Heat waves in Europe:
Hail yesterday in Nuits-Saint-Georges, doesnât look like damage is too bad though.
Thank you Jasper! Just listened to your âIâll Drink to Thatâ episode (for the third time). Certainly one of the best episodes of one of the best wine podcasts out there!
Some video of the NSG hail storm -
I spent an hour in and around Vosne this morning (5 August), and took the time to speak to some people and make some videos.
This one is a video of DRC Richebourg on the left and Leroy Richebourg on the right. The difference is quite visible on this video. Grapes look fantastic on both.
Some information: I believe the DRC vines are hedged at 125cm. The Leroy vines run above 200cm. There are actually 5 rows in the Romanee-Conti vineyard that are hedged at around 140cm - they seem to be testing hedging higher.
You can also see that not hedging gives more shadow. A benefit with climate heating up. There are some concerns due to upcoming heatwave and lack of rain. Berries are already super small.
Here are the vines of the Arnoux-Lachaux vineyard. Also supposeldy unhedged, but quite different from the Leroy vineyard. Some vines are quite small and not very lively.
Also you can see that Leroy has recently worked the soil, and Arnoux-Lachaux not.
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Arnoux-lachaux is going for the no-till approach now, I suspect
I did pretty much exactly the same walk as you about a week ago and noted the hedging heights (approximately) of each producer of Richebourg. I didnât have a tape measure but the general view was:
Standard
⢠AF Gros
⢠Gros F&S
⢠Clos Frantin
Standard+
⢠Mongeard-Mugneret
⢠Anne Gros
⢠Grivot
⢠Thibault Liger-Belair
⢠Domaine de la RomanÊe-Conti
Just a little bit higher, but no change in principle
⢠Meo-Camuzet
⢠Hudelot-Noellat
Much taller (and no hedging)
⢠Leroy
Man those vines look thirsty. This film could be of a vineyard in Napa. Must be a hot start to August this year. Wonder when the last vintage required widespread chaptalization? That concept must nearly be a thing of distant memory.
Chaptalization was widespread in 2017, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2011, 2010, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2002, 2001, 2000. So it is still more common than not. And many producers still do it, even in vintages such as 2005 or 2015, out of habit (and perhaps other reasons).
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Do tell! When you are getting pretty good brix levels with the weather, why bother to push up the alcohol levels? Or simply wait a little longer and not harvest in August or early September? I just assumed that vintners were picking earlier not only to preserve acidity but to hold down alcohol numbers. Cannot imagine why this is not reported on more. I just assumed with the anxieties about climate change that there would be no need to add sugar.
Is it for mouthfeel? To keep the acids high? Longstanding habits? Or is this just the nature of the grapes grown in Burgundy. I can believe that in the flatlands some generic Burgs might need an extra kick to fill them out but it is hard to believe that the good villages wines on up would need additions. With all the obsession with natural winemaking and biodynamics this seems to not fit in very well. Unless the Domino company is now considered part of the terroirâŚ
2016 and 2010 were pretty warm years along with 2015 and 2005 were they not?
DRC was cutting the small green berries on top of the plants (âverjusâ) in the RC vineyard when we were there. Apparently they donât always do it, but now it was to increase to a maximum the flow of moisture to the normal berries - shows indeed their fear of the drought.
Also, when asked whether tilling the soil does not let moisture escape more quickly, the guy explained that in their experience, on the contrary, in a drought if you donât till (cf the RSV vineyard), that consumes even more moisture due to remaining plants. I am not an expert, but that seemed counterintuitive.
Well, firstly, natural sugars are not always so high as you seem to think. In 2017, many CĂ´te de Nuits wines came in with natural alcohols in the high elevens or low twelves. There was a story of some Echezeaux grapes being so low in potential alcohol that they were rejected by the nĂŠgociant who was planning to buy them, as they didnât meet the AOC minimum. Most of the top producers chaptalized. Fichet the viticultural supply store in Meursault makes a sump with a motorized paddle and a funnel for gradually adding sugar while the paddle mixes it into the must. One could see pallets of sugar being delivered at some large domaines (cue jokes to the effect that âgrand-maman a fait beaucoup de confitureâ etc etc). This was also very much the case in 2016, as I saw it with my own eyes, and I believe in 2010 as well.
Secondly, producers looking to pick on acidity may end up with less potential alcohol than they would like. Arnaud Ente, for example, says that if he has to choose he would rather pick early and add sugar than pick late and add acid.
Thirdly, chaptalizing is a way to prolong the fermentation.
And perhaps there are other things, tooâŚ
This technique has been around a very long time. No, the sugar cane of Guatemala is not part of the terroir; but neither are the forests of the Centre, and plenty of their oak trees tend to come into contact with the CĂ´te dâOrâs best wines.
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I didnât know this - I donât know enough about chaptalization, in part because it seems like one of those activities conducted under cover of the night. But sugar is a potent kind of thing beyond its sweetness. I am curious whether biodynamic or mostly organic or non-interventionist domaines think about sourcing organic sugar or at least, yâknow, pour it out of a cow skull during the proper equinox. 
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This is really very funny.
And then there is refined cane sugar, unrefined cane sugar, beet sugar⌠late 19th-century wine production in France existed in a symbiotic relationship with beet sugar manufacturing in the north, and the two combined made for quite a powerful political lobby. So thereâs a fascinating sociopolitical history to it too, beyond any considerations of wine character or quality.
Chaptalâs 1803 treatise makes interesting reading today. A lot of stuff had been figure out back thenâŚ
A long time ago I read Sidney Mintzâs Sweetness and Power, which is about how sugar production and consumption shaped capitalism. I donât remember him breaking out Franceâs politics (it was mostly about Britain and its empire) but Iâm sure a lot of the same factors were at play. Sorry for thread drift.
do you know of any 17s that were bottled <12% aside from a couple of the bizot village wines?
Not that I can think of⌠Bizot was the example I as going to cite before I got to the end of your question. But, there may be some that are not labelled as such.
To those labouring under the misapprehension that chaptalisation is a practice from the past only undertaken at the worst addresses I always like to point out that the Domaine De La Romanee Conti chaptalised even in 2003.
This is really quite interesting. It seems that there is a feeling that letting the grapes hang to achieve greater ripeness (physiological maturity?) is less favored a practice than preserving the acids in the grapes. Presumably it could be the other way round where acid could be added to the must, if less than desired, with a higher sugar content grapes. So if I am looking at 14.5% alcohol levels in some modern harvest Burgs, then it may have reached that level because of a sugar addition? Is it still limited to about a 1.5 degree alcohol change in Burgundy?
One wonders of the California producers have got it all wrong letting grapes reach full maturity on the vine with their pinots, when they could pick earlier and add some sugar to the must and get a âfresherâ flavor profile.
I would take issue with William stating that barrels are a comparable âflavor additionâ. In one case we are talking about something you put a wine in, rather than something you put in a wine. Saying it is traditional does not make it natural. I guess you could make a similar argument that Mega Purple is traditional in California, therefore it should be respected as a terroir compatible practice.
I am surprised that with something like 8 of the last 16 vintages being some of the earliest (and presumably warmest) in the last 400 years that something like chaptalization would be less needed. I stand corrected! Will be quite fascinating with temps pushing to high 90âs this week to see if this is yet another really early harvest. So many questions about thisâŚ
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