News from the Vineyard - The harvest kicks off in Burgundy.

August 31, 2022
Raj Vaidya

I’ve just landed back in NYC after a week working as a stagière for the beginning of harvest in Meursault, and it was a spectacular experience which I’ll be sharing with you here on the Press in the coming weeks. To start off, a quick recap of the state of the harvest and an early sense of the vintage…

The very first grapes from Domaine Roulot’s harvest of 2022

The first harvest I witnessed at Domaine Roulot was on August 24th with a Bourgogne Blanc vineyard known as Malpoiriéres on the plain of Meursault. Grapes looked incredibly beautiful, and it was an idyllic day to begin, perfect clear weather and sunshine. As the grapes came to the press one bin after another, we quickly got the sense of the size of the harvest to come, which is, to put it lightly, robust. This Bourgogne vineyard has a permittance of 70 hectoliters per hectare for this year, and that was slightly exceeded at Roulot. This isn’t a problem as other Bourgogne vineyards we harvested were more modest in yield, so his blend will allow the average to fall well under the maximum yield. But it did bode well for the rest of the Meursault vineyards and sure enough, there is a large quantity of high quality grapes in great abundance.

I visited Domaine Marquis d’Angerville in Volnay after a full work day last Friday to see how their harvest is going, as I’d gotten wind that they began even before Roulot, on the 23rd. Guillaume d’Angerville and his winemaker Francois Duvivier met me with beaming smiles; the harvest was in full swing and very healthy, and they finished the entirety of picking by Monday evening. Similar story, it turns out, for much of the Pinot in the Volnay and Meursault vicinity, with high yields and exceptional quality. Guillaume also told me that although he was the earliest, the Lafarge, de Montille and Clos de la Chapelle wineries also started on the 25th.

A very content Marquis Guillaume d’Angerville preparing for his post harvest Paulée celebration with his team on Monday, August 29th.

Lafon began on the 24th as well, with nearly all the whites except Goutte d’Or and part of Charmes Premier Crus all in the winery by Tuesday the 30th (Montrachet was picked on the 30th, Volnay Santenots-de-Milieu started coming in on Monday the 29th and partially on the 30th, and with the large harvest and high ripeness levels they used a little bit of whole cluster in the Santenots this year.)

Dominique, Léa and Pierre Lafon watching some whole clusters of Volnay 1er Cru Santenots-de-Milieu being sorted before entering their vats on Tuesday August 30th (fairly early for this vineyard.)

The Côte de Nuits is just about to get started with harvest, and even a short bit north of Volnay, the vineyards in Beaune and Corton were just getting started at the beginning of this week, so I expect that in the far north of the Côte picking will only begin in these early days of September. Judging from Roulot, Lafon, and Genot-Boulanger, we are seeing potential alcohols which are pretty moderate, with nothing exceeding 13.4 degrees ABV thus far, a strong indicator of a very balanced set of wines to follow. Fermentations began in earnest on Sunday at Roulot, another good sign of healthy and stable musts. All in all things are looking great!

I’ll describe my first experiences at Roulot as well as some takeaways and things I found surprising in next week’s newsletter, look forward to hearing more then…