Monday-Wednesday 21-23 September

By Tuesday we have everything cleaned up. Place looks great and now we can begin to make the wines. A couple of the reds are starting their fermentations and I always say when we enter in the AM it is as though we are a bakery. This is the fun part as we see the  juice literally changing before our eyes. Each morning we taste though the wines following their progress. It is fun for me to watch our three musketeers taste the young wines and get thier impressions.

This year, the physical piece of our punch downs or “piegages” is quite interesting. At the begining of the fermentations, there are literally two layers of grapes; the top “cap” which is 2-3 feet thick, an aqueous second layer and finally a third cap sumerged under the aqueous layer. This is the first time I have seen this and it makes for a rather challenging and heart pumping experience as one must try to mix these three layers.

The traditional and frankly the most effective way is by doing a “Lucy” and stomping the grapes in one’s shorts and bare feet. Needless to say this is a favorite of Jane, Etta and our chief Geraldine as the boys follow them with the pigeau to mix the second and third layers.

Wednesday morning the C02 fan was in full force and it took a good 30 miniutes to clear it out before we could begin to work. It is little appreciated how much C02 gas fermenting wine gives us and how deadly it can be. Unfortunately, every year or so there is a fatality in a tank where the proper security procedures were not followed. Some operations put a harness and a pully system on thier people when they get into the tanks. Chez Gambal, there is always one person out of the tank providing security for every person in the tank.

Finally, Indian summer has arrived. Each day of this week has been getting more beautiful and warmer. Today we were in the high 70s. Amazing.

Will leaves in the early AM and Sunday is a day of cleaning and a few pump overs and some light pigage.

At 7:30 the Bourgogne Chardonnay from Savigny. What a sunrise and brilliant light as the “rasins dores” came in: golden grapes.

Immediately we went and picked up threee of our barrels of Corton Charlemagne in must. This is always a hoot because it is a who’s who of small negociants who buy from this supplier. One could also call us a rather motley crew but I try to be the first in line. This is definitely a straight shooter operation because everyone gets the same stuff and it never fails to deliver. This is one of the true win-win deals in Burgundy. As a mater of fact, the supplier gives us a bottle of wine every year to thank  us for being a good customer and doing the right thing with his juice. Many of the small batch negociant wines that you see highly rated come form this source and thus, for once, there is a real positive realtionship where the supplier wants to give his customers good juice and in turn he wants to see you preform. I believe this is rare in any business much less the wine business.

Begins to get overcast as we drive north to drop off our 40 boxes for our Clos Vougeot grapes. It feels as though fall has arrived and rain has been announced for tonight and Wednesday day so our great luck seems to be running out. That said, everyone is a weatherman.  I have learned to be zen… not totally, but not obsessive either.

The Clos Vougeot grapes look great and we drop off our boxes and will return in a few hours to pick them up. The owner’s wife and her 7 female friends are cutting the grapes; this is a good sign. We return after lunch to find our boxes filled with beautiful grapes but not very full. In their attention to make perfect boxes, they did not fill them to the top.  So, after weighing we were 9.6% short in weight; this is not chump change so I had our broker call the owner and tell him the weight was off (the broker weighed the grapes with us). Thus, I schelpped back up to Gevery-Chambertin to pick up four full boxes to make up the difference. What does this mean in dollars you might ask?  Are you ready???? 2,700 euros! Well worth the hour round-trip drive.

I will tell you a funny story about the cost of grapes etc.  A few years ago, I did a tasting with Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat and the late Gary Andrus (always a wonderful person to me) and the discussion went to the cost of grapes. Jim bemoaned that his top grapes cost up to $4,000 a ton. After a pregnant pause I said,  ”Jim, how about 9,000 euros ($12,600) for a barrel of Clos Vougeot?”( which equates to ~$38,000 a metric ton). Read it and weep mes amis but this is the reality of Burgundy and why we all watch the proverbial nickles and dimes.

Machines encore:

Well by now I am sure you will believe it but our egrapoir (destemmer) went dead as I brought in the last four cases of Clos Vougeot.  After a couple of hours of trying to jerry rig it ourselves, we called in the technician who, in turn, had to jerry rig the variable speed switch so that it ran, but at the highest speed. At this speed, it makes grape puree so we were a bit reluctant ot throw in the last of the Clos Vougeot grapes (see above.) The upshot – after 1/2 an hour of 5 of us hand picking the grapes off the stems, McGyver Matt McClune had the ingenious idea to had turn the drum of the destemmer and it worked gently and perfectly.  Matt was exhausted, but the grapes were intact and we did not make Welch’s jelly.

Dinner was a “stallione” by John; his risoto with roasted chicken, duck and toulouse sausages, sauted in his homemade chicken stock. Father John’s cooking does one well after a long day schlepping boxes of grapes.

Our other group of “sheltered workshop” pickers finished up our Pinot Noir vineyards by 12:45. What a group; effecient, serious, never a complaint and proud of what they do. I do not need to say anything more.

On a more practical note, our yields continue to confound me; yields too low. Yes I beleive in low yields but it continues to be a point of frustration for me to see that our yields are low by Grand Cru and 1er Cru standards. For Bourgogne Pinot Noir, the maximum per hectare is 61 hecto litres per hectare. This means 6100 liters per hectare (~2.4 acres) which equates to 8,100 bottles or ~ 677 cases. The following are the maximum numbers for the other appellations, but most importantly, please note that the price of Bourgogne Pinot Noir in bulk is ~1/2 to 2x that of village wines, 4-6 of 1er Cru and 10-15+ for Grand Crus. I believe you will see my point:

Village: 50 HL = 555 cases

1er Cru: 48 HL = 533 cases

Grand Cru: 35-42 HL = 388-466 cases

Our four parcels yielded the following per hectare (the total of the four parcels is 1.31 hectares):

Les Petits Pres: 38.50 HL = 427 cases

Long Bois: 59 HL = 655 cases

Condemaine: 46 HL = 511 cases

Monpoulin: 25.50 HL = 294 cases

The good news is that the wine will be a bomb (as usual) concentrated and our mini Volnay. The bad news is that the yields are not very economical. I am still a bit unsure as to why, but part of it is that the plant clones have a great deal to do with it. Quite simply, the bunches and berries are small and wonderful except for Long Bois where they are much bigger and yield heavier grapes and therefore more juice. The trick is going to try to coax the plants in the other three parcels to produce more bunches, well spaced, so that we can still have beautiful small bunches that are well ripened, but have a few more to make my averages a bit more palatable. In the meantime, it is not a problem because you get to drink a delicous bottle for short money.

As I drove down at 7AM I witnessed one of the most amazing sunrises of my life. The sun was just rising above the horizon and seemed to explode into the sky as one sees pictures of over the Pacific. It lasted all of 3 minutes but what a way to start the day.

More of the sames as the pickiung team slows down. This is normal and expected as the energy of earlier in the week subsides and fatigue begins to crep into ones bones. The picking wnet all day in Petits Pres and our guys were dragging at the end. They finished all but parts of a couple of rows which I will have our boy/girl slaves attack on Monday AM. Rather uneventful; thankfully.

Dinner Chez Denis Toner:

It must be understood from the outset that the 4 principle food groups chez Denis are the followiong:

1. butter

2. cream

3. fois gras

4. truffles and/or truffle oil

From the above Denis’ capacity to invent multiple combinations is legendary and Sunday was no exception.

Amuse bouche: a dolop of fois gras in custard cream.

Hand made spring rolls on spicy noodles.

Broiled Salmon on purred potatoes (aka cream, truffels, lots of salt and a bit of potato to hold it together).

In other words the healthy part was more than canceled by the cream, butter and fois gras; what a wonderful concept.

The winner of speed picking and effieciency is found at our supplier of Chassagne Montrachet vineyard Les Essarts. Every year we try to predict who might usurp thier speed and picking accuracy but once again they are the champions. Diana met them in the vineyard at 7:30 and she was back with 60 boxes / 5 barrels by 9:15.

Beautiful...and FAST...Chassagne grapes.

All day long we brought in the grapes for our Bourgogne Pinot Noir Cuvee Les Deux Papis. The first parcels comprised of approximately 9-10 barrels and are in the Pommard declination and are in Les Crennilles and Les Carelles. This area was classified as Pommard village wines beofre the AOC classifications in the 1930s. This area, and others that sit at the base of the villages up and down the cote, provide what I call “mini” Pommards, Volnays, Chambolles and the like. Geologically, many of these areas resemble delta river valleys and in a sense they were, because the glaciers that carved out the “combes” or small valleys that are behind, cut the Cote D’Or West to East. These ancient glacial rivers deposited rocks and gravel that provides for  lovely drainage and “aerian” or finer, lighter in-style wines. This is ironic because one expects a Pommard area wine to be more muscular and tannic, but interestingly, this parcel is more about finesse – whereas another of our nearby Bourgogne parcels that lies within Volnay has heavier soils and produces a more muscular tannic wine. The differences and similariteis one finds over the years between parcels is not just a coincidence, but is rooted in the wonder, yet basic geology of this unique place.

We finished the day with a bit of our Pinot from Les Petits Pres – our best Bourgogne vineyard. The bunches are tiny, concentrated and absolutley fantastic. The yield is still too low to be economically interesting, but so what else is new in this business?

With the weather as beautiful as it is, I look forward to getting up to the crystal clear sunrises; we have been spoiled this harvest.

Dinner was Henry’s famous slow cook duck with lentils and scaloped potatoes. What more could one want?

Last grapes are in by noon – our Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Charmes. Only two barrels of grapes but has no rot, all perfectly ripe, not much water in the boxes and the sorting table drains them off. We literally are picking out a few overripe or dried berries; virtually no triage. +13Alc; great.

Cleaning starts; boxes, trucks, everything. Several days worth.

Dinner, Paulee number two at Megan and Matt’s. Matt with his able assistant Will cook all afternoon; fantastic blanquette de veau. I start to fade and, as the cheese course is served, I sneak off to the living room to take a ”nap.” An hour and a half later, Diana wakes me to go home. Everyone is quite jolly as I see 3-4 empties on the table.

Coming down the finish line. Fog again in the AM but it cleared up to a beautiful afternoon. Chambolle-Musigny comes in as well as a bit of St. Aubin 1er Cru En Remilly. En Remilly has the same type of stones as Dents de Chien except its exposure is directy south, thus giving it a richer and at times “fuller/creamier” profile.

We have our Paulee on Friday night under John’s pergola. As usual, Henry and Stacia pull out all the stops:

Squash soup

Lamb with potatoes gratin

Perfect green beans

Cheese

Poached pears and vanilla ice cream

Wines all Gambal:

2005 Bourgogne Chardonnay Cuvee Prestige: a point

2002 St. Aubin 1er Cru Les Murgers des Dents de Chien Magnum: terrific but still has +5 years in it.

2006 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatieres: yummy and will last

1999 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Les Poissenots: about ready and terrific with the lamb.

2000 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaux St. Jacques in Magnum: just right, another terrific and suprising 2000.

A light rain started at dinner and we put a tarp over the pergola and had a lovely evening.

Rained hard at night. Glad we are about done.

Teeth of the Dog and Mac and Cheese

Today we attacked St. Aubin 1er Cru Les Murgers des Dents de Chien (literally large flat stones shaped like dog’s teeth). As you know this is one, if not my favorite vineyard. It always gives us terrific grapes with a subtle richenss mirrored by a summer hot rock stoniness. Our guys from the sheltered workshop started at 8:00 in thick fog. It was very strange; you literally could not see from one end of the vineyard to the other. The crew worked hard and got about 80% done by 1:00. We finished up in the evening from 5-6:30 under perfect blue skies. Interestingly, exactly the same volume as last year; 265 boxes of grapes.

By the way, after our fiasco in Puligny-Montrachet last, night we finally returned to the cuverie after 8PM. The call was made to punt and attack the Vosne first thing in the morning. We have put all of the grapes on our “Lucy” sorting table but there is very little to throw out. Honestly, I am so amazed at the condition of the grapes; clean as they can get.

If there is one meal that is the most sought after from Chef Henry, it is his legendary Mac and Cheese with bangers. The recipe is guarded a closely as that of the formula of Coca-Cola but I can tell you it includes copious amounts of creme fresh, compte and guyere cheese and then overnight in the refreigerator. The part that is still secret is how he gets the crispy bits on top; devine does not begin to describe it. This year he and Stacia went a step further.  Not only did we have bangers, but also tomato farci made with their own mix of hamburger and sausage. Nuf said.

In the afternoon the other parcel owner calls and saysd they can pick for us. They have a team of 35-40 and as Jane described them “a rahter motley crew.” this was an apt description but they descenced on the vines and cut our 3 barrels worth of graopes in 35 minutes; my kinf of motley crew.

Leaving off from last night the qwuestion was/is how are we going to process the grpaes with our busted destemmer. Our supplier promised us a loaner machine Tuesday night for Wednesday morning. Thus when we brought in our Vosne we twiddled our thumbs waiting for the machine. The grapes were cold and we had the air conditionong on the the cuverie so the grpaes were very cool/cold so there wass no panic to have to proiceess them. Finally mid afternoon I callled pourt suppleir asking “what’s the story?” He siad I ill have it to yoiuy in an hour. An hour goes by andf nothing so I call agina nd he satys meet mew inb Meursaiult with your truck. I understoood this would be a transfer b/c the machine was in Puligny; wrong. By now it is 6:00 and Will and I followed him to the vigneron in Pulighngny ot pick up the machine. After wainting a few minutes ,the sureal begins.. As we walk in the  courtyard we see a wall of grape boxes piled on a wagon and our guy says “oh there are still a few cases to process, 80.” Honest to God there was a disconnect for us; the wall of boxes, the number 80, no machinbe in sight and finally the site of two men in a cuverier lifting the 70-80 pound boixes over the destemmer, empting the contents on a makeshift sorting table that reast on top of the destemmer, then procceding to ”sort the grapes” sort of (sorry for the pun) and then pushing the rather lousy looking underriope and slightly rotten grapes intop the destemmer. I looked at Will and he looked at me and we have the same though; ”you have got to be kidding me. This is the definition of FUBAR.”

Knowing that we had been thrown into the Burgundy equilivant of boiler room on a slow boat to China we realized that the only way to extract ourselves was by shoveling coal as fast as possible we began to schlwep and lift the boxes over the destemmer and onto the ”sorting table” so the owner and his assistant could ”tri” the grapes.

Now you ask how could this be so bad; well it was after having loading and unloading our boxes all day we then had to to dead lift and carry the boxes with arms outstretched over the machine, all 80 of them, and you begin to get the point. (Plus the rain started in the late afternoon and the boxes were full of water; a simple tarp wopuld have avoided this problem.)

Remember the last scene in “Braveheart” where Mel Gibson is drawn and quartered? Well you get the idea of how our arms and chests felt the next morning. Heck I woke up and thought either I am having a heart attack or I had open heart surgery yesterday with my sternum split from my ribs. Will on the other had could only mutter; “you have got to be kidding me?”