Veraison 04 Aug Fixin Clos des Perrières

Of-course, it’s normal.

There was a bit of emotion with the tempest of hail that hit Nuits on Saturday, so it’s always better to wait 3 or 4 days before considering the full effect. And the effect seems to have been limited. The storm itself – thankfully – seems to have been centred on the town of Nuits itself. Some vines have been hit, but it’s predominantly a few puncture wounds to leaves and the occasional berry that has some impact damage on the southern side of Nuits. It was reported that the damage was all the way to Premeaux, but that wasn’t the case, the hail stopped quite close to the housing of Nuits – I’ve no info on damage to the north of Nuits but most villages actually remained dry.

And July? The average temperatures have been within a degree of a ‘normal’ July but there has been an almost record low of rain and many more hours of sunshine than the average. The sun has certainly managed to shrivel some of the directly exposed grapes, but unlike those few hailed berries around Nuitswhich have the time to dry completely, the sunburned grapes rarely fall to the ground so need more work to triage. The final treatments have already been made, so whilst growers might like a little more rain, they will happily so ‘no’ if it entails a storm. The projected harvest date remains one of the earliest on record and will be a function of both individual viticulture and attitude!

In Beaujolais, the harvest date is projected to be a little later than in 2003, but still the second earliest since data recording was properly established in 1992. Much further to the north – the sauvignons of Saint-Bris need another couple of weeks to be anywhere close to showing their maturity, but in general, like the rest of Burgundy, all is clean in the vineyards and the yields look modestly generous.

Some vines from today in Nuits 1er Les Procés:

Hail damage

Hail damage

Hail damage

No hail damage to grapes, only the leaves

It’s better to wait for a proper picture – but today’s ‘red warnings‘ of hail in the Côte d’Or were not for nothing:

Uh-oh……… https://t.co/skAiSb0kko

— 🅱️ill nanson (@billnanson) August 1, 2020

Veraison is everywhere in the pinot – almost!

In Gevrey-Chambertin, it depends on which side of the Route des Grands Crus you look. Here are some images from yesterday afternoon and you can see that the lower side of the road – Charmes, Griotte & Chapelle-Chambertin – here there is lots of colour, but on the other side of the road – Latricières, Chambertin, Bèze, Ruchottes – you have to really search for a little colour – these latter vineyards are, for the most part, still ‘green:’

Charmes

New Drouhin plantation in Griotte – emphasising the short but appreciable slope

Griotte

Griotte

Chapelle

Chambertin

Ruchottes

Puligny-Montrachet, 22 July 2020

Steady as she goes – and still 3-4 days ahead of the 2003 growing season.

Many in the Côte de Beaune are looking to have their teams back from holidays by Monday 17th August to prepare for their harvest but actual picking around 18th-20th August is not out of the question for the early pickers. The earliest estimated start that I know of in the Côte de Nuits, so far, is 22 August but habitual late-picker Pierre Damoy is thinking more along the lines of 8-25th September, for now.

This week we see temperatures of 31-35°C – the first time this year with such consistency of temperature – and for the very first time there are a few yellow leaves starting to appear on young vines – that’s a combination of the heat and dryness – last week’s few mm of rain (3-20mm) hasn’t really done very much. Most vines look in great shape; veraison is underway in most red wine vineyards now and is becoming much more visible in Hautes Côtes too – right, Puligny 1er Clos des Caillerets. Mildew is very rare this year, and as the sugar starts to rise in the berries, those areas with a little oïdium are being less affected.

The last treatments in the vines are largely done now, tractors in the vines more likely to be doing a little trimming of the vines – overwhelming now it’s the start of the domaine holidays…

Food traps have been set up* to follow the evolution of the populations of common fruit flies and their Suzuki cousins – this monitoring will continue until the harvest. There have been, for the last two weeks, some reports of ‘large populations’ of Suzuki close to fruit orchards (cherry, plum, etcetera) but nothing yet in the vines.
*Chambre d’Agriculture