I’m indebted to my good friend Jean-François Guyard to alerting me to this and I think it’s a sober reminder to always be circumspect about who is telling you what, and why !!

In recent months, we have spoken here several times about the increasing negative mood in society and politics towards alcohol and wine consumption. There is now new, concrete evidence on this.

As the magazine wein.plus reports, the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) to avoid alcohol is based on studies whose authors are controversial. The two Canadian scientists Dr. Tim Stockwell and Dr. Tim Naimi, who advise the WHO , are demonstrably close to the organization Movendi International. Since 2012, this name has been used to refer to the Good Templar Order, which wein.plus characterizes as “an abstinence and temperance organization that campaigns against alcohol consumption and promotes an alcohol-free lifestyle” and Founded in the USA in 1851, Movendi International is now the leading global network for development through alcohol prevention. The organization is an official partner of the WHO and the United Nations.

“Many scientists reject […] Stockwell and Naimi’s motives and approaches. They criticize the two as protagonists of a worldwide abstinence movement that has been working for years to banish alcohol from society worldwide,” writes wein.plus. The accusations were also directed against the investigation and publication methods of the two gentlemen. Wein.plus quotes the British journalist Christopher Snowdon: “Stockwell’s approach to alcohol issues is refreshingly simple. If he wants something to be true, he says it is true – regardless of whether what the evidence says.”

British statistician Sir David Spiegelhalter from the University of Cambridge also supports this view. He told The Drinks Business magazine that statistically the overall risk of drinking a glass of wine a day to life expectancy is no greater than that of driving a car or eating bacon. Research confirms the health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption. “It annoys me when the harms of small amounts are exaggerated, especially with statements like ‘no level of alcohol is safe’,” Spiegelhalter told The Drinks Business.

When it comes to scientific studies, it is always worth questioning the publishers and their interests in order to avoid falling victim to zealots or lobbyists. This applies equally to both pro and con alcohol.

Thanks Jean-François…

It’s true – I’ve bored you enough about a year that has experienced wave after wave of rain – but with some nice sunny days too. Unfortunately, for many producers, the balance has seemed to be more in favour of the rain this year, evidenced by even more thunder-storms in the Côte d’Or over the weekend – and so my message is unchanged.

If you haven’t been hailed, it’s predominantly been a year of fighting the mildew.

The best exposed and drained soils — unsurprisingly, mainly in the grand cru locations — have suffered less, but it’s not all roses here either. A simple walk around Montrachet will reveal beautiful bunches but also bunches with dried-out grapes (due to mildew) or grapes pitted by hail impacts — as good as the location is, it’s no protection from the hail.

I was in Beaujolais and the Mâconnais last Thursday and saw the first truck-loads of white grapes heading to wineries – but in this early case, the grapes were for crémant – these are always picked earlier, at closer to 11% potential alcohol than the 12-13% of the still wines. But I did also see a single team harvesting reds too. A few more were in the vines over the weekend – notably Lafarge-Vial.

I chatted with Richard Rottiers who can easily position the vintage at the top and the tail of greater Burgundy:

“2022 and 2023 were two good years for volume so I have managed to keep some stock here in Beaujolais – fortunately! – because 2024 is a year with lot of mildew – it was very hard to fight against the ‘fungals’ with this year’s rain. It all depends on where the storms went; I lost a lot due to hail in some parts of Moulin à Vent and none at all in other vineyards. I will start my harvesting on Monday (9th September) as I already have sectors with 13-14°. I think I will have half a harvest but I have some friends here who may not harvest at all…
“Likewise, the volume in Chablis was very good last year – fortunately – this year I think 5-10 hl/ha is realistic !!”

“5-10 hl/ha” – that would be pretty shocking – 10-20% of a normal harvest volume – and Richard (Domaine des Malandes) has about 5 hectares that are protected by hail nets…

Anecdotal, but the vines around Solutre looked nice last week – still some sub-optimal bunches – but easy to triage, indeed avoid cutting completely…

My own ‘home’ domaine in Beaune will be starting their harvest next Monday (16th September) – Dujac, maybe, on the 17th, though many more in the Côte de Nuits will be waiting almost another week. There are, of course, many outliners too in the Côte d’Or – Thibaut Clerget is starting in a couple of days and the team of de Montille was already picking some pinot grapes yesterday in Pezerolles and today in Taillepieds – but I’m assuming that they were picking some young vines – these are usually the most precocious.

But never forget that since the late 1990s burgundy became a wine of triage. It’s not how the bunches of grapes look at the start – it’s what you choose to throw away and therefore how best grapes will express themselves as wine. That’s the fun – though clearly we will have many fewer bottles to have fun with in this vintage !!

Here are a few images that date from mid-August up until last Thursday:

Montrachet 20 August

Montrachet 20 August

Richebourg 25 August

Pommard 1er 26 August

Pouilly-Fuissé 5 September

From the BIVB:

76th Chablis Wine Festival – October 26 and 27, 2024

Celebrate the new vintage with the winemakers from Chablis and Grand Auxerrois!

The Chablis Wine Festival is a major event of the year. More than 6,500 people are expected in the center of the village to celebrate the new vintage. On this occasion, around forty winemakers from Chablis and the Grand Auxerrois come together to share their know-how and introduce their wines through free tastings all weekend long.

Organised by the Office du Chablis in partnership with the Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne ( BIVB ), the Fête des Vins de Chablis is constantly evolving to offer an ever more friendly and festive event with numerous activities!

www.fetedesvinsdechablis.fr

The May 2024 issue of Burgundy-Report
30 domaines from across the whole of greater Burgundy, still on the 2022 vintage:
A good mix of Chablis, Côte d’Or and some Mâconnais and Beaujolais too.

That’s the visits from around 380 domaines already published since we finished last year’s harvest…

I hope you enjoy – here.

From the BIVB:

The Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) is organising a special auction of old appellation signs. After renewing all its signs in the vineyards in 2023, the BIVB is looking to give the former ones a second life. So do you want one?!

On Tuesday November 12, almost 600 signs, divided into 300 lots, will be auctioned on the website of www.drouot.com and/or www.interencheres.com.

“This is a unique opportunity for you to acquire a souvenir bearing the effigy of your favorite appellation(s). Open to all, the sale will be conducted by auctioneers Jérôme Duvillard and Alexandra Chaillou-Weidmann.

“An exceptional auction featuring 600 appellation signs that adorned the vineyards for 20 years! 300 lots have been assembled around famous names, including Grand Cru, Village and Régionale appellations. Whether it’s the Grand Auxerrois, Côte de Beaune, Côte de Nuits, Côte Chalonnaise, Mâconnais and whether you’re a professional, an enthusiast or a lover of Bourgogne wines, one of these signs could find its place in your home or garden, or even at the heart of your business!”

Sale details:
• 29 signs Grand Cru appellations (1.30 m x 0.6 m)
• 280 signs Regional or Village appellations (1.90 m x 0.4 m)
• 280 signs of “Bourgognes” (1.90 m x 0.4 m) and the “B” logo of Bourgogne wines (0.45 m diameter)

So in this case, you don’t even need to steal one !!
Good luck if you are interested 🙂

Not so Serene…

It’s the start of August so, as the domaines start to think of their pre-harvest holidays, it’s a worthy time to take stock of the vintage so far.

Complicated !!

Not surprisingly, due to the many complications, it’s going to be a later harvest, and potentially quite a prolonged harvest too.

A microcosm of the vintage is Chablis – to a greater or lesser extent, everywhere is like Chablis – it’s the peaks and troughs of Chablis’ weather patterns that have expressed themselves more in earnest, more brashly, though:

Parts of Chablis were affected by frost – they have seen a lot worse but the effect was there

Parts of Chablis were under water already for the second time in April – La Chapelle-de-Vaupelteigne

Parts of Chablis were hailed already for the 4th time in June – Chichée

Parts of Chablis were decimated by hail – Fourchaume & Fontenay

Most of Chablis has been fighting the mildew – the grapes and the leaves

Most of Chablis has been deluged by stormwater in the last 2 weeks

By a degree – plus or minus but mainly minus – it has been much the same in the rest of Burgundy and Beaujolais. In the last week, there have been heavy storms in the Côte d’Or too – heavy enough rain to start moving some of the topsoil down the hills (Meursault) or to have had some hail mixed in with the water (Saint Aubin).

Everywhere, the vine-treatments have been unending; unless you have been using contact sprays (ie not organic) with your treatments quickly washed away by the rain that punctuates all this year. On average versus the more recent dryer years – the number of treatments have been double.

Until mid-July, and ignoring the much stronger frost of that year, 2024 has reminded me of 2016; an early growing season with so much rain and not that much sunshine – that all changed when the sun came out in mid-July in 2016. This year the sun and warmer weather arrived just a few days later – but the extra warmth and sunlight were still punctuated with much more rainy weather than July/August of 2016.

We will have to wait many months before discussing the wines of 2024 but in terms of the conditions in the vineyards, and the apparent yields of grapes, at this stage we seem to have quite the hierarchical vintage, i.e. the better-placed vineyard sites (1ers and grand crus) seem to have decent yields and (probably due to better drainage) seem to have been much less affected by the mildew. The more ‘humid’ locations having little to no yields and prime mid-slope locations are looking beautiful.

This is going to make life complicated for the harvest !!

2-3 weeks ago, many domaines in the Côte d’Or were thinking about starting their harvest 15-16 September but those dates are already starting to come under a little pressure as domaines think to start 7-10 days earlier. The yields are a complicating factor; the smaller the yields, the faster the grapes will ripen. The higher the yield, the longer a domaine will wait for maturity.

So the harvest timings are currently in-line with 2019 – but with a lower crop this year – and also very close to the 2021 vintage timing.