickly approaching. Picking began in the Cote d’Or earlier this week for the Cremant de Bourgogne, which requires higher acidity and less sugar. Yet as many watched the skies and their refractometers, an open optimism has taken hold that this vintage can be won after all.
Pickers were out in force today in Santenay, Chassagne, Puligny, Meursault, and north through Volnay and Pommard into Beaune. Most growers with whom I spoke were after their Bourgognes Blancs et Rouges, villages, and other petites appellations. There were picking crews on both sides of the RN74, mostly on the lower slopes. However, moving further north beyond the A6 highway, the number of teams out for harvest were much fewer. Many growers in the Cote de Nuits plan to begin sometime next week, around 15th to 18th September. The grapes north of Beaune look beautiful, with deep color and very little rot, only hail damage where I have previously reported. But the fruit, while sweet, still has a ways to go before full maturity, as many still had greenish pips or seeds giving a tight hard edge to the juice. A few more days of sun should help.
COTE DE BEAUNE OFF TO A FINE START
The increase in harvest activity south of Beaune was confirmed as I returned from Gevrey back to ma petite maison around 3pm. As I approached Puligny, I could see harvest crews in the 1ers Crus of southern Meursault, Puligny, and Chassagne, as well as some of the Montrachet Grands Crus. I decided to investigate further, and found a number of prominent growers had decided to hit the vines.
I drove up-slope from Puligny and stopped just beyond the village to find the team from Domaine Sauzet picking Les Meix, a wonderful village appellation site just below Les Pucelles.
Beautiful fruit for Domaine Sauzet in the Les Meix slopes below 1ers and Grands Crus in Puligny
I continued up the hill to the Grands Crus to see who was picking in ChevalierMontrachet. There was a team of about a dozen from Domaine Jean Chartron, and about 15 meters south was my friend Michel Colin presiding over a team picking for his son Philippe and himself.
Team Jean Chartron working their way down the hill in Chevalier MontrachetPickers pick into small buckets, which are then transferred to the larger bins of runners who bring the grapes to a larger vat pulled by tractors to the winery. Readers of previous posts might recognize the Chevalier Demoiselles Grand Cru apple tree in the upper right of the pictureMichel Colin presiding over harvest in the Colin family parcel in Chevalier MontrachetTeam Michel Colin pickers finishing up in Chevalier Montrachet, getting ready to head to the family’s famous DemoisellesThe white truck in mid-picture is where the Colin Team will begin Puligny Demoiselles after finishing Chevalier Montrachet
After spending a few minutes with Michel (he told me his Chevalier was being harvested at 13+° potential alcohol), I headed off to Chassagne to see what I could find. I stopped in at Domaine Ramonet to find Jean-Claude Ramonet directing some recent pressing of grapes from their villages parcels. They will continue harvesting through the weekend, and he reported that they are in no hurry because the weather is so fine.
Jean-Claude Ramonet (white T-shirt) discussing with his team what will happen next.
I decided to head downhill and passed two teams, Lamy-Pillot’s collecting fruit in 1ers Cru Champs Gains and Richard Fontaine’s team harvesting Chassagne villages Pinot Noir below Maltroie.
Lamy Pillot team in Chassagne 1er Cru Les Champs Gain below CailleretPicking Pinot for Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard
As it was getting to be around 5pm I thought I would check in with a couple of good friends in Chassagne at their new, modern cuveries at the bottom of the village, near the intersection of the old RN6 and 74 (both have now been “declassified” as Routes Deparmentales).
APERITIF MAISON: RED & WHITE
My first stop was at Domaine Fernand & Laurent Pillot, where I was surprised to see Laurent and his children with a few friends at the sorting table and destemming red grapes that were going into a small vat via a conveyor belt. Laurent had told me previously that he would begin the harvest on Saturday (tomorrow), and I asked why he had started a day early. He replied that he and his kids were so excited by the great weather that they decided with some friends to begin picking their Gamay grapes, which he grows near the bottom of the Chassagne slope (next to the old lavoir washing house). It was 12.5° potential alcohol and tasted fabulous. I have known and worked with Laurent since 1997, and was completely unaware that he made what used to be Appellation Controlee Bourgogne-Passetoutgrains (now the new AOP Coteaux Bourguignons). When I asked him why I had never been offered any, he replied coyly, “C’est la reserve personnelle, vin maison de mon pere”. It is the personal stash house wine of his father, Fernand Pillot!
Laurent Pillot’s son and friends sorting Gamay at the table de triage.After destemming, destined to be papa Fernand Pillot’s house wine!
After Domaine F & L Pillot I crossed the street to visit the new winery of Domaine Michel Niellon. I had run into Michel Niellon on the street the previous day, and I knew that he and his son-in-law Michel Coutoux planned to begin with their villages Chassagne today. But when I arrived I was in for a treat: they had just finished pressing a parcel of Chardonnay from Voillenots, and a tractor load of one of my favorite villages lieux dits, Blanchots Dessous, had just arrived. I was able to watch the entire pressing process in their new Vaslin Bucher presses, and was delighted to taste the free run juice directly from the press. At 12.5° potential alcohol, it was deliciously sweet grape juice, but with a thrilling backbone of racy acidity giving it length, and making me want to drink more!
Beautiful fruit from the village lieu-dit Blanchot Dessous, which is just adjacent to Grand Cru Criots Batard Montrachet north of the N6 (D96) highway to ChagnyAfter the bunches are broken apart with a screw, the grapes are sluiced into the new press.Free run juice from the Blanchot Dessous, a parcel of Niellon’s Chassagne villagesTasting free run Domaine Niellon Chassagne village Blanchot Dessous
I must admit to being completely thrilled by this experience! In thirty years in the wine business, having visited Burgundy well over 50 times, I have never been here during a harvest. This first true day of harvest, visiting some of my dearest Burgundian friends and former colleagues, will stick with me forever, longer even than the still lingering memory of fresh Blanchot Dessous juice! Many, many thanks to Michel Coutoux’s nephew (whose name I have lost in my mind trap sieve) for encouraging this new experience, as well as for sneaking me the newly assembled, about-to-be-bottled 2013s from vat: Niellon Chassagne 1ers Crus La Maltroie and Les Chaumees. I hope I can get a small allocation for my cellar here in Puligny!
Such joy cannot go without a little downer. I was saddened to hear of the death of Michel Coutoux’s wonderful Gordon Setter Reglisse, his constant companion, a fabulous hunter, and a truly loving animal. She was always in the cellar at Michel’s home, and a wonderful playmate to my English Springer Sally when we visited in 2001, so many years ago. Michel is lucky however, his new and beautiful dog Cartouche is following in Reglisse’s path. And she loves Chassagne grapes!
Michel Coutoux and Cartouche sharing some Chassagne village Blanchot Dessous
La vendange a commencé! More reports to follow soon, with early warning through Twitter @amitiesjerome . Follow me there as well!
Jerome's French Adventures 