Winemaking and 2022 Harvests

A picker here. I need you to explain it to me… We'll show you here, Jean Lucien, can you show them too? For those who don’t know yet, go over towards Jean Lucien. We get a kick out of this… There’s some on this, right? If it's just on one grape that's OK, but if the entire bunch is starting to turn a bit grey like this… OK, I understand. So we don’t keep it... but cut it so others don’t think it’s… So you just drop it on the ground... - Is this OK? - Yes, it's fine. So, I’ve made progress since yesterday, that’s great. I need someone for the crates here, and the reds... The Pinots, are on the first page and the Chardonnays on the second. That was a good jump there! I’d like to say a word about our 2022 vintage. It worried us a lot, given the drought, Also, the number of workers we needed to hire, not knowing if we'd have enough to manage our harvest or not. So, to attract the personnel required, given the current labor shortage, we significantly increased our hourly rates, above the usual. This allowed us to hire a lot more people. It’s best to start the harvest with a large number of workers... Because we were expecting fewer, it was great to have more. That's a priority, without workers we can’t bring in the harvest. So for this vintage we were worried, particularly with the heat we had. But in fact it was more than generous, given the amount of fruit… without exaggerating either, it’s superb. We really had... We really had... a lot of fruit, however, the lack of rain also means... there will certainly be less juice too… The juice quality will be exceptional, but there'll be a bit less than usual… We began with the Côtes de Beaune, near Savigny. In Savigny, what we harvested was superb: it was healthy, beautiful, only a bit low in juice, which we’ll surely see when extracting it at the press. As for the whites, at Savigny, we had some promising results. The Ladoix had lower yields, but still seems OK, It wasn't as plentiful but still adequate. It’s more a year for reds than whites… at least for the fruit. No disease present on the reds, although some sunburn... We need to sort it. We need to sort, because it actually gets sunburn. The sun can burn the grapes. We have to remove what's burned, bunch by bunch. To obtain a superb quality in the vats. But it’s a vintage that was so beautiful and so clean... We were able to sort it directly on the table, for 80% of the plots. That's a situation... which happens quite rarely. Until now we've been dealing with a “theoretical” quality, Theoretical, like in textbooks! It's really superb. Everything we've seen so far... The Clos des Corvées is exceptional. We have millerandage, for a vat of Clos des Corvées... We have some really beautiful grapes, but the smaller the grapes, the more concentrated, with less juice... so we should be getting some exceptional results! In addition, this year we changed our working schedule. Before we worked mornings, and then afternoons... But this year, because of the heat, we worked a full day as follows: We began picking at 7:30 A.M., to finish between 2:30 and 3 afternoons, with a snack around 10:30 or 11 o'clock. Once their day was finished, they ate, then had the end of their afternoon to rest. So they'd rest the end of the afternoon, this was a lot easier on the workers, they tired out less and came back the next day in good shape. It was a much better schedule! As I said, we were pleasantly surprised by the vines, They had nice green leaves, we were afraid the drought might damage them. But we realise now, they are plants which are quite resistant. - Pleasure, pleasure… - Of course I know that you like this… We want you to sort the millerand. You are here to sort the millerand. We need to separate the normal grapes, from the millerand. Does everyone know what that looks like? The millerand are the small grapes like this! Small bunches, with normal grapes, are not millerand. This is the millerand… We need you to sort them. The grapes come down this way, you look for millerand and you put them aside. If there is anything dried up, you have secateurs, remove it. It's already well sorted, but some of it is dried. When you see anything which isn’t good or it's unripe... pink for example, you remove it. If it’s pink, taste it, if it’s sweet you leave it... if it’s sour you remove it here. So the dry and sour here, the normal grapes here, and the millerand there. This year we focused on millerand grapes, which are these here. As you can see, there are fewer grapes per bunch, so there'll be less juice... So the fact is there are fewer grapes, less fruit. But it has a much higher concentration of both alcohol... and most especially taste. The wines will be a lot stronger as a result... This year the grapes are also very healthy... Basically... When I see this, I think it’ll be magnificent! Top notch..., world class quality. Le Clos des Corvées, of course! We’re off to work now! See you! Any more pickers there? Let’s go! This year we made an exception... for the Clos des Varoilles plot... Because of the hail that hit it in May, we decided to use this vibrating sorting table. So how does it work? The vineyard team first meticulously sorts the grapes… The fruit is put onto the sorting table set up here... Then here, the vibrations will remove dry, or grapes damaged by the hail, Because the damaged fruit detaches from the bunch. Consequently, the detached grapes fall underneath the sorting table... As you can see here... Everything we don’t want. What comes out here will go into the trash. Today we’re being filmed so we can remove trousers, and put on short shorts and a T-shirt... Put on a T-shirt and start jumping around like crazy! A wet T-shirt! Does that go in easily? We are finishing up the Clos des Varoilles here. It's where hail hit the hardest, in that stretch... the stretch where the Clos des Varoilles ends... and as you can see we are doing a great job sorting. Thank you so much to our sort crew, in the vineyard. When we see the quality of these grapes harvested.. from a part of the vineyard, where hail hit nearly 70% of the vines... yet with a harvest that looks like one... it could have been harvested from a vineyard with no hail! So this is magnificent, an excellent surprise, We are so happy! So thank all of you on the Domaine’s team... as well as all the harvest workers who gathered these magnificent grapes! I’m Sophie. I’m from Paris... I met Alban at a storehouse where we both worked. He suggested I take his place for the grape harvest, because he’s opening up his own restaurant. I accepted and came here, where I was introduced to Celine. Everyone knows her here at the Bistroch. That's because she's been working here for several years. There is also Morgane who came with me. I worked with her in Paris at another restaurant where we worked before. We also have Dominique who washes dishes and helps us with lots of things... and he is really very efficient. We are very happy to have him. So that’s the crew we have had managing... the cooking for the harvest workers… We’ve had a lot of positive feedback... so that’s rather encouraging... I’m preparing some couscous for the festivities called "La Paulée". La Paulée is the feast marking the end of the harvest. A huge thank you for all those who’ve worked this year's harvest. It was long, difficult, yet we were lucky with the weather. We had good workers, an excellent job sorting, so what came in was superb! Sor that I’m very pleased. This grape harvest was difficult and we needed a lot of workers. We had a lot of people initially then that ended and then they returned… That’s what the bottle is for! If you haven’t understood, the bottle is a small additional gift. It's for those who worked the entire harvest… The kitchen managed a great job as well. I think we ate well, even if some didn’t like this or that. It’s quality food with good ingredients, I think it shows we respect our harvesters… So, a huge thank you! One thousand fifty three… Vingt-neuf... The winemaking went very quickly this year. With fairly rapid fermentation initially. And the vats became dry... after only a very short time. I think the reason for this... is from a selection occuring naturally, when the fruit is on the vine. Partly because of the increase in temperatures, and natural yeasts. A very intense vintage year, in particular... for the vat work. We had to punch the caps, as well as bring in the grapes at the same time… This phase took less time but was more intense... with a lot more vats to manage... So I'd like to thank the crew for their efforts, their work. It all went very well. I’m very pleased with them and the 2022 vintage. Mumu’d be quite happy to have a dickhead like me... That’s why she calls me evenings… I can’t imagine how we managed this year: I didn’t believe it! After 2021’s harvest, which was very small... we can be very pleased to celebrate this evening. So thank you, good job everyone! It’s a real pleasure to have this vintage in the cellars… I’d like to thank Henry for everything he gave us, for everything he gives us even now. We love him so much, we miss him a lot... so let’s dedicate this evening’s festivities to him. So enjoy, everybody!