10 Day Harvest in Burgundy

Wow, it's hard to believe that harvest has already come and gone!

I apologize for not updating my blog during the past two weeks but I had little time outside of work other than to eat, sleep and shower. On average I worked 12 hour days with 1 hour lunch in between, but occasionally we had our longer and shorter days. Thankfully, Vougeraie provided lunches for us, and I was able to refuel with a 3-4 course meal each day. Yeah, pretty incredible right? And this is why my coworkers joke I may gain weight rather than lose it during my internship here! I really hope I can prove them wrong.... But seeing as I won't have this luxurious meal after harvest, and will continue to have pumpovers, punchdowns and eventually decouvrages (shuveling out the grape remenants after fermentation and tossing them up and over the tanks), I should be alright!

La Mode de la vendage

Harvest fashion: my "waterproof" attire that I wore before climbing inside the press to clean it.

Starting on Monday, September 20th we received our first cases of fruit, and by the 30th all fruit was in. On the following day, the 1st of October, we finished sorting through the last bit of the Musigny Grand Cru grapes as Pierre Vincent, the winemaker, belted french songs from atop the wooden cuve as he worked on punchdowns. Ahhh... another Vive la France moment that I may never forget.

To give you an idea of harvest I will try to sum up the main processes that we carried out at Domaine de la Vougeraie:

All clusters were hand harvested and brought in by tractor to the winery, where each case was emptied out onto the sorting table and carefully scrutinized by the cellar crew and myself. Luckily we had some extra hands during the sorting process to keep the table running 12-14 hours each day.

The sorting process was quite demanding this year as there was a lot of mold on the grapes, beaucoup de pourri et oidium (grey Botrytis and Powdery Mildew), and most had to be removed by hand or with hand clippers. While the Pinot noir proved to be less affected by either fungus, the Chardonnay got hit hard this year so much attention was focused on the sorting table as the grapes came into the winery.

Mariette sorting fruit as Blandine dumps the fruit into the cuve, Jean-Luc guides her and Pierre stands by for moral support

After the sorting was through, all Pinot noir was directly destemmed and put into large wooden tanks, cuves, and kept at 12-13 degrees Celcius for a week. Since Burgundy is very appellation driven, each parcel of vineyards received its own cuve to carry out fermentation. Each cuve received a pumpover each day (by either myself of Mariette), and once the fermentation started up, punchdowns were carried out (by Thibault, Pierre, and myself on one occasion with the help of Ian, a retired Englishman who came to help out for the harvest).

The wooden cuve (with metal refridgeration cooling tube) before fruit

The cuve after the fruit was dumped in

For the Chardonnay, the grapes were pressed whole cluster in a bladder press and the juice was put into stainless steal tanks to be settled. The settling and racking of the whites were carried out for longer this year to encourage more of the oidium and Botrytis to settle out with the lees, bourbes.

The first Chardonnay pressing

All fermentations were natural and no yeast was added to any of the reds, and only one white wine appellation was innoculated (as the Botrytis was noticably higher on the fruit, and a natural fermentation was risky).

Now we have been seeing very fast and happy fermentations with both the reds and the whites, and Pierre seems to be quite pleased with the outcome. To recieve more aromatic character from the yeasts however, he has been prolonging the fermentations a few days by chapitilizing the Pinot noir cuves (adding sugar) just before the alcoholic fermentation completes. As strange and wrong as this sounds, it makes a lot of sense as the sugar content is lower this year and as the fermentations have been finishing in 5-7 days (which is 2X faster than the average fermentation.) The other question you might be asking yourself is "is that legal!?" And yeah, in Burgundy it is very much legal to add sugar to your must in order to achieve the right alcohol level (12.5-13% alc) but you must keep record of how much you use as the process is very much controlled!

Each day I continue to ask why, what, and when and have been jotting down notes left and right. By the end of this week I hope to do some grape stomping with my feet, and will no doubt share the photos with you all!

Wishing you all a very relaxing Sunday! Cheers!

Relax, Reflect, Refresh

This weekend finds me relaxing in lovely Dijon for the first time in awhile. Since Pascal and his son, my host family, are out of town this weekend I have the place all to myself. Wahoo! So I've gone completely wild by doing my laundry (I know!), shopping at the market, cleaning my room, and baking a fondant au chocolat (recipe given to me by my coworker, Mariette :) So, yeah, Pascal just might kick me out when he gets back...but anyways... I have a long list of other shenanigans to do too since this is my last free weekend before HARVEST on Monday!!

And apparently I forgot to bring the croissants to work on Friday, whoops. (Yeah, real smart relying on the girl with broken french to bring the goods at the end of the week!) But in any case I plan to make up for it on Monday, and maybe Friday if I have the energy..

So this past week at the winery involved a lot of water. And I've come to realize that there is NO way to stay dry when you play with water... which is the reason mouillee, wet, is now in Laura's french vocabulary. But now our cellar and all of the harvesting equipment are clean, and are ready for some major Chardonnay and Pinot noir processing!

However the grapes this vintage are not as prepared as we are since it has been a difficuly climatic season. With rain falling throughout August and September, the ripening period of the berries, Burgundy has been seeing a lot of pourriture, bad Botrytis, and odium, mildew. Which in other words means that the fruit is rotting on the vine. Not good. The Chardonnay especially has been hit hard, which means less good fruit is available for picking and that the expected volume of juice will be lower. And for me, as the harvest intern, this means my time on the sorting table will be quite lengthy and tiring (as I will have mal aux dos, pain in the back)

But dispite this difficulty, Domaine de la Vougeraie will trudge on, and I am excited to see how we process all of the different vineyard parcels (which are typically less than 1 hectare, or 2.5 acres). After visiting and sampling in our most southern most vineyards near Beaune, in Savigny Les Beaune and Corton-Charlemagne yesterday, and working in the more northern vineyards in July (Gevrey Chambertin and Vougeot) I now have a better understanding about where the fruit is coming in from, and how the appellation and terroir has an affect.

i.e. the reason I came to Burgundy :)

So now I must get back to my wild shenanigans of planning out my life after harvest. With a harvest position lined up at Vrede en Lust in South Africa in January, I am now working hard to find a suitable winery in New Zealand to take me afterwards in March/April. Hopefully all goes well and I can conquer exactly what I've set out to do!

First Impressions of Burgundy

I was asked recently what my first impressions of Burgundy have been, so I've mulled it over and this is what I've decided:

Burgundy is more than just a region of haughty wine and traditionalist winemakers. It is a culture proud of its fine food, wine and terroir; a culture that strives for the best quality in each of these categories and succeeds. From the prospective of a wine student from California, whose knowledge base of wine includes more science than experience, I entered Burgundy with a bias toward winemaking practices in California. However, not even two months into my internship and I believe I may be swayed toward the traditional, yet innovative practices utilized in Burgundy. Winemaking begins in the soil, moves through the plant to the fruit, and needs little to no intervention afterwards. This concept seems obvious here, but I believe that there is a disconnect sometimes between the land and the wine in other regions. In Burgundy, there is no disconnect. Here, there is a respect for the terroir and the vines which dig their roots into its soil. Quality wine is attained through great attention to the land, vine, and fruit. In the same way, quality food is attained through great attention to the local, fresh ingredients. In Burgundy, this is all understood and implemented. A good wine is just as easy to make as a good meal, you just have to know what elements to focus on. So perhaps a good life follows the same pattern, and Burgundy has attained the ultimate balance we all strive to attain.

In any case, writing this excerpt on the region was quite difficult for me. It made me really think about what I thought I knew about Burgundy, and what I think I've learned now. It made me ponder about what I have gained so far, and in what direction I'd like my career to head from here. My dreams went wild, and I couldn't find the words to express my desires. But then I realized that I might be confusing my dreams with my views of Burgundy...but maybe they were one in the same?

60th Tastevinage

So why am I in France? Well, because a fraternity of men here in Burgundy (known as the Confrérie des Chevaliers) are proud of their region and it's wine, and wanted to support students like me to come and experience the wine practices and the life in Burgundy.

And so I am, and have continued to do so every day since I landed in Paris on July 11th.

While I have seen much of France and Burgundy during my vacationing, not until last Friday, September 3rd, did I get a glimpse and taste of what this fraternity is so proud of.

Friday, 3 September 2010, marked the 60th Tastevinage for the Confrérie des Chevaliers at the Chateau Clos de Vougeot. Dressed in suits and ties, the men paraded into the castle with their red tastevins hung around their necks. With a little unease, Caroline and I tried to follow suit, but did as good a job as two zebras could do in a hurd of giraffes. Like sore thumbs, we stuck out as the only women under 25, in a crowd of 100 men and maybe 10 other females. But once the tasting began and our introductions were announced, we settled into our seats with ease and picked up our glasses with confidence.

The 18 wines that I tasted through with my table were non-appellation specific and were marked as either "Bourgogne" or "Bourgogne -Pinot noir", and a few roses from regions unbenounst to me. The red wines, I later found out, were unique for my table, as all of the other 15 tables were tasting wines from different, specific appellations in Burgundy. All wines were presented anonymously in sock sleeves so that the Domaines were unknown and no biases could be made, and were tasted in groups of three.

As judges, we were asked to rate the wines from 0-20, 0 being terrible and 20 being the best wine you have ever had. If the wine was rated as 13 or higher it was then considered to have the Confrerie des Chevaliers stamp of approval, which is a sign of quality and distinction for all wine consumers. Along with this rating we took notes of the good and bad qualities of each of the wines, and discussed amoung the table our preferences among the wines.

Following the tasting we were served an extravagant 4 course meal in another grand room in the castle. As an interesting contrast to the tasting where I was seated with all very Burgundian, French-speaking men, at lunch my table consisted of the only English speaking people present at the Tastevinage. Which all in all, may have been for the best, as I was able to meet a nice lady who lives in South Africa and happens to know about the winery I will be working for come January! Small world..

As a general appreciation for food, I thought I would share with you what I ate during the lunch. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph the main course as I develed into it very fast ;)

But this was the 1st course: La Canotiere de Cabillaud Confit aux Petits Coquillages

A delicious seafood chowder with oysters, scallops, and fish

If only we could live and dine like this every day...

It was definitely a day to remember, and a wonderful glimpse into the Chapitre dinner at the Clos de Vougeot which I will be going to in October!

Cheers!

Barrels and Pascal

Now that it is September I am back to work in the winery, and already I am beginning to feel pain in those little muscles I never knew I had... For the last few days the Domaine has been receiving many orders of barrels and we have been working hard to circulate the old barrels out and the new ones in. But by out, I really just mean outside to be washed, dried, and brought back in to be sanded down and then put back into the caves. All of this is surprisingly time consuming and tiring, but nevertheless fun and entertaining as I try to perfect my barrel-moving-skills (which is prooving difficult!) Thankfully, Mariette, Blandine, and Jean-Luc encourage me rather than laugh, though they do get a good giggle in once and awhile.

I can already tell that this is going to be a really great team for harvest as everyone here is very upbeat, positive, hardworking, and accomodating to my limited French. Mariette is another intern like myself, Blandine is the enologist, and Jean-Luc is the cellar master. Supposively we are going to get another intern for three weeks during harvest, but that may not be for awhile since harvest is delayed this year. Right now they are expecting harvest to start on the 25th of September, but if the weather stays cool like it is now, it may not be until October! This is almost 2 weeks later than the average harvest date! It will really be interesting to see how the Pinot noir grapes look when they come in as they already have thin skins, but on top of it are being handled in a Biodynamic way. With an extended rainy harvest season, this may just be bad news all around! Maybe my view of Biodynamic practices will change after this.. but we'll see...

In any case, it was announced today, and many times at work, that Pierre Vincent, our winemaker at Domaine de la Vougeraie was awarded Best Winemaker of the Year at the 2010 International Wine Challenge in London, England!! Super cool. I can't wait to see what tricks he has hidden up his sleeves this harvest... jk but I do feel as though I am in good hands!

So all in all work is dandy and I am happy to report that I have a (free) roof over my head in Dijon! Pascal, the Tastevin liason (for lack of a better title), has graciously opened up his home to me and given me a room to hang my hat in for the duration of the harvest. It is quite spacious and is in a wonderful location in downtown Dijon. I still feel like I am intruding a little on him and his son, so my use of the bathroom and kitchen are a little awkward still. But other than that I really enjoy getting to know Pascal better as he is a very generous and amusing person.

But as I look at the clock and see that it is 15 minutes past 9PM, I realize that my body is slowly but surely turning into a pumpkin. So I will update again soon to report about my experiences at the 60th Tastevinage at the Clos de Vougeot last Friday (Burgundy winetasting with rich men in a castle), and my camping trip to the Jura and Switzerland with Caroline!

Cheers and love,

D'laur