Thursday 23rd September – a great day for me to remember! I drove shortly after dawn to Le Montrachet having got the call from Dominique Lafon the night before that he was ready to pick. While waiting for his team to arrive I bumped into Aubert de Villaine who was planning to pick the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Le Montrachet as well, and Jean-Claude Bachelet (driving a 1950 citroen truck!) whose team was ready to attack their Chassagne-Montarchet 1er cru les Blanchots which is right next door to le Montrachet.

So from 7.45 to 10.30 we picked away in sublimely sunny weather. Dominique has finished picking his whites but left his Montrachet to the last moment, with bad weather forecast for Friday. There is a little rot after the thunderstorm of Sunday 12th, but less than feared and with no negative taste – if anything it is pourriture noble rather than grey rot.

Halfway down my first row my mobile phone went – Abigail calling from our home in the hills to say that an advance example of the book (above) had arrived! So I rushed home after we finished picking to see the new baby. Very exciting indeed!

And one more thing – last weekend I finished building my dry stone wall (right). It is all happening!