frost – 2

28.4.2016billn

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I asked a couple of producers this morning if it was bad, or really bad, both said the latter.

Without doubt it is a very important event, though I’m sure it’s better to wait until after the fruit-set to see if 30% or 75% of the potential harvest is lost. But however we look at it, it’s a massive loss, which (so far anecdotally) is a loss shared equally between the Côte de Beaune and the Côte de Nuits – for once!

Whilst it’s still a tiny snapshot, I walked in a lot of the Côte de Beaune vineyards today:

  • Santenay hillside – looks 90%+ okay
  • Chassagne 1ers Morgeot and Maltrioe – some vines totally blitzed, other maybe lost only 25% of buds
  • Chevalier-Montrachet (lower) and Montrachet – the same as in Chassagne
  • The bottom of Meursault wasn’t good, the bottom of Perrières, including the Clos des Perrières, looked okay.
  • The top of Volnay and Beaune looked not bad, the bottom of both was not good – Grèves included in that.
  • Bottom of Corton on Pernand side, not good
  • Mid-Charlemagne (below the cross) looked fine, likewise mid-Bressandes too.

From what I looked at, the top vines did better than the bottom vines, but a couple of vignerons told me it was the reverse in some places. The leaves ‘burned’ by the frost are obvious – already silver grey and crispy dry versus the green of healthy leaves. Pinot often looks okay, probably because it is a little behind chardonnay in the growth cycle, but there were also pinots with tiny but clearly frosted buds…

I will be charging around the Côte de Nuits tomorrow…
 

Agree? Disagree? Anything you'd like to add?

There is one response to “frost – 2”

  1. Roelof Ligtmans28th April 2016 at 8:42 pmPermalinkReply

    I can add that both Mercurey and Rully generally fall in the “not good” category, with some zones really bad (in almost all of Rully, and a big swathe of Mercurey at least 80% is damaged). We lost all of our Mercurey blanc, and overall about 35 – 40%, I guess, Between one third and almost half of the vintage lost is the general feeling of all the fellow winegrowers I met in and around Mercurey yesterday and today. Lucky for them: Givry and Montagny seem to be untouched.

    • billn28th April 2016 at 8:54 pmPermalinkReply

      I’m really sorry to hear that Roelof – my heart goes out to you and all your Mercurey neighbours…

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