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.