The Burgundian harvest bodes well...

The 2010 Cote de Nuits harvest continues at a pace. Even though harvest had already started in the Cote de Beaune last week, there weren’t many Cotes de Nuits vignerons in their vineyard parcels. The first secateur cuts in the Cotes de Nuits would only have been this weekend just gone. My original assessment of the grapes on Monday 21st gave me reason to think that this will be a good quality vintage. Sugar was there, acidity though still a little marked at the time, has since fallen notably during the last 10 days of beautiful weather. This bodes well for a nice balance between alcohol and acidity in the final wines. The fine weather certainly allowed phenolic maturity to progress considerably in the last week and by the weekend full ripeness had nearly been reached. Now the work really starts...

The Burghound sniffs out the best of 2008 Burgundy

For those in the know, Allen Meadows has become one of the most trusted and respected authorities on all things Pinot. He has been tasting from barrel in the Cote d’Or since 1978 (almost as long as our Chairman...). His publication, Burghound.com has become a bible for Burgundy enthusiasts throughout the world, offering straight talking, honest reporting and tasting notes. So, what does he make of the 2008s?

`At their best, the ‘08s Côte de Nuits reds are excellent wines with vibrant acidities that speak clearly and eloquently of their underlying terroirs. They are refreshing, energetic, balanced, fresh, intense, pure and racy middle weight wines that generally carry low alcoholic levels and display ample amounts of those ineffable qualities of tension and presence. In short, they’re classic burgundies of delicacy, finesse and grace. Moreover, they should prove to be worthy cellar candidates for aging over the medium-term`.

He does recommend caution too. He actually thinks that 2008 is less consistent than 2007, but that the best from 2008 far surpass anything 2007 can offer. As for the `Sweet Spot` and `Don’t Miss` selections; please find a list below:

`Sweet Spot`

2008 Chambolle-Musigny “Les Charmes” 1er Barthod-Noëllat (90-92)
2008 Chambolle-Musigny “Les Cras” 1er Barthod-Noëllat (91-93)
2008 Chambolle-Musigny “Les Fuées” 1er Barthod-Noëllat (91-93)
2008 Gevrey-Chambertin “Les Cazetiers” 1er Clair, Bruno (90-92)
2008 Gevrey-Chambertin “Clos St. Jacques” 1er Clair, Bruno (91-93)
2008 Gevrey-Chambertin “Lavaut St. Jacques” 1er Drouhin-Laroze (89-92)
2008 Gevrey-Chambertin “Petite Chapelle” 1er Clair, Bruno (89-92)
2008 Nuits St. Georges “Les Boudots” 1er Grivot, Jean (90-92)
2008 Nuits St. Georges “Les Cailles” 1er Chevillon, Robert (91-94)
2008 Nuits St. Georges “Les Chaignots” 1er Chevillon, Robert (90-92)
2008 Nuits St. Georges “Les Cras” 1er Liger-Belair (91-93)
2008 Nuits St. Georges “Les St. Georges” 1er Robert Chevillon (92-94)
2008 Nuits St. Georges “Les St. Georges” 1er Gouges, Henri (91-94)
2008 Nuits St. Georges “Murgers” 1er Cathiard, Sylvain (90-93)
2008 Nuits St. Georges “Les Perrières” 1er Chevillon, Robert (91-93)
2008 Nuits St. Georges “Les Pruliers” 1er Chevillon, Robert (91-93)
2008 Nuits St. Georges “Les Pruliers” 1er Gouges, Henri (90-92)
2008 Nuits St. Georges “Aux Thorey” 1er Cathiard, Sylvain (90-92)
2008 Nuits St. Georges “Les Vaucrains” 1er Robert Chevillon (92-93)
2008 Nuits St. Georges “Les Vaucrains” 1er Gouges, Henri (91-93)
2008 Vosne-Romanée “Les Beaux-Monts” 1er Grivot, Jean (90-92)
2008 Vosne-Romanée “Les Beaux-Monts” 1er Tremblay, Cécile (89-92)
2008 Vosne-Romanée “Les Brûlées” 1er Grivot, Jean (91-93)
2008 Vosne-Romanée “Malconsorts” 1er Cathiard, Sylvain (91-94)
2008 Vosne-Romanée “Suchots” 1er Grivot, Jean (91-93)

`Don’t Miss`

2008 Bonnes Mares Grand Cru Clair, Bruno (92-94)
2008 Bonnes Mares Grand Cru Drouhin-Laroze (91-94)
2008 Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru Clair, Bruno (92-94)
2008 Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru Drouhin-Laroze (92-94)
2008 Clos de Tart Grand Cru Clos de Tart (91-94)
2008 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru Eugénie (92-95)
2008 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru Grivot, Jean (92-94)
2008 Echézeaux Grand Cru Eugénie (91-94)
2008 Echézeaux Grand Cru Grivot, Jean (92-94)
2008 Grands Echézeaux Grand Cru Eugénie (92-94)
2008 Musigny Grand Cru Drouhin-Laroze (92-95)
2008 Richebourg Grand Cru Grivot, Jean (93-95)
2008 Richebourg Grand Cru Méo-Camuzet (93-96)
2008 La Romanée Comte Liger-Belair (93-96)
2008 Romanée St. Vivant Grand Cru Cathiard, Sylvain (92-95)
2008 Vosne-Romanée “Les Brûlées” 1er Méo-Camuzet (92-94)
2008 Vosne-Romanée “Cros Parantoux” 1er Méo-Camuzet (92-95)
2008 Vosne-Romanée “Reignots” 1er Comte Liger-Belair (91-94)

2008s from Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair

At the beginning of this week we welcomed into our cellars Louis-Michel Vicomte Liger-Belair (pictured with his father) to present us with his fledgling 2008s. The tasting was a huge success and demonstrated just how great this Domaine has become. As Louis-Michel himself pointed out, it can take 5-6 years for work in the vineyard, particularly the soils, to have their full effect on the resultant wines. Over and above vintage style and variation, there is without question an additional qualtitative progression here right accross the range. I found the 2008s very much in keeping with Louis-Michel's pure, softly extracted yet very serious style - they were gentle but powerful, silky smooth yet racy, all in all they were impeccably balanced. This revering taster, at least, would place these in THE top echelon of Red Burgundy. Our customers seemed to agree, 6 of the 9 wines have already sold out!

Vosne-Romanée 2009 - "A beautiful crop"

The 2009s have finally been pressed, we are starting to rack off the wines and put them into barrel. What a healthy and beautiful crop of wines we have just made! Exceptional maturity has allowed for very agreeable vinifications that were simple in the extreme! The goal was to make the best of the great grape maturity we had without extracting too much, to obtain that real velvety character of our wines and to retain their drinkability. They will now be in their barrels for between 13 to 18 months, depending on their evolution during elevage. We can now take a short breath before starting to think of racking the 2008s, with a view to bottling them in the coming months. Its also necessary to get back into the vines, to start preparing for the 2010 vintage!

Harvesting in Vosne-Romanée

The 2009 harvest finished Tuesday lunchtime, a day earlier than expected, largely thanks to the exceptional quality of grapes we have picked. Do we have in front of us a great or immense vintage?? Time will tell but I have certainly never seen such a beautiful quality of crop in the ten years since I took back control of winemaking at Domaine du Comte-Liger Belair.

Saturday we attacked the Vosne Romanée 1er Cru Aux Reignots, immediately followed by La Romanée. This was the rhythm nature gave us. After midday on Saturday the Vosne Romanée Clos du Château had been totally engulfed by the picking team and all was harvested within an hour and a half, which allowed us to follow by picking Vosne Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots that afternoon, too. Sunday morning and we headed for Vosne Romanée La Colombière, then after this the team had to be separated in two, some to harvest Vosne Romanée 1er Cru Les Chaumes, others Nuits Saint Georges Les Lavières. There was no harvesting on Sunday afternoon, our usual practice at the Domaine, to honour, more than anything else, the day of our lord and to thank him for having given us such wonderful fruit. Monday morning we attacked a parcel of Vosne Romanée premier cru Aux Reignots and Vosne Romanée premier cru Hauts Beaux Monts that we delivered to Domaine de la Romanée Conti for the charity auction "Climats de Coeur" (http://www.climats-du-coeur.com/) followed by the different parcels that are used for the Domaine's Vosne Romanée. Finally that day we picked Vosne Romanée 1er Cru les Petits Monts and le Nuits Saint Georges 1er Cru Aux Cras. The harvest ended on Tuesday with Echezeaux and Vosne Romanée 1er Cru Aux Brûlées.

Everything is now in the cuverie. The juices are lovely - rich, with a balanced acidity, the colours are starting to come out and show their brilliance ...so everything is going well .. Some cuves are starting to give the impression that fermentation is just beginning. You'll find out more very soon!!

Vicomte Liger-Belair joins the J&B blog

Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair is a great and historic Vosne-Romanée domaine rejuvenated at the beginning of 2000 by the young Vicomte Liger-Belair, Louis Michel, an agricultural engineer and oenologist.

It is with great pleasure that we announce that our newest guest blogger, Vicomte Liger-Belair himself. Look out for his first blog tomorrow. The grapes have been harvested and everything is now in the cuverie. By the sounds of things, 2009 looks to have produced some truly excellent fruit.

Follow the action in the winery over the coming weeks as the grapes make their transformation into some of Burgundy's finest wines.