Harder to see than in pinot, obviously, but here is a little chardonnay veraison in Puligny, today

Today, 15th July, there were some modest showers of rain – but still enough to clog your shoes with argilo-calcaire if you were in the vines. The next ten days look dry and predominantly sunny – 26-32°C – that’s an accurate description of most of the summer to date. Good light seems to be an ever-present this year, so it is of no surprise that, despite no great heat, the vintage is keeping ahead of the all records for harvesting dates – it’s even 3 days ahead of the retained data for 2003, the grapes of both colours now starting to show veraison:

We can reasonably expect that wines produced this year will be very different to most early vintages – those vintages typically showcasing hot summers – 2020 is different, no heat spikes and good growing conditions – it simply began its journey very early in the year. But for now, let us not forget the sage old saying that ‘August makes the must‘ – though these days it’s more like ‘the last two weeks of July and the first weeks of August that now make the must!‘ With that in mind, a week of 36-38°C will certainly change things – indeed it may block maturity and push the harvest much later down the line. Currently, many producers of whites have taken out their pencils and circled 20-25 August on their calendars and suggest that some of their parcels of pinot may be near the front of that queue!
*Arrow graphic from the Chambre d’Agriculture.

So far, it looks like the 2020 vintage has the chance to be remembered for the quality of its wines, more than as the covid vintage.
Right, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Les Folatières, yesterday

The vine development continues apace and, to date, the vines have neither water nor mineral constraints – the former having been taken care of by the rain of May and June. May had many more hours of sunshine than the average, June slightly less. We are just passing the 30°C barrier this week, but have seen none of the 35-42°C temperatures of the last 2-3 years – not yet, anyway!

In the Côte d’Or, and already for a week, the very first grape clusters with veraison (colour change) have been seen, but these the are the most precocious of outliners and most typically seen in the youngest of vines. In general, the clusters have not yet fully closed up – except where there is some serious millerandage closure typically happens before any colour-change. That said, the next 10 days or-so should see a much wider start to veraison.

The only cloud in this growing season, so far, is that oïdium is becoming more of a concern – for the whites in particular. Some growers have suggested to me that if it gets a lot worse they may be forced to consider some systemic treatments and exit whatever organic certifications they may have been pursuing. The last treatments should be made no less than 30 days before harvesting, so the window for those last treatments is slowly closing.

Reading all of the available bulletins shows a vintage that remains comparable to 2011 in terms of its timing, though one important producer of Chambolle-Musigny noted that, given the current rate of development, he will probably be harvesting his earliest parcel of pinot around the 22^nd of August! Some producers have already started doing the unthinkable – they are now going on holiday in July instead of August – and that’s because the harvest will be so early.

At this stage, the producers seem to be having fewer problems finding pickers than in the most recent vintages, but how to deal with social distancing for lodgers and the worker that they feed, still needs to have some thought! Of course, we can’t ignore the possibility of a second wave of covid infections, with this in mind, the people who would rent you a machine to pick your grapes, are practically overbooked!