Page 3 - N°72 MARS 2024 GB

whites were finished on the 19th with Côte de Beaune
Les Pierres Blanches.
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The vat house team is made up primarily of women!
There are of course our two official blondes, Sylvie, the
smiling director, and Camille, the oenologist, but also
Claudine, Marie-Aleth, Manon, Rachelle, Mathilde
and Iris. Seven hired guns are on hand to help them
bring the 2023 vintage to life: our cellar master Jean-
Luc and oenologist Timothée, plus Anthonis, Thomas,
Alexander, and the two Cléments.
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On the 21 day of the harvest, we finished the very
st
pretty Beaune La Montée Rouge and, 30 km away,
our Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru Bel Air with its
Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet, which arrived a week perpendicular rows to prevent erosion. Once again,
ago and would be placed in barrels the following day.
these offered beautiful bunches and a few shot grapes!
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It took us time to realise that this would be a long, That evening, a storm broke over the vineyard, which
very long process. Days began at 6:30 a.m. and ran was supplying its final grapes.
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for twelve hours. There were more than 700 crates 28 September finally marked the end of our 2023
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to press per day, a huge volume, but fortunately we harvests – exhausted, but happy to have brought in
now have three presses, as of two years ago! Because a harvest as extraordinary as this!
at the same time, we had to pour the whites – which
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have already undergone rather rapid fermentation this
year – into barrels. Fortunately, some of the reds (the
Savigny-Lès-Beaune Les Marconnets) were lagging
behind, providing welcome respite from the constant
work at the presses.
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Corton-Charlemagne Le Charlemagne was harvested
in beautiful weather on a magnificent 15 September.
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On the 16 we finally attacked the Côte de Nuits reds
with our historic Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru
Les Damodes plot, again in warm conditions. The
steep slope made work harder, but the payoff was
perfect grapes! Fermentation went quickly in the vat
room: Volnay, the first red, had used up virtually all
of its sugars after 15 days.
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Rain arrived on 17 September to finally cool the air,
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taking us to the heights of Nuits-Saint-Georges the
following day to harvest the beautifully golden grapes
of Hautes-Côtes for the Terres de Famille blend. The
Crates of magnificent grapes at Clos de la Chapelle