Things are warming up here in Burgundy. This year spring has arrived much earlier than usual, forcing everyone into the vineyards to finish up what’s left of the winter taille(pruning) and attachage (attaching the vine shoot to the trellis). Most people are saying that we are about three weeks ahead of schedule which could mean harvest in August! We’ll see though, we still have the entire season to go.
After a rather long and mild winter Nicholas and I are getting busy working on the preparations for the upcoming season and harvest. Chats with our suppliers, continuing the search for new contracts, ordering barrels and tanks… there is always something to be done.
Through this past winter we spent a lot of our time over in the cellar tending to the wines and tasting their evolution. So far they are all doing fantastic and we couldn’t be happier. The whites have finished their second fermentation (malolactic) and now we are waiting for the reds to follow suit which shouldn’t be long now with this warm weather (warm temperatures entice this second fermentation to start). We also enjoyed welcoming a few visitors over the winter months to taste through the young wines in barrel. It’s always wonderful to meet new people from all parts of the world and share a little bit of our passion with them.
Apart from working at the winery I have been busy working two other jobs. The first, working for Vinconnect, a US based company that permits consumers in the US to purchase wines directly from some of the top estates all over Europe and the second, organising events, tastings and dinners for other local wineries in Beaune. This has kept me fairly busy and helps keep the bills paid. Nicholas also recently started working for a local winery, Domaine Pavelot, located in Savigny-les-Beaune. He spends his days in their vineyards pruning, performing the attachage and planting new baby vines to replace those that have died. He will spend most of the season with them learning the in’s and out’s of viticultural, we hope that one day it will come in handy should we get the chance to work some vines for ourselves.
Maison Harbour was also lucky enough to be featured in a few newspaper and magazine articles which we are thrilled about. Its always surreal to read about yourself and see your story in print.
Other than that we have been spending our weekends biking and having picnics out in the vineyards. Enjoying every bit of this fabulous Spring weather. We have also been working towards an en premieur offer (futures offer) for all of you which we hope to send out within the next few weeks. If this is something you think you might be interested in receiving please remember to sign up for it on the “our wine” page. We hope that wherever you are the weather is improving and that your Spring is off to great start!
à bientôt,
Colleen & Nicholas