Decuvage

As the reds reach the end of their fermentation period we have started decuvage, which is the process of draining the free run juice and then pressing the grapes to extract the tannic and colorful juice from the skins. The tannic press-juice adds extra structure to the final wine. Some winemakers will keep the press juice separate until the final blending takes place, others, like Alex Gambal, do a lighter press (gently pressing prevents too much extraction of the bitter tannins from the seeds and skins) and mix it back in with the free run juice. The wine will then go into barrel. 

Emptying out the grapes after the free-run juice has been pumped out of the tank

Shoveling out the grapes from inside the tank

Fruit being loaded into the press via conveyer belt (fondly referred to as Tutu the elephant)

Press-juice (freaky bright purple)

Pressed skins will be picked up and taken to a distillery

Weekend highlight: sunset segue into stargazing up in the Haut-Côte vineyards above Pernand-Vergelesses overlooking the hill of Corton with a campfire and Old Crow Medicine Show playing on the speakers. C'est pas mal. 

Still working on pumpovers and punchdowns, but pressing the reds will start this week. 

Punch-down

Pigéage

The other day I took a terrific bike ride up to Bouilland which is a tiny village 10K west of Savigny (30k round trip from Beaune). A beautiful ride up the valley, and a beautiful day for it. It's been a gorgeous September (which is exceptional for the harvest). Dismal weather is reported to kick-in this week..

Pigeage

As the reds begin fermentation we have been doing punch-downs and pigeage (either á pied or with what looks like an extra long toilet plunger) once or twice a day. As CO2 is produced while the yeasts are converting the sugars to alcohol, all of the skins are pushed to the top of the soaking juice, which is called the cap. It is necessary to break up the cap (yes, feet work best)so that the yeasts are exposed to ample oxygen so that they can continue doing what they do best. 

Remontage : pumping the juice over the cap to increase skin contact for better tannin/color/flavor extraction

The line-up for the daily tastings to track the progress of the juice as it begins to turn into wine

Paulée

Just finished processing the last batch of grapes (Chambolle-Musigny 1er Charmes)! Phew!

Last night we held our Paulée, the end of harvest dinner. After another beautiful feast prepared by Henry and Stacia, the gang went subterranean into John's cellar where we tackled a magnum of Jadot Beaune Ursules 2002 and a magnum of Marcel Lapierre Morgon 2007 by candlelight.

I spent all of yesterday afternoon with my fellow stagieres picking the remainder of Alex's parcel of Dents de Chien (yes, tooth of the dog) a premier cru in St. Aubin. This might be my favorite spot in the Cote d'Or. Located just uphill of Batard-Montrachet at Le Montrachet, this vineyard has a spectacular view to the East and the South. Mont Blanc is visible on a clear day. The wine doesn't suck either. 

The fruit from Chambolle village looked so good while we were sorting it yesterday that Alex and our winemaker, Geraldine, decided to put some aside to make an experiment cuvée with whole-bunch fermentation, with stems included and no sulphur. Due to such great ripening conditions this year, the stems are actually ripe enough that they will not impart mean green flavors, and are beneficial for imparting certain proteins and tannins that will contribute to the longevity of the wine. It will be fun to track the progress of this cuvée..

I've been too busy to blog but here's what I've been up to. In the past few days I have picked some chard in 1er cru Maltroie in Chassagne-Montrachet and some pinot noir in the Bourgogne designated vineyards in Pommard and Volnay. Yesterday I accompanied Alex up to Pernand-Vergelesses to pick up 3 barrels of juice he is getting from Rapet. We had lunch in Gevrey-Chambertin, and ran into Eric Rousseau (grandson of Armand) and his team who were coming in for a rowdy lunch after a morning of picking. Then we went to Clos de Vougeot to pick up our block of purchased grapes. The crusher-destemmer decided to take a hiatus from functioning before the final 4 bins could be processed, so we had to de-stem much of the remainder by hand a la methode ancienne (at least it was for a grand cru!).

It has been perfect weather for the past 2 weeks, and we've been getting some drizzle starting yesterday evening and into today. There are only 5 more blocks of fruit to get in so hopefully the weather will improve and we can finish processing the grapes in the next few days (our Paulée is planned for the end of the week). People here in Burgundy have been comparing this vintage to 2005, the most recent classic vintage, but with even better ripeness levels.

Pump-overs have started on the reds, as they undergo a 5 day cold soak maceration to extract color, flavor and tannins before fermentation begins. Juice from below the mass of grapes on the surface of the tank is pumped over the top of the "cap". The whites are nearly all in barrel now and fermentation is just about to kick-off.

Some recent blind tasting highlights:

Emilia Moro Ribera del Duero 1991

Pesquera Janus 1994

Pesquera 1989

(it's nice to get away from Burgundy every now and then)

Potel Chambertin 2004 - which didn't perform as well as it should have

Naudin-Ferrand Echezeaux 2001 - A pretty peculiar expression of Echezeaux, which is because this is the year before the producer improved vineyard management practices (lowered yields, better quality in 2002)

Some more pictures to come as soon as I get time/wifi access.

Pinot and Poulet

Things are currently in full swing here at Alex Gambal. The pinot noir started coming in yesterday from Savigny and Volnay (the latter being the result of a swap with Bouchard that Alex negociated). The days are long and tiring. So much of the process involves cleaning, then getting things all sticky again, then cleaning them, etc etc. I am at the point where I am washing and stacking the bins de vendage in my sleep. 

The sorting table. Very little triage needed since the fruit is in great shape this year.

Last night's dinner featured a Poulet Smackdown, a tasting of a Bresse chicken vs. regular. Bresse is an AOC for chickens, costing 5 times more than the regular grocery store chickens...so we had a blind tasting to decide if it really is that much better. There was a prize for whoever wrote the best tasting note: the black feet of the Bresse chicken. Guess who ended up with the creepy claws (close your eyes and put out your hands to recieve the award). Moi. 

Harvest Begins

Today we started to bring in some chardonnay from Puligny and Chassagne. This year's fruit is looking awesome so no sorting table, just a little triage as we throw it onto the conveyer into the press (pneumatic, for about 2 hrs). As I rode my bike to work early this morning it was just starting to get light out and I saw truck after truck loading up people to go out to pick. There is so much energy in the air here in Beaune as the harvest kicks off.

Pips and skins after pressing

Hauling out the skins - negociants have to weigh their skins so the government can be sure they aren't secretly making Marc and avoiding paying tax on it. One of the many Fr. gov. regulations.

Last night was the the first harvest dinner..Alex's friends Henry and Stasia are cooking for the vendage crew. They are excellent chefs! 

The blind bottles last night included: 2000 Amiot-Servelle Chambolle-Musigny magnum; 1996 Alex Gambal Volnay Robardelles magnum; 2000 Nicolas Potel Volnay Santenots. 

Last night's menu

The chefs at work

Pre-Harvest day off

Everyone at Gambal had the day off today, which is the last one for a long time. Met up with my uncle David (of Langdon-Shiverick Imports) who was in town and we had lunch then had a great little hike up above Santenay at the southern end of the Cote d'Or. Then aperitifs Chez Gambal. 

Aprés hike in Haut Santenay

Chez Gambal. Tempier Bandol Rosé hit the spot after the hike.

Etta kickin' back

Prelevemant

Yesterday we spent all day doing prelevemant, which is the pre-harvest sampling of the grapes to measure acid and sugar levels to determine when to harvest. We spend the day driving to all of the parcels that Alex Gambal is getting fruit from this year and collecting 15 bunches from each site. Some of the parcels he owns, some he buys the fruit from the owner. It was a beautiful day - today as well. The weather has been excellent and the fruit is in great shape: good ripeness, good flavors, good acidity too. It is looking like picking will begin on Wednesday. 

It was fun to taste the grapes from all of the different vineyard sites and taste the differences in ripeness levels and flavors. The Chassagne-Montrachet Village parcel that Alex has is right next to the 1er cru Criottes Batard Montrachet. The difference is a couple of feet. This is Burgundy. Terroir terroir terroir!

Picking some samples in Clos de Vougeot

The samples back at the cuverie

Bio-dynamics, Lambrays, Remoissenet, Francois Freres

"How can you talk about terroir when your soil is full of poisons?"

This is the question Bernard Zito, a bio-dynamics consultant here in Burgundy, put forth as he lead a lecture on biodynamics among the vines in Les Reignots, just above La Romanée (not a bad classroom setting...the view is a little distracting). Since 2000 the practice of biodynamic growing has taken off in Vosne-Romanée. Bio-dynamics is based on the interrelationship of the plants and the soil, eliminating the use of artificial chemicals and relying instead on natural preparations and even the lunar phases.  The transition away from weed killers (and other vineyard chemicals) means that the vine roots need to go down deep into the soil, since they have to compete for nutrients. Stress is good (for vines). Vineyard workers also benefit from natural treatments as opposed to chemicals that can cause health problems for them down the road. 

Me in class with La Romanée behind me and village of Vosne-Romanée in the background. 

Next up, a visit to Domaine du Clos des Lambray where we tasted the 2008 Clos des Lambrays (the Domaine's Grand Cru monopole) from barrel. The wine is shaping up to have solid structure and very complex flavors. Last summer there was a hailstorm in July, so yields were lower. Winemaker T. Brion has crafted a very solid wine that is shaping up nicely. The wines at Lambrays get added structure from the stems, as they practice whole-stalk fermentation here. Tasted the 2007 Clos des Lambrays which was bottled in April. Explosive nose, elegant wine with complex flavors. Then the 2006..friendly red fruits typical of this vintage with added complexity from some liquorice and spice in there and an elegant structure. Then out came the 1996 - wet leaves, black cherry, sweet spices. Love these wines!

Had a very special visit at Remoissenet where the very entertaining Bernard Repolt showed us around. Tasted alot of wines here, here is the list:

2008s from barrel: St. Romain, Pernand-Vergelesses, Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeot, Meursault 1er Charmes, Montrachet (!), Beaune 1er Greves.

And then..

Beaune 1er Greves 2007

Volnay 1er Santenots 1997

Beaune 1er Les Toussaints 1987

Pommard 1976

Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Laveaux St. Jacques 1966

The damage at Remoissenet. Thank you Bernie.

Visited the Francois Fréres Tonellierie which produces barrels for many winemakers in Burgundy and abroad. We got to wander around the factory where seasoned wood planks become artisanal crafted barrels ready for shipment to cuveries.

Fascinating.

Finished the CFPPA program on Friday. Five days of incredible visits, tastings, lectures...all of this counting as "school" so that I can now go on to work vendage as a student (as opposed to a foreign laborer, which is a complicated visa situation). Now everyone goes off in different directions to be stagieres.

The "grads" at La Viti Beaune

Now its time to get to work over at Alex Gambal..

Helped out with bottling last week. That's Alex on the right. 

We are bottling a batch of the St. Aubin Dents du Chien 2008 magnums and half-bottles by hand.

Just north of Beaune in a former tracter barn is Domaine DUBLÉRE where Blair Pethel, a North Carolinian transplant, runs his operation all by himself (with some extra help around the harvest, of course). As he opened the doors to his cuverie to welcome the group, "Walking in Memphis" was blasting throughout the winery. Good times, cool dude.

His winemaking is nearly all organic/bio, save for a little fungicide in the spring, which he deems necessary. Working with 5 hectares worth of grapes from Chassagne-Montrachet to Gevrey-Chambertin, with a bit of Chablis as well, he keeps things natural: only natural yeasts, no fining/filtering, no racking, etc. In what appears to be an effective approach to preventing TCA (aka. cork taint or 2,4,6-trichloroanisole), he has a fancy water filter which removes the chlorine from the water that is used to clean all of the equipment that comes into contact with the juice. Chlorine is responsible for the "C" in TCA and eliminating it from the wine-making process prevents the development of cork taint. Alex Gambal is another proud owner of the water filter. So far, Blair Pethel has received no reports of corked bottles...so consumers can buy his wines with confidence!

Wines ready for export.

We tasted Blair's 2007 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru "Les Chaumes" - a solid wine.

Blair Pethel: a one-man show

The cave at DUBLÉRE

Next up, a quick drive down the Cote de Beaune to Chateau de Meursault. Honestly, the tour of the cave felt a little bit like something at Disneyworld - contrived and a little lame. This was actually the first property in Burgundy to admit visitors without the letter of recommendation that was once a requisite for appointments at caves in the Cote d'Or 20 or 30 years ago. This was essentially the pioneer in vineyard hospitality, which is quite clear, and for me it was a little too contrived, especially when juxtaposed to the authenticity and excitement of yesterday's tasting in the mouldy cellar at Domaine Jacob. We were fortunate enough to get a tour of the large-production (by Burgundian standards) cuverie, a separate structure from the tour-guided caves. 

Chateau de Meursault

15 ton fermenters

The new-world winemakers in the group seemed to know their way around this larger facility. 

Checking out some of the smaller tanks