Harvest end at Derain (Burgundy)

Celebrating the end of the harvest Saint-Aubin (Burgundy
The end of harvest is always a special turning point in wineries, a big part of the wine job has been made, I'd even say most of the wine job has been made for wineries making uncorrected wines (because the vineyard work is central there), and everyone rejoices in the courtyard in front of the chai, the pickers because they could hold through long days of arduous work and the staff because they could manage all the timing with the weather conditions, ordering schedule for the different parcels and taking care of the food & board for the pickers. Here at Dominique Derain, the pickers had "reserved" their job since may (I guess they'd been queuing until the ban des vendanges otherwise), they're housed upstairs above the chai, a prime location with no loss of time after- and before work, and considering what I think the food is, their working conditions are pretty enviable.

I had come across a couple of downpours on my way from Paris to Chalon-sur-Saone, which is not very pleasant on a motorbike but in Saint-Aubin it was dry even though the sky was grey. When I dropped unannounced this friday afternoon toward 5 pm at Dominique Derain, I was thinking there might be a chance to see some kind of activity at his facility but what I saw exceeded my expectations.

I had not called ahead because it's only while en route that I realized I'd pass next to Saint-Aubin (and anyway nobody answers the phone in these days). Outside, I spotted what was obviously a picker's car decorated with flowers (pic on left), a hint that harvest could be approaching its end. This happened to be indeed the last harvest day and all the pickers, staff and Dominique Derain of course were gathered, having a few glasses and celebrating the moment. There were still a couple dozens boxes of white grapes at the back of a tractor waiting to be loaded into in the Vaslin press and as it was still early Dominique had set up this festive apéritif.

Unloading the last chardonnay I missed Dominique's son Emile during this short late-afternoon visit as he was a few villages away gathering a few more boxed of grapes, if I remember. Emile will be in the future managing this winery and It would have been interesting to catch his impression for this vintage.
At one point during this open-air apéritif, Dominique asked that several boys take care of the last boxes of chardonnay that had to be pressed, and they swiftly unloded them into the Vaslin which was waiting at the door of the chai.
While we were chatting before this, Dominique Derain told me about the importance of the moon phases all over the process, the harvest ideally must take place in the moon schedule and not only with respect of the rains that can be forecast in the harvest time window and that growers try to anticipate. But he says foremost the plant must be ripe : the grapes must have sugar and taste well and when these two conditions are met the plant must be ripe too. Every year he says, Mathias Thun, the son of maria Thun publishes around november a moon calendar (Calendrier des Semis in France) for the following year and he says they can virtually know already by november when the following picking will take place. He makes himself his forecast in december/january and it's always on target with a few days error margin, even this year where other early forecast predicted a much earlier harvest due to early blossoming, it happened that things slowed down afterwards and that his moon-based estimates were correct.

Here at Derain they began picking monday 15 and ended a few days later, the 20th of september, it's right in the time frame predicted by the moon calendar and he observes this synchronicity year after year.

Speaking on the weather this year here, there was no winter in terms of temperature (mild) and lots of rain, then from february to june it was dry and from mild to hot (peaking at 37 ° C or 99 °F) in early june, then some showers at the end of june helped relieve the drought (especially for the just-replanted vines), there was an episode with destructive hailstorms in Pommard in late june. July was a mix of high temperatures and rain storms, rain continued in august until the 27th when sunny weather, no rains, nice temperatures like 27 ° C (80 ° F) and a breeze that repelled the threat of rot on the grapes.
Speaking of sprayings he started later than usual because of the dry spring, and they stopped earlier because of the last dry weeks with wind, overall he sprayed less than the two previous years and this year will be in the average in that regard.

Standing by the press The humid weather was a problem this year because grass kept growing and they had to keep this in check all the time. In september you can't go with the tractor in the vineyard to plow, he says, because you risk touching the clusters and grapes with the tractor, which can yield slight damages that can later turn into rot, so they used a light mower or a till for the grass clods too close from the vine.

The reds were already fermenting in the chai behind the press, dispatched in the Grenier wooden fermenters lined up along the wall (you get a better picture of the whole room on top of this earlier story of mine). Dominique says that the grapes were taken in at a temperature of 22-23 ° C (71,6-73,4 ° F) and thus it fermented right away. He's happy for this vintage because the grapes were healthy and they'll reach an alcohol level between 12 and 13 %, except the aligoté which will be at 11,5 % which will be perfect he adds for the cuvées Chute Derain (a sparkling) or Allez Goutons (still white for easy drinking).

Gevrey-Chambertin fermenter He says he'll stop making AOC Bourgogne Aligoté because it's too complicated, they will be labelled as table wine (Vin de France). Asked why it's complicated, he answers that the tastings at the commissions d'agrément (the AOC tasting sessions on the ground) are quite painful to go through : his wines are chemically in their norms but if the 7-person team states that the wines doesn't taste well he has to wait the selection of another 7-person team if he decides to reiterate, he's never sure to pass the 1st time and it's discouraging, although he estimates that given the work he's doing in the vineyard to let the terroir express itself and the lack of corrective tricks in the chai & cellar, he deserves this AOC. There's nothing added in the juice and wine, no fertilizers in the vineyard and the result is functioning properly, this way the wines are more reflecting the terroir and the vintage than many AOC wines that are made with chemicals and corrections. He says that he just asks for the right of his wines to exist and he things that the AOC tasters should be more trained to understand this philosophy. He says that the AOC people often reply to these remarks by asking him to come and take part to these commissions d'agrément but he says that as he and his like-minded vintners represent only 3 % of the growers, they should have to spend all their time at these tasting sessions to weigh a significant influence in the way wines are judged and change the general mentality [regarding their wines that are often pointed as non-conform], and given the size of his winery he hasn't enough staff to give him such time to go there often and same for other artisan vintners. For a comparison with the conventional wineries (who make 97 % of the whole), they just have each to attend once in a while the commission d'agrément and all together they can secure their veto against uncorrected wines, so it's all locked and change is unlikely.

Something funny happened as we were chatting in the courtyard, and this was coincidentally on target with what we were talking about : We were in direct view with the street as the gates were open and Dominique suddenly pointed to me a man near a sleek white car who was taking containers from his trunk and walked away with them, this was an enologist who was apparently doing an urgent delivery for an urgent additive to a winery nearby. I'm sorry that I was not fast enough to snatch a picture, the container was I think a 5-liter one, there were no markings on it and Dominique himself had no idea what type of liquid additive it could be, but if you spent time walking in these villages with still many wineries you'd certainly see things like that routinely at this time of the year.

This short visit was already rich in terms of experience and news, but there was more to come, and something particularly entertaining and picturesque : Dominique hailed everyone and said that it was time to go to the fermenters and have some foot stomping together, and the reaction was like you say to kids, let's go to the beach... We were to witness the pigeage by the young pickers, this being for several of them the first time they would do one. Spotless legs Dominique Derain himself took care of the preliminary and sanitary step before they could jump into the grapes (soap or deodorant residues were more the problem here than dirt and sweat), with hosing their legs and feet before climbing the short ladder. This was no need to say also a very joyful public shower, and I'm sure that some of them here will brag in the future that they had their legs and feet washed by Dominique Derain in person, a big asset in a CV, enough to tilt a decisive way a potential employer in your favor. Climbing into the fermenters When all the volunteers had their legs and feet washed clean, they divided into 3 groups and climbed into the Grenier fermenters on the directives of Dominique Derain, all the open-top fermenters got their pigeage one after the other.
Here Le Ban is the name of a parcel, this will be labelled under the Saint-Aubin appellation. Pigeage Here in this same fermenter of Gevrey-Chambertin, 2 boys and 2 girls pedaled randomly through the clusters of pinot noir, the first words usually being to say it was pleasantly warm in there (the fermentation keep the temperature quite high for some time). Dominique had a plank pulled over the top so that they could lean on something when stomping the middle of the vat. Sometimes he used a riddling board, which is quite practical because with the holes it's easy to move around.
The parcel of Gevrey-Chambertin here is the fathest parcel among the ones Dominique Derain works on. Ballet director at work Action ! For this kind of scenes, nothing better than a video, mine is not perfect but you'll have a taste of the thing... More washing On this video you can see another hosing session, the one after the foot stomping. Reminds me what we hear everywhere, but it's so true : winemaking is basically cleaning and hosing stuff all the time, just that here it's legs and feet, not the usual vats, cement floor, empty boxes, presses, conveyor belts, buckets, grape forks, pumps and casks... The Pommard dance I don't remember if the fermenter devoted to the Pommard is every year the small one or if the hailstorms of 2014 is the reason, but here there was really not much room and these two folks could do the stomping by themselves. I know experienced staff must be somewhat blasé about doing the pigeage but I'd like to consider that pedaling in Pommard must convey some deep thought and impressions, is there a different tannin touch in these grapes ? I didn't dare to ask... Turning around the vat More water

Comments

[Alessaandro]

Hi, I'm Alessandro and I write from Italy. I wanted to compliment you, you carry out the work well done in a detailed and professional. I hope that someday it will be a ride here in Italy, since here we have many natural winemakers truly exceptional. In the case you decide to take a trip here you can contact to be able to show definitely a lot of people all over Italy. See you soon

[Bert]

Thank you Alessandro,

Yes, I'm thinking going one day to Italy; it oddly seems almost more difficult to me to arrange than some faraway trips... But I'd like to visit several of those excellent artisan winemakers, and the last film of Nossiter helped me know better several of them.

Thank you to remind me of the many talented winegrowers there...

Cheers,

Bert