This is the second in a short series of videos in which My Man In Champagne follows the Champagne House Henriet-Bazin with producer Marie-Noëlle, and their 2011 Champagne harvest.

In this particular video we see the Chardonnay grapes being cut by hand and transferred first to plastic bucket (in the past this was a basket), then to a larger plastic crate.

Pardon the "Franglais" in this clip, but "raisins" in French is in fact "grapes" in English...perhaps the author of this article did not have enough champagne with breakfast to be able to differentiate his languages for the filming.

As you'll note in the video, the harvesters are hunched over as the grapes tend to grow more in between the bottom and the middle of the vines, thus bending over more to efficiently cut the grapes is necessary.

A very difficult and meticulous job to be done correctly, as these harvesters clearly are exhibiting!

Great grape quality for these 2011 Chardonnay grapes, the producer Marie-Noëlle confided to My Man In Champagne.

Look out perhaps in a few years time for a vintage 2011 Blanc de blancs...

A bit of a conundrum in the making in some areas of Champagne

Chatting to a few champagne producers I'm hearing that the sugar levels in the grapes are barely up to what is needed and of course if the sugar is not there then the potential alcohol won't get up to the desired level either.

The weather over the past few days has been cool and fairly wet and of course that's not what we need to ripen the grapes and get that sugar count up, so several growers are holding back with the picking to see if the situation improves.

I have even heard that the picking and pressing in some areas have been stopped temporarily to allow more time for ripening the grapes.

On the other hand if you wait a few days in the hope of more sun and in fact you get more rain then that increases the risk of grey rot setting in, so there there's a fine line to tread between waiting and carrying on.

More news as soon as we get it

An exclusive first video in a series of six covering the 2011 Champagne harvest for the Champagne House Henriet-Bazin.

All videos are taken from some of the Chardonnay vines of Henriet-Bazin, in the Premier Cru village of Villers-Marmery, situated on La Montagne de Reims.

Villers-Marmery is distinctive in that it is but one of four villages on La Montagne de Reims which grows nearly entirely Chardonnay grapes, instead of the "typical" Pinot Noir grape variant which is otherwise more commonly-grown in this part of Champagne.

In this video, Edmund from My Man In Champagne, learns from producer Marie-Noëlle what the harvest this year can expect to yield from grapes to bottle.

Highlights include: great balance of acidity and sugar levels, in addition to a very good maturity for the grapes, and 2011 may very well be a vintage year for this Champagne House!

On August 27th, 2011, we view  the ongoing Champagne harvest from a very windy spot, over the valley of Verzenay and under the foot of G.H. Mumm's windmill.

Key points: the bustling of the harvesters in and all around the vines, the many white high-top vans dropping them off at their work stations, lots of vines and plenty of sun and wind.

Over the past week, weather conditions have been changing, challenging for both grapes and harvesters: a major heat wave turned almost overnight into rain and much cooler temperatures.

Under these very unfavourable working conditions, the harvesters cut the grapes, transfer the grapes to smaller baskets or plastic buckets, then transfer from basket or bucket to larger plastic crate, which are then piled onto palettes. All of this is done by hand!

These are just some of the hidden realities behind the scenes - what is required to produce a high quality champagne. 2011 is a promising vintage!