Gareth Skidmore lives in Burgundy, where he works as a translator and teaches wine-business English to Burgundians.
Harvesting starts in earnest on the Côte de Beaune tomorrow, though possibly not before next Monday 7 October on the Côte de Nuits which has fared much better over July-September and avoided the terrible hailstorm on 23 July. Grapes have been picked for Crémant de Bourgogne since the middle of last week.
The reasonable sunshine levels over the last two weeks have certainly helped to ripen off the grapes locally and they are just about ready to go now. However, on the Côte de Beaune some vines just didn't recover from the late start to the season and the severe weather that followed, so yields will be generally low again and bunches composed of variably sized berries. Whether this concentrates the juice and goodness in smaller and fewer berries remains to be seen.
The weather forecast for the week is rather mixed. Autumnal colours in the vineyards have finally appeared over the last few days.
I will be helping out on a friend's table de tri in Pernand-Vergelesses from Wednesday.
Our picture is of the Vosne-Romanée grands crus in autumn.