Harvest update from Meursault…
The always thoughtful Patrick Essa of Domaine Buisson-Charles in Meursault sent his harvest wrap-up last night – I have translated it for you here…
We harvested practically without any rain – only two hours of light drizzle over the course of the entire harvest. There are objective reasons to be optimistic – the harvest was ripe, clean, and healthy. We are happy that we waited as long as we did, as the grape maturities really improved after Sept. 7th. We started picking the whites on the 14th, and it is clear that we remained true to our ideal of “full maturity, without over-maturity.” Nothing was less than 13.1% potential alcohol, and nothing over 13.6%, pHs averaged 3.30, and total acidity around 6.4, with very little malic. But that’s not everything – we must see how the wines behave in barrel during fermentation – hopefully not too turbulent – we will see. Today we picked the last fruit of the harvest, and have chilled down all of the whites after having let them settle for 24-48 hours. In short, nothing is finished – but I am extremely hopeful. I am writing this from a what I hope to be a most “neutral” perspective, but it’s true that from my core I am thinking of the 1979 whites and the 1990 reds – i am indeed thinking we have something great. We shall see…”
Closer to home, some of our neighbors have started picking here in Oregon – mostly younger vines at lower elevations so far. We’re still thinking we’re about 2-3 weeks away yet. We’ll do another round of samples tomorrow morning to get a read on sugar development. Some flavors are just beginning to show…
And here’s Patrick Essa in his cellar in Meursault, with some American winemaker-importer…
