Cote de Beaune is not doing that well. I was there last week and walking thru the vineyards was kind of depresing. For instance, in Clos des Ducs there was barely any grapes left and many wines were without a single clusters. Pommard didn’t do much better eaither. There was a lot of spraying but at least there was no rain when I was there. Further north you went things looked much better with Gevrey and Morey looking the best, where, if weather cooperates they can still get a great vintage. What everyone needs is sun and no more rain.
I concur - that is what we saw - lots of damage in the Cote de Beaune, we were told by wine makers that the losses in Volnay were 70%+. Walking the hill of Corton revealed much hail damage as well, though not as bad. Just as a minor point, the vineyard we saw with very few grapes (we only saw the edge of the vineyard, didn’t really walk the rows so take it FWIW) was Clos de Chateau de Ducs, not Clos de Ducs. Doesn’t take away from the overall point, of course.
The weather in July has shown a significant improvement on May and June: warmer, sunnier and drier. It remained essential to continue to spray against both mildew and oidium, but conditions as we neared the end of the month were beginning to suggest a bit of hope for this foloen vintage.
But then hail strick again. On August 1st, just as it had done on June 30th, there was a thunderstorm. Once again Santenay and Chassagne and Meursault, but not Puligny have been affected but the Hautes Côtes de Beaune seems to have born the brunt of the damage. To this we must add Savigny-Lès-Beaune, but according to my sources there have been only minimal losses in the Côte de Nuits.
Thunderstorms when we were in Beaune late June. Mildew pointed out to us in the Clos de la Marechale. Audrey at F. Mugnier stated she had never seen such an early bud-break due to early spring heat but more recently it was the mildew that concerned everyone.
The ten-day forecast for the region looks great, high-70s and sunny. Assuming it continues that way until harvest I wonder what we would be looking at…
The 10-day is still looking glorious, with temps in the low 80s, no rain, no clouds. Checked Bordeaux also and there’s some crazy heat wave about to hit there. Going to be interesting.
Yep, weather looking sweet for a super long growing season which should develop some great tannin structure. Problem is yield, between poor flowering, hail damage and mildew losses, I am down about between 40% and 60% of last years crop in my parcels in Savigny, Beaune & Santenay. Tough when you are trying to grow!
Just checking in. We had some hail damage at Volnay 1er “Robardelles” and in Meursault at “Volnay” 1er Cru “Santenots”. In Morey, a tiny bit of hail damage at 1er “Chaffots”, but much less than we had in 2009.
The grapes that have stood through it look great. But, there is no telling how things are until the wines are resting in barrel. Even then time will be necessary to have a clue what everyone turned up with…as usual
email from Ray Walker
Weather is actually pretty nice now. But it varies. Volnay was one of the places hit, but low yields can produce excellent wines. Our 11 Volnay was hit with hail and I Really like that wine. So, as long as there are healthy grapes aroud, you just sort and it really isn’t that different from a vintage without hail. It isn’t waterlogged either, at least in the 1er Crus where you have slopes generally. The vintage could be quite good. 11 as an example was a breeze. People panicked but the grapes were beautiful, just like in 2010. 2009 wasn’t a picnic either. Rains are why many people waited too long to pick by the way
Ripening has been very uneven both across plots and within plots. 15 day forecast looks great. Highs in the mid-twenties Celcius and most important of all the wind is coming from the North, which for me is the best marker for a good leadup to harvest. With weather like that the laggard bunches should catch up and we could still make some very nice wines. Things in our favour are the extremely long growing season (not sure but I think it could be a record), tiny yield and lots of millerandage, all good markers.
As always, September makes the harvest, fingers crossed the forecast stays true. With careful and thoughtful picking and meticulous triage on the sorting table, I am sure good wines will be made, no doubt.
I’m sure there will be the odd vintage here and there where the grapes just arent ripened enough, but baring those rare off years hopefully we can advanced the analysis of burgundy vintages away from which ones are “good” and “bad” and towards analysis of vintage character and individual preferences. This will be difficult as long as we continue to assume the points assigned barrel samples have any real objective meaning.
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