Everything is illuminated in the gorgeous sunshine; the vines are slowly fading into a golden ocean, the leave on the trees are changing and the smell of Autumn is deep in the air. I had a wonderfully relaxing weekend having to work only Saturday afternoon and having Sunday off.






Saturday was a lovely day; that morning all of the tanks needed only a light pigeage. Alex sent Jane and I to the marché in the centre ville to find something delicious for lunch. Poulet Roti (rotisserie chicken), Gambal’s heirloom Oregon tomato and mozzarella salad, nectarine and strawberry fruit salad and, of course, a baguette.

For dinner Denis and John (the same famous cooks from the Poulet Smackdown) invited Jane and I over for dinner: 6 Euro rips and chicken bricks. After the invitation we promptly took a two hour walk, up down and around the Mountain de Beaune (a very steep hill).

But dinner was a different story, let me explain; People in France don’t know what to do with a good rack o’ ribs. So they went on super sale at the marché and the boys had a bbq in mind. The bbq sauce was Hoysen, sugar, vinegar, thyme and it was LATHERED. Delicious, fell right off the bones – comparable to John Gates’ ;) As for the chicken breasts, they were split open, paired with prosciutto, and stuffed with comté cheese. Then Denis rolled them in two layers of brique (a paper-like pastry) and put them in the oven at 200*C for 20 minutes. On top, a mustard crème sauce and Gambal’s tomatoes on the side. These guys like to eat the real stuff; the tomatoes were my idea. But hey, I love French food – the sauce is reduce white wine, add heavy cream, add ~ 2tbls butter and Dijon mustard. Mmmmm hummmm.

That night we went big: bar hopping around Beaune to all of our favorites. Everyone comes into Beaune on Saturday night. The count was five separate bars, culminating at Pickwick’s (the first pub started in Beaune after the wine & tourist boom in the 70s). We were out til sunrise, but hey, Sunday was our first day off since we’ve been here!


Despite all odds, Sunday was lovely as well. Around six we started drinking wine and were back at the pub meeting up with CFPPA friends (Mark and Vince) by seven. Mark’s best mate Sam is Beaune for a few days and they’ve been living it up. We left them at the bar “33” with 20L of beer. As for the rest of us, we decided to venture to Vince’s stomping grounds to watch the stars come out. It was beautiful up in the Haute Côte (pronounced ‘oat coat’). Magny-Les-Villers is a small mountain town and his winery’s vines are mountain-top. It was beautiful up there. The moon was a perfect black and white cookie and the stars, crystalline.






After a good night’s sleep today was back on the job. The pigeages and remontages (pump-overs) have been going well and steadily. Today was a bit different. The tasting went as follows:

Savigny – le meme
Volnay – interestingly different taste from days past. It’s coming along and has a better nose. Fruity, but harsh – no fat The pH is high but the malolactic and tartaric acids are where they should be. The pH (acidity) level comes directly from the grapes au natural. There are two types of acid found in wine grapes: malolactic (like green apples, tart acid) and tartaric. The wines. There are traces of gray rot. (When this was said we reminisced about triaging these grapes; THE EARWIGS in this one were horrendous. We were able to cut our most of the rot on the bunches but because we don’t have vibrating triage table, the single rotten grapes were falling in.) Not tasting like a premier cru.
Chorey – tough tannins. Tastes: sulfide and reduced. Gav asked about adding oxygen but Geraldine said c’est pas necessaire.
Charme – just starting to ferment, you can taste the prickle of the yeast. Surprisingly floral.
Chambolle – good structure
Chambolle St. Soufre – high acetate nose and taste. “The first day I tasted this I said oh.. god.. it’s horrible.” Explained Geraldine. “Now it is not the same, there is fruit in the aftertaste.” The acetate flavor is highly acidic (imagine nail polish remover) but it’s not actually an acidity problem; it’s not a volatile acid. You find this flavor because of high oxidation at the beginning of fermentation.
Vosne – dark fruit, floral. These grapes were SO ripe when we got them. Simply delicious, coming along magnificently.
Clos de Vougeot - less floral.
Bourgogne Rouge 2 – Acid, rich, not same fruitiness, not as friendly, ripe tannins
Bourgogne Rouge 3 – Almost light, very pleasant. A lot different from days past, hard acids, tannins need work but they’re there. “it’s important to have more fat now because in the barrels the malo will counter.” Explained Geraldine. She’s referring to the second fermentation that happens in the barrels. All of the malolactic acid is eaten and turns into the tastey, softer acids one enjoys drinking.

“This is definitely a year where the lower appellations will over perform,” Jane observed.
“I’ll definitely be buying ‘09s,” said Gav with a big smile and a nod.





Today we also noticed that the Savigny les Beaune isn’t heating up fast enough. Geraldine made an executive decision to take the juice out and transfer it into another tank to heat it up to about 33-36*C. As Gav put it, “this takes balls.” But Alex has a great modern cuverie set-up and is equipped and able to do this in a couple of hours. After the juice was transferred, it was heated by two drapeaux. The goal of this process is to soften the tannins. Tannins have short protein chains; By warming up the juice and pouring it back over the grapes and skins you are essentially elongating the proteins chains. This gives the wine a better mouth feel and softer tannins.

As for the rest of the day, les estagieres were sent to clean the drains

"Un seau de merde (a bucket of shit)" -Jonathon

We’re due to be in the winery by eight in the morning so we’re taking it easy and having movie night at Mark’s apartment.