5th June
A Root Day
Nigel’s Harvest Blog 2026
Tuesday 7th April
Our harvest kicks off today… well, not exactly, because we did pick a few tons of exploratory Pinot from Cornish Point a week ago. The fruit looked beautiful, but the consensus was it was tasting a touch ‘crunchy’ (not an ideal quality in the opinion of our team), so with the outlook staying cool, we decided to hold off for a week. There’s no rush in what has turned into the coolest end to a season since 2020, and it may be cooler than that one: the first Covid year. Our coolest ever was probably the first, 1997; 30 years ago now. Then 2005. I wasn’t around for 1997, but it made pinots that put us on the map with the man of that moment: Robert Parker. They have aged very well, and while we only have the odd bottle left, we’d have confidence in those as long as the corks have survived. 2005, I was around for. I remember being at a press event for New Zealand wines in New York and being somewhat embarrassed by an insistent journalist who interrupted the presenter detailing the wines, saying: “Number 4. Don’t care about the rest, tell us about Number 4!” Number 4 was our (Bannockburn) Chardonnay 2005.
Then another cool one, perhaps the best comparison to this year, was 2017; that was the year we saw our first 100 point score for a Pinot. So we have reason to have confidence.
But the vines look great, the fruit is immaculate and it just calls for patience. There was a discussion this morning on the sensitive issue of long trousers. The tradition says, ‘no long trousers until there is snow on the ground’. But, spookily, for the first time I can remember, there have been two small patches of snow that have persisted since last winter high on the East ridge of the Pisa range: a sign of how persistently cool the season has been. In these days of climate panic, we consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to have been spared the fear of hot years. They will come one day, I have no doubt, but right now we are still solidly a cool climate region.
Last week also saw the arrival of this year’s barrels from the Damy family in Meursault and Nuits St Georges (they have a cooperage in both villages). We have been trialling a new style of barrel from Damy which uses a longer but cooler toast and a different selection process for the staves, which they had named the ‘Imperial’. We have really liked them and made them a significant part of our oak choice. As we unwrapped the gorgeous new oak, I was intrigued to see that in place of the large lettering proudly stating their name, the barrels simply had a modest I on the face. I asked Blair if he’d noticed and he replied: “Too right. I told them I liked the barrels but there was no way I was going to have the word Imperial all over our cellars!”. No Kings? I think, No Emperors is also a motto for the year.
29th April
It’s pretty rare that I don’t run an ongoing blog through harvest, but this was no ordinary harvest. The tricky weather just got plain ‘ornery’ as they say, with cold, rain, wind, and finally snow marching remorselessly down the hills, allowing few picking windows and testing the vines and fruit to the limit.
But both came through amazingly. We finished last Friday, delivering a full sized harvest of immaculate fruit, which seems to be imbued with deep resonant flavours. All of us are slightly bewildered, it seems counterintuitive that the vines could shrug off such an assault and that the fruit could still find opportunities to notch up ripeness.
Right now we have four fermenters pressed off from the 31 fermenters we filled. The Chardonnay cellar is jam packed: every barrel slot is filled.
The lack of disease has been extraordinary; a tribute to the continuous effort of the vineyard team throughout the season. We should also give a big shout out to the picking team who could have been forgiven for staying home in front of the fire. They came each day, clad in protective layers against the biting cold, and stayed as long as we needed them.
Now the big clean up is coming to an end, nets are being tucked away, and pressing off is steadily progressing. Time is tight as the late vintage is going to leave us no gap to rack and prepare wines for the first bottling run in less than three weeks time. So the winery team are going to be pushing hard for another four weeks, multi-tasking as the wines go down and leave space to reset for bottling.
Yet again, this has been a cool season, or rather one with no heat issues. How long may this continue? Perhaps we shouldn’t stress ourselves, just be thankful and get on with the job!
Nigel
5th June
A Root Day
Nigel’s Harvest Blog 2026
Tuesday 7th April
Our harvest kicks off today… well, not exactly, because we did pick a few tons of exploratory Pinot from Cornish Point a week ago. The fruit looked beautiful, but the consensus was it was tasting a touch ‘crunchy’ (not an ideal quality in the opinion of our team), so with the outlook staying cool, we decided to hold off for a week. There’s no rush in what has turned into the coolest end to a season since 2020, and it may be cooler than that one: the first Covid year. Our coolest ever was probably the first, 1997; 30 years ago now. Then 2005. I wasn’t around for 1997, but it made pinots that put us on the map with the man of that moment: Robert Parker. They have aged very well, and while we only have the odd bottle left, we’d have confidence in those as long as the corks have survived. 2005, I was around for. I remember being at a press event for New Zealand wines in New York and being somewhat embarrassed by an insistent journalist who interrupted the presenter detailing the wines, saying: “Number 4. Don’t care about the rest, tell us about Number 4!” Number 4 was our (Bannockburn) Chardonnay 2005.
Then another cool one, perhaps the best comparison to this year, was 2017; that was the year we saw our first 100 point score for a Pinot. So we have reason to have confidence.
But the vines look great, the fruit is immaculate and it just calls for patience. There was a discussion this morning on the sensitive issue of long trousers. The tradition says, ‘no long trousers until there is snow on the ground’. But, spookily, for the first time I can remember, there have been two small patches of snow that have persisted since last winter high on the East ridge of the Pisa range: a sign of how persistently cool the season has been. In these days of climate panic, we consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to have been spared the fear of hot years. They will come one day, I have no doubt, but right now we are still solidly a cool climate region.
Last week also saw the arrival of this year’s barrels from the Damy family in Meursault and Nuits St Georges (they have a cooperage in both villages). We have been trialling a new style of barrel from Damy which uses a longer but cooler toast and a different selection process for the staves, which they had named the ‘Imperial’. We have really liked them and made them a significant part of our oak choice. As we unwrapped the gorgeous new oak, I was intrigued to see that in place of the large lettering proudly stating their name, the barrels simply had a modest I on the face. I asked Blair if he’d noticed and he replied: “Too right. I told them I liked the barrels but there was no way I was going to have the word Imperial all over our cellars!”. No Kings? I think, No Emperors is also a motto for the year.
29th April
It’s pretty rare that I don’t run an ongoing blog through harvest, but this was no ordinary harvest. The tricky weather just got plain ‘ornery’ as they say, with cold, rain, wind, and finally snow marching remorselessly down the hills, allowing few picking windows and testing the vines and fruit to the limit.
But both came through amazingly. We finished last Friday, delivering a full sized harvest of immaculate fruit, which seems to be imbued with deep resonant flavours. All of us are slightly bewildered, it seems counterintuitive that the vines could shrug off such an assault and that the fruit could still find opportunities to notch up ripeness.
Right now we have four fermenters pressed off from the 31 fermenters we filled. The Chardonnay cellar is jam packed: every barrel slot is filled.
The lack of disease has been extraordinary; a tribute to the continuous effort of the vineyard team throughout the season. We should also give a big shout out to the picking team who could have been forgiven for staying home in front of the fire. They came each day, clad in protective layers against the biting cold, and stayed as long as we needed them.
Now the big clean up is coming to an end, nets are being tucked away, and pressing off is steadily progressing. Time is tight as the late vintage is going to leave us no gap to rack and prepare wines for the first bottling run in less than three weeks time. So the winery team are going to be pushing hard for another four weeks, multi-tasking as the wines go down and leave space to reset for bottling.
Yet again, this has been a cool season, or rather one with no heat issues. How long may this continue? Perhaps we shouldn’t stress ourselves, just be thankful and get on with the job!
Nigel
