gharbour
Posts: 371
Joined: 4/30/2010
From: Savigny les Beaune, France
Status: offline
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This series of posts is the continuing saga of a father helping his son (Nicholas) and daughter-in-law (Colleen) realize their dream of starting a winery (www.MaisonHarbour.com) in Burgundy, France. If you didn’t catch my earlier posts please search on “Summer Adventure in Burgundy”.
We arrived on Monday morning and are just getting over the jet lag. Meanwhile work continues to get the Cuverie ready. Nicholas has been working on getting the dalle ancienne (old stone floor) out so we can start to set forms to pour the new concrete floor. It’s hot and dirty work.
We’ve borrowed power from the neighbor's as the electric company has yet to come. Tomorrow the water company is suppose to come give us water. You’ll note the new box in the wall in the photo below, that’s from the gas company, all hooked up! To bad we don’t need gas. The rubble pile is growing and we’ll need to make to a run to the dechetterie (dump) soon. Getting ready in time for the vendange (harvest) is starting to feel like a race already.
Yesterday we visited Nicholas' equipment supplier in Meursault. It was tres cool. I could spend all day looking at equipment. Nicholas is working to get the Maison equipped with everything they’ll need. Including fermenters. More on this subject as the final decisions are made.
We took a little break this evening to visit David Clark a friend of Nicholas and Colleen, who lives in Morey-Saint-Denis. We toured the domain (http://www.domainedavidclark.com) and tasted from barrels his 2012 Côte-de-Nuits-Villages, Morey-Saint-Denis, and Vosne-Romanée. These are the same wines that Nicholas and Colleen discuss in their blog, which they tasted pre-malo. The wines were all terrific, bright with loads of fruit. The Vosne-Romanée was especially impressive. This was my first taste of the 2012 vintage. I was very impressed with how ripe and delicious it is. Below is a photo of Nicholas in David’s cave.
David is quite a student of Burgundy and history. He said something which I have wondered about. In the past it was the hot years that were the best in Burgundy. The average weather was on the cool side for a great vintage. Now the average weather is about right to even a little hot, so the cooler years can be the great ones.
This year certainly has started cool. The grapes are a whole month behind. I mentioned in an earlier post that flowering started on June 19th. Here it is July 4th (oh it is July 4th!) already and still there are flowers. I snapped this photo tonight. So with a spread out flowering of the vines it might mean that the grapes don’t all mature at the same time, requiring careful sorting to avoid immature fruit. But this also means the harvest will be late (100 days after flowering) estimated September 28th. This could mean a cool finish for the grapes, and using David’s thoughts above - a great vintage. It could however mean, the wet cold rainy fall weather arrives and...... But at least for now it helps us in the race to get the Maison ready for 2013.
À bientôt
Gary
< Message edited by gharbour -- 8/29/2013 3:43:11 AM >
_____________________________
Gary Harbour
Chez Nos Coeurs
Savigny les Beaune
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Summer Adventure in Burgundy 4 - Shopping for Equipment - 
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