Author: nicholas

The growing season is in full swing here in Burgundy. For the most part we have enjoyed a beautiful summer with extremely dry and warm weather. We had the occasional shower here and there but for almost four months up until July we saw virtually no rain! This was wonderful for the vines and the grapes.  The result has been a season with little to no disease presence.  Unfortunately, at the end of June the region was hit with a violent hail storm in virtually the same place as last year… unbelievable.  Vines from Beaune to Meursault incurred the most damage with the rest of the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits being less harmed. Our grapes from Pommard were severely impacted and we’re still unsure to whether that contract will work out for the 2014 vintage – very sad.

The unfortunate string of bad luck and the devastating hail storms has region has endured over the last 3 years is unprecedented.  Everyone does what they can to go on.  We try to remain positive, however, we are now not sure of some of our contracts.  Nevertheless we are optimistic about the rest of the growing season and the quality of the grapes thus far. In fact we noticed this week some of our pinot noir grapes have just begun veraison.  This is when the grapes begin to ripen and change from a bright green to deep purple. They will continue to develop in maturity over the next two months and we’ll keep a close eye on them until harvest, measuring sugar and acidity levels so that we know when to best harvest.

July has been cooler and damper than the previous months. The vines are finally getting some much needed rain. The dry conditions throughout spring and early summer have slowed down the development of the vines and thus have pushed back the harvest to a normal time, currently estimated around Mid-September.

As some of you might know we just sent out our pre-sales offer for wines from our first vintage, 2013. This limited time offer gives people the opportunity to purchase our wines directly from us at an advantageous price and will ensure an allocation when it comes time to bottling. We are so excited with the positive response we have gotten thus far and are thrilled to be processing orders! If you have not received the offer please join our list, so that we can send it out to you before it ends next week.

The 2013 wines are doing great. The reds have all finished their secondary fermentation (malolactic) and are set to age for another few months before we bottle in late winter.So far we are extremely pleased with the wines, each unique in character reflect the true nature of their terroir. The whites are tasting beautiful now. They are fresh, vibrant and each distinctly different with our Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru ‘En Remilly’ showcasing more tropical fruit notes and our Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru ‘En Cailleret’ more minerality and structure. The reds while still young and delicate are very promising. The Gevrey-Chambertin “La Justice” is filled with aromas of juicy red fruits while the Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru ‘Combe au Moine’ is a little deeper and layered with complexity. The Pommard 1er Cru ‘Les Chanlins’ is a true Pommard full of power and richness! Finally the Vosne-Romanée ‘Champs Perdrix’ blows us away each time we taste, earthy, rich with ripe cherry’s – simply gorgeous.

With the 13’s resting we have started to make room for the new vintage and set up the second barrel cellar just adjacent to the one we currently are using.  This second cellar will allow us to keep the Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs in different cellars.  The benefit to this is that it will allow us to keep temperatures different in each cellar as well as giving us some additional space.

We have also start thinking about which type of bottles we will use, the corks and our label – all very exciting. Who knew picking out a bottle could be so difficult… all have different shapes, necks and weights, yet look so similar. All these final decisions will need to be made in the next few months so stay tuned for updates on that! It will be surreal to see our wines finally in bottle come next year – that will certainly merit another celebration!

That’s all the news for now. We’ll keep you posted as things progress towards the harvest. Until then we hope your enjoy a glass of something fabulous in the sun somewhere!  Cheers.

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

As young winemakers in Burgundy we dream of the great wines of Vosne-Romanée and Pommard.  The two villages sit in the heart of the respective côtes, Vosne-Romanée, known as the pearl of the Côte, in the Côtes du Nuits and Pommard in the Côtes du Beaune.  The wines produced in Vosne-Romanée are known for their elegance and structure while the wines from Pommard are all about power and complexity.

Even though the vines are dormant during the winter months that does not mean that the great winemakers of Burgundy go on vacation.  There is always work to be done… in the vineyards the growth of the last season is pruned away and burned, in the cellars barrels are topped up on a regular basis and at the local bar when everyone has finished their days, stories are shared and deals are made.

In other words we have been keeping busy and Colleen and I are thrilled to announce that we have found two new vineyards to work with.  The first, located in the prestigious village of Vosne-Romanée, is named ‘Champs Perdrix’ and it sits in pretty good company… the bottom of the parcel borders with two of Vosne-Romanée’s grand crus, ‘La Tâche’ and ‘La Grand Rue’.  The second is located in Pommard right on the border of Volnay.  It is a 1er Cru called, ‘Les Chanlins’.