The predicted rain did indeed fall during the night of Friday 21st/Saturday 22nd August, typically about 20mm in the Côte de Beaune – enough to refresh a little bit of the vines and leave them damp underfoot in the morning – but too late for those vineyards where the leaves were already dying off. There has been a slight change in the weather in any case – still warm or indeed hot (low 30s °C) in the afternoons, but starting fresh in the morning after much cooler nights.
The Côte de Beaune is progressing apace: Dominique Lafon has finished the reds (powerful wines with yields between 30 and 35 hl/ha typically) and is starting on the whites where the yields are higher and the balance looks excellent, with enough acidity. Ludivine Griveau reports a similar picture at the Hospices de Beaune, where most of the Côte de Beaune reds are in and Echezeaux is due tomorrow. She expects to finish before the rain predicted for this coming Friday.
In the meantime, I have found a few minutes to start bringing up to date my tasting notes made during various producer visits across the summer. We will be loading shortly two very different reports, from opposite ends of the price scale. One covers the wines I tasted in the little sub-region of the Côtes du Couchois at the beginning of the month; the other describes some spectacular grand crus – just a barrel made of each – in the micro-cellar of the highly esteemed consultant oenologist, Pierre Millemann.
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