Wow, what day. A great run from Vosne-Romanee to Morey-St. Denis and back thru all the Grand Crus. Then a quick 3 minutes in the car to Chambolle to sort the Chambolle-Musigny with Anne & Herve Sigaut. Then sorting the Romanee-St. Vivant at J-J Confuron. (I felt like I was handling pure uncut diamonds as every cluster came down the sorting line.) The fruit was beautiful, and truly needed very little triage. It will be amazing to follow this wine through its fermentation, elevage and bottling over the next 18 months…

Then another light harvest lunch. Salad, Potato & Cheese gratin with onions and lardons and hunks of ham. Bread, cheese, and vanilla-strawberry ice cream cones! And a yummy 2008 Passetoutgrains. Thanks to Alain & Sophie Meunier-Confuron for letting me be part of their world – it is a warm and wonderful place.

Then on to pick up our photo-journalist friend Andrea Johnson at the train station in Beaune. We made the rounds to Buisson-Charles in Meursault, Violot-Guillemard in Pommard (where they will have their Paulee tomorrow), and Huber-Verdereau in Volnay, where dinner was loud and boisterous and full of harvest song and way way festive. They are in training for their Paulee, which will probably happen friday night…

And I got to hang out and witness harvest in Musigny with Domaine de Vogue, and La Tache with DRC. Other than that, not much going on today…

Tomorrow – back into the vineyards in Volnay in the morning. a Paulee lunch in Pommard at noon, and then off to Chablis for the Champions League match with Auxerre v Real Madrid. And did I mention that the ’09s at Buisson-Charles are stunning? OMG, truly cannot wait to get these in our cellar and into your hands.

More pics on the FLICKR page!

I awoke to a bright blue sky and crisp fall-like temperatures in Beaune this morning. Ran a good 10K through the vines, and then headed down the autoroute to Fuisse. The entire country attempts to do as little as possible on Sundays, so the hiway was virtually empty at 9am. Only the winemakers and the vineyard crews and the toll-takers are working today. The rest of France is shut down tight.

The Maconnais, about 45 minutes south of Beaune, is perhaps the most beautiful part of Burgundy’s wine country. Tiny hilltop villages every 1500 meters or so, surrounded by an endless sea of perfectly manicured vines on rolling hills for as far as the eye can see. The jewel in the Maconnais crown for me has to be the stunning Chateau des Rontets and their spectacular 15-acre Clos Varambon, at the top of the mountain overlooking Fuisse below and the entire southern Maconnais. Fabio Gazeau-Montrasi and his wife Claire were leading the team of 20 vendangeurs – mostly French college students, and a group of 20-somethings from Quebec.

They were nearing the end of the harvest, with just a couple of acres to pick today and tomorrow to wrap up for the season. The quality of the grapes was quite good – big, concentrated flavors, crisp acidity, and very tiny yields again this year. They suffered another hailstorm ealier this year, on top of difficult flowering and a cool summer (gee, sounds like home!) – but after all, the wines will be excellent. Fabio was typically understated about the potential quality of his 2010s, but from my view they will be at the least very good.

I was invited to lunch with the crew, along with Fabio and Claire’s teenagers (Julio 16, Bianca 14), and Fabio’s lovely and dignified Italian mother. Another “simple” harvest lunch of a huge salad with fresh tomatoes and feta, a massive pork roast with peas, a killer cheese plate, and a warm apple tart. And three or four bottles of wine. I’m beginning to understand why these students come to work the harvest!

Working with the Chateau des Rontets crew was the ex-wife of Domaine Thibert winemaker Christophe Thibert, and the current husband of Domaine Thibert GM Sandrine Thibert. Which made it a perfect segue for my next stop at down the hill at Domaine Thibert, where Christophe was finishing up harvest today. He was very bullish about the quality of everything he had brought in so far, and he too is normally quite reserved. Christophe is a very serious and focused vigneron, and in my view he just keeps getting better and better every vintage. He’s constantly learning, adapting, and adjusting, and his wines are going from strength to strength.

We ducked in the cuverie to taste a number of the cuvees, which had just started fermenting in the last day or two, or in some cases still had not started. They were all outstanding, with an old-vine parcel in his Charm section of Pouilly-Fuisse exceptionally so. Again, small yields this year, but the potential for excellent quality was evident throughout.

I stopped in to Volnay on the way back and checked in with Thiebault Huber – who was very happy with his Bourgogne Blanc and Pommard villages he had brought in today. He was fuming mad, however, that someone had harvested an entire 1.5 acre parcel of his Pommard villages grapes! You hear from time to time about someone accidentally picking perhaps one row, or a few vines, of an adjoining parcel, but to take an entire huge section like that is hugely rare. Thiebault was in the process of trying to figure out who could have done it – the owner of the adjacent parcel is an absentee owner who formerly had the negociant Boisset farming his parcel, but that arrangement ended last year, and no one seems to know who is responsible now. The tragedy is that Thiebault worked all year farming that parcel Biodynamically – the most labor-intensive method of farming there is, and now has nothing to show for it. The culprit will be forced to pay cash, ultimately – as since Thiebault’s operation is certified Biodynamic he can’t accept non-Biodynamic grapes in payment. Punaise, as they say here…

I’ve now checked in to l’Hotel Richebourg in Vosne-Romanee, and will spend the morning tomorrow in the Cote de Nuits. Our photographer friend Andrea Johnson arrives from Germany tomorrow afternoon, to shoot pictures of harvest for my forthcoming book on the history of La Paulee, so I’ll be setting her up with our growers up and down the Cote for several days of what I hope will be a fabulous shoot.

After that lunch today, dinner is definitely not required. Just some sleep, and a run through the holy land in the morning. When you have the chance to run through La Tache, Richebourg, Romanee-St. Vivant, La Romanee, La Grand Rue and Romanee-Conti, I say you’ve got to do it…

Pics galore on our FLICKR page. Cheers!

Let’s start with dinner at Caves Madeleine in Beaune last night. Cassoulet d’Escargot, Piece de Boucher, Valrhona chocolate & salt-caramel ice cream, Mugnier ’07 Fuees, Mugneret ’06 NSG 1er. A damn good meal. With the superb company of The Cook’s Atelier chef and cooking teacher Marjorie Taylor, and her daughter Kendall with her husband Laurent. (We will be doing a winemaker dinner at Marjorie’s divine supper club here in Beaune in November – watch this space for details.)

Of course that wasn’t enough, so on my suggestion we checked out Maison Colombier, a way-cool new wine bar in the heart of Beaune. Tremendous wine list, pages of great Champagnes, and superb little lounge rooms carved into the cellars under the streets of Beaune. (And full of lots of 16 year-olds on dates drinking expensive bottles of Vodka…) Had a nice Laurent-Perrier Ultra Brut and called it a night…

It rained a bit again this morning, but then turned out very nice. Harvest activity cranked up to full pitch this afternoon. I spent the day in the Cote de Nuits, stopping by to check out the action at Anne & Herve Sigaut, J-J Confuron, Taupenot-Merme, and Jean-Marc Millot. Had lunch with the crew at Millot – 35 vendangeurs hungrily digging into some nice jambon persiilee and that very French dish, Chile con Carne on rice. All washed down with some 2008 Vosne-Romanee. Pas mal, as they say.

From what I’ve seen to this point, the vintage here will really favor the Grand Crus and Premier Crus and the better-situated Villages parcels. There have been botrytis and bunch-rot issues in the lower-level Villages and Bourgogne sites. Those who have timed their picks well and have sorted rigorously will have done the best. Ripeness is quite good across the board, and everyone seems happy given the difficult summer and the onset of rains in mid-harvest. It’s looking like three solid days of sun to come, but much cooler – so there is probably not much to be gained in terms of maturity from here on in.

I happened to pass by Romanee-Conti as they were starting to pick it after lunch today. I admit to being awestruck at the size of the team and their slow, methodical pace. One does not harvest the most famous vineyard on the planet in a rush. Every grape is worth a few hundred $$$ in that tiny plot…

As often as I’ve been here over the years, there are still many individual parcels I’ve never walked through. Knowing them on the map is one thing. Knowing them with boots on the ground is quite another. Watching the vignerons direct their picking teams, and then sorting the fruit with them in the winery brings a whole new level of understanding and appreciation again. This is clearly the best thing I’ve ever done. At least our late harvest in Oregon is good for something!

There is something so right about driving through Chablis in the pouring rain and cranking Pearl Jam on the iPod. There is something inspiring in watching Michel Lafarge, now on his 61st harvest. He is the living example of the wisdom that comes with age. There is something quite bizarre about seeing high-school aged sons and daughters of vignerons in designer jeans splashing out the cash on expensive wines and spirits, and then getting on their scooters to head home after midnight. Which of them, if any, will become the next Michel Lafarge, I wonder…

More photos on our FLICKR page, as always. Off to dinner with friends tonight, and then down to the Maconnais tomorrow…

Random thoughts upon returning from a day-trip to Chablis – Remember what I said about the calm and tranquility during harvest on the Cote d’Or? The tune is quite different in Chablis. Good old All-American stress was the order of the day up north. Chablis is perhaps the hardest place on the planet to make wine (which is why it is so often absolutely outstanding), and that may explain the higher level of tension I encountered there today. Rising star Frederic Gueguen not only runs his eponymous domaine, but the 500 acres of the Jean-Marc Brocard estate as well. I suppose that alone could account for the extra stress load right there…

Frederic picked his two 1er Crus on Wednesday – the Fourchaume and the Cote de Lechet, as well as his Vieilles Vignes parcel of Chablis – all of which I got to taste from tank this afternoon (just juice at this stage, of course – fermentation had not yet begun.) The fruit was nice and rich, with excellent acidity underneath. If these three are any indication, it should be quite good in Chablis. All weather dependent, of course. It poured rain there this morning, and they called off all picking, but just as quickly it cleared, and the team was off to pick a few hectares in the afternoon.

They do a mean harvest lunch at Gueguen – a killer charcuterie platter to start, then a pork roast with mushrooms and green beans, then cheese & a chocolate pot de creme. If I lived here I would be one of those to somehow gain weight during crush!

I’ve been invited to see the Auxerre v Real Madrid Champions League match in Auxerre Tuesday night – which is a dream come true for a euro soccer freak like me. I’m a big Barcelona fan as you may know, but to see Jose Mourinho and his gaggle of superstars from Madrid up close and personal will be major thrill, to be sure.

I’m waiting to see what the weather does before making further harvest plans now that I’m back in Beaune. More as it happen. In the meantime, tons of new picks on our FLICKR page – enjoy!

It rained pretty steadily here in Burgundy last night, and drizzled all morning while i dutifully ran a good 15K from Beaune to Volnay and back and a loop around the peripherique. It seemed just like home, but for one huge exception – the grapes are ripe here!

It looks like a few more days of showers, and it is cooling off pretty quickly as well, so the harvest should get pretty challenging from here on out. Most of the Cote de Beaune whites and a lot of the reds have already been picked under excellent conditions, but very little action has happened as of yet in the Cote de Nuits. I will be watching intently to see how everyone handles this here, ’cause I’ve got the feeling we’ll be in the same boat in Oregon in a few weeks. That said, the Oregon forecast is looking a bit more encouraging, so we may actually get some ripe fruit yet…

I saw rock-star winemaker Benjamin Leroux briefly yesterday – he had his crews out picking Volnay Clos de la Cave des Ducs for his own label, and Volnay Fremiets for Comte Armand, but was planning on waiting out the rain events to pick anything else. I’ll spend a day with Ben sometime next week, hopefully under dry and ripe conditions…

Again i have noticed a distinct lack of stress or any sense of urgency on the part of the vignerons here. Every domaine is full of family, friends, and harvest crews, and spirits are high all around. The food and wine is good and plentiful, everyone is full of song. And while the winemakers are certainly focused on making the best wine they can, even the rains don’t seem to ratchet up the nerves or tighten the shoulder muscles. If i take nothing else home from this trip, I will try to hang on to the calming influence of the Burgundian harvest vibe.

However, I also hope to take home some lessons on dealing with a difficult harvest. I’ve never had a tough one – since 1999 it’s been smooth sailing for us. Over here they have it rough more often than not. Maybe that’s where the zen comes from – they’ve seen this show before.

And now off to Chablis, to check in with Frederic Gueguen and harvest up there. Then back to Beaune tonight for dinner with friends at Caves Madeleine and a nice bottle of Mugnier. Or two…

First off, it feels great to be sticky with grape juice from head-to-toe. It’s that once a year harvest feeling, and it’ll be a few weeks yet until we get to experience it in Oregon this year. I’m glad to get my dose here in Burgundy.

I worked the morning with the crew at Domaine Buisson-Charles in Meursault. They were finishing up their whites today, and we gathered at 7:30am to pick three different parcels of Meursault village, including the outstanding lieu dit Meix Cheveaux. There was very little sorting to do, but we sorted on their mobile sorting table right there in the vines. The grapes are then dumped into a large stainless bin and pulled by tractor back to the cuverie, to be dumped directly into the press. Yields were again very low – Patrick Essa estimated about 1.75 tons to the acre (extremely low for Chardonnay in these parts.)

The harvest team consists of about 30 people of all ages and from all over europe, though mostly french and mostly 20-something. They seem to have a great spirit – singing and whooping and hollering most of the day, honking and waving at all the other harvest crews that pass by. They all appear to be, and say that they are, having a good time – though the work is hard indeed. They are fed very well – a quick breakfast of croissants and coffee, a mid-morning snack in the vines, a full-on multi-course lunch back at the winery, and an excellent dinner at the end of the day. And free-flowing wine, of course. Not a bad gig.

After lunch I joined up with Thiebault Huber and his crew at Huber-Verdereau in Volnay. They were picking the Volnay Fremiets 1er Cru this afternoon (as was Benjamin Leroux of Domaine Comte Armand, who owns the parcel right next to Thiebault’s.) After the pick we tractored the fruit back to the winery in Volnay, where we sorted on the modern vibrating sorting table. when all was said and done, we had enough fruit for two whole barrels of juice – a whopping 50 cases of wine will result from a year’s worth of intense hands-on labor in the vines, not to mention the crew of 20 in the vineyards and winery working several hours today just for this tiny parcel. And folks wonder why good Burgundy is not cheap…

Overall the quality appears quite good. It will not be one of the all-time greats, but a very good vintage is the potential I see at this point. “Very happily surprised” is how Thierry Violot put it yesterday. They had a rough August here, but a beautiful September has once again saved their bacon.

I’m heading back to Volnay to join the crew for harvest dinner tonight, and then will drive up to Chablis in the morning. Don’t miss all the pics on our Flickr page. More soon…

First full day in Burgland today, and I decided to get a basic overview of the status of the major Cote d’Or villages. Had a look at Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Puligny, Vosne and Chambolle so far.

It looks to be a very good vintage in white, though quantities are very small – about half of a normal crop. There is a hum of activity in Meursault, where almost everybody is at it pretty heavy. Natural alcohols are just under 13%, and acids are nicely balanced.

Lots of folks have started with reds in Pommard and Volnay, though many are waiting another day or two. Michel Lafarge told me they will start tomorrow with Clos du Chateau des Ducs, which he says is often their first parcel to pick. Violot-Gullemard in Pommard started today with Epenots and Beaune Clos des Mouches, and will hit Platieres this afternoon. The Cote de Beaune reds look very healthy, only a very tiny bit of pourriture, and in fact virtually nothing to sort from the Clos des Mouches. Overall it looks like a fairly small crop, with 2-2.25 tpa in the 1er Crus seeming to be the norm.

Up north it looks superb in a quick drive-thru of the Cote de Nuits. Another small but very clean crop is on the vines, with most folks looking to start this weekend, though some parcels may get an early start tomorrow. Mugnier is planning to grab Clos de la Marechale tomorrow. I saw virtually nobody picking in the CDN today – one small crew in a parcel of Echezeaux, but that was it. The few grapes i sampled in Musigny and Amoureuses were ripe and delicious, and could probably be picked now, but another few days can’t hurt with the weather being this nice.

It is uncommonly beautiful here today, and has been like this apparently for the past 10-12 days. Sunny and 75-77 in the afternoons, cool and brisk and 50 overnight. Looks like it will cool down significantly on Friday, so we’ll see how it plays out.

One thing that has struck me is the pervasive calm around all of the domaines I’ve visited. Harvest seems much more stressful and intense in Oregon. Here it just seems to flow to a nice and comfortable rhythm. Maybe a couple thousand years of accumulated experience has something to do with that…

I’ve been getting a few nice pics – see them all on our Flickr page – check there often throughout crush for regular updates…

I hear that we’ve got some sun for a day or two in Oregon! Yes!!! Bring it on, baby…

Live from Beaune, it’s harvest 2010, Burgundy style! I arrived yesterday afternoon after a 26-hour door-to-door safari, including a 3-hour delay in Amsterdam due to heavy fog. Other than that all was smooth, and true to form I did not get a minute of sleep on the plane…

I checked into my hotel in Beaune about 4pm (my usual haunt in Volnay is full of the harvest crew for Huber-Verdereau right now), and then took a quick ride up to Volnay and Pommard to check in on the early activity.

Thiebault Huber will start picking tomorrow, beginning with some of the Bourgogne Rouge that will be headed for his hugely popular Cremant Blanc de Noirs sparkler. I stopped in at Buisson-Charles in Meursault, where they’ve been picking since Saturday, and are very happy with the quality so far. The quantity is another matter entirely, as after sorting they have only enough juice for 2 barrels of Cras, 2 of Charmes, and 4 of Goutte d’Or! I tasted a few pre-fermentation samples last night and found them rich and well concentrated, with good acidity and apparent length already…

I’m planning on working the pick with Buisson-Charles tomorrow morning, and then sorting with Huber-Verdereau in the afternoon. Today I’ll check in with Violot-Guillemard, and then take a quick ride up to Chambolle and Vosne to have a look-see at the vines there and chat with Millot, Sigaut, Confuron, Taupenot, etc. Still have to figure out when I’ll be heading up to Chablis during this trip…

Got up and had a great run to Pommard and back this morning, but managed to lose my hotel key in the process. Turns out there is a nice hole in the key pocket on my running shorts! I was expecting a a major hassle and the French National Police to set up an inquiry when i returned, but the desk clerk just gave me a new key and said the French equivalent of “shit happens”!

With that I’m off to the vines, will post a bunch of pics on FB & Flickr later…

His name was Dom Alexandre Denise.  He tended the vines and made the wines at the world famous Clos Vougeot in Burgundy in the 1750s, but his legacy lives on…with our very special Scott Paul Wines bottling named in his honor!  Join us today, from 12-5 p.m. to taste this very limited edition Pinot that represents some of the very best of what we made, in an altogether great vintage!

A couple of years ago in Beaune, Scott got his hands on a limited edition reprinting, in French, of Dom Denise’s memoir, in which he detailed specific winemaking protocols of the day*, which Scott and Kelley followed on one small lot of gorgeous fruit from Momtazi Vineyard.  They made only four barrels in this fashion – just 100 cases in all.  Come taste for yourself.  See if you can taste what might have been the difference in technique.

The wine tastes of wild ripe black fruits, spices, and the earth.  It was bottled in August 2009, and should drink well now through 2014+.  100 cases produced.  $40/bottle, and limited Magnums at $85 each.

*Dom means “Brother” as in friar.  Yes, the monks, and to a much smaller extend, the royals, controlled the vineyards in Burgundy from the 12th century until the French Revolution in 1789.  It is to the monks that we owe our gratitude for their meticulous attention, note-taking, and discerning over centuries the distinction between vineyards and parcels within vineyards.  (Most of the monk’s stone walls and footpaths remain today.  They were used to separate out vineyard parcels that they felt were distinguished from neighboring parcels.

In spite of the poor weather report (more on that in a bit), I’m psyched for our release party this weekend for our 2008 Dom Denise Pinot Noir. We only made 100 cases of this one, and from the early reaction it seems it won’t be around too terribly long. Kelley and I had a blast making this wine, and the results have been better than we had even hoped. We actually didn’t really know what to expect, but it’s a rich, robust, red & blue-fruited Pinot with some nice spice notes that remind me a little of an imaginary cross between Morey-St. Denis and Vosne-Romanée in terms of the flavor profiles.

Chateau Vougeot - former home of the real Dom Denise

The release event happens from 12-5 on Saturday, and yes, I will be dressed as Dom Alexandre Denise, the 18th-century Cistercian monk whose detailed memoir of his days as head winemaker at the Chateau Vougeot was the inspiration and guiding force behind this wine.  And of course I won’t even have to shave a bald circle on the top of my head – nature has already taken care of that for me. This is likely the only time I’ll ever be appearing anywhere as a monk, as I imagine my 25 years in the rock-n-roll business probably preclude me from entry into the monastery…

It’s a busy week between now and then, with the induction ceremony for our new Oregon Chapter of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin tonight (in white-tie and tails, no less), and then a few frantic days of scrambling and getting ready for my trip on Monday to Burgundy for harvest. In all these years I’ve never been on the spot there for harvest and crush, so I’m really looking forward to a couple of weeks of great experiences working with our producers up and down the Côte. It looks like they’ll be starting around the 23rd on average – about a week later than the historical average.

The historical average has been thrown out of the window here in Oregon this year, as we’re still looking at a late, late, late one – maybe Oct. 18th at the earliest? We’ve had several days of gorgeous sun through today, but now it looks like there’ll be a few showers over the next five days or so – probably nothing damaging, but nothing speeding things up any either. All we can do is wait, and of course drop any green clusters lagging behind at this point…

Grapes ripening up at Ribbon Ridge