Today, it’s a sunny start in Beaune (right) – the people around town have smiles.
Hereabouts, the size of grapes have generally been smaller this year – despite almost a hundred millimetres of rain in the last seven days, but it’s been a regular dose with warmer, drier weather in between the downpours. The rain itself has often been quite heavy, sometimes even bringing the worry of hail, which, fortunately, has never materialised. The grapes, already quite small from the heat of August, don’t seem to have massively grown despite all that rain.
The late harvesting domaines of the Côte de Beaune are now (just) underway – Pierrick and Thomas Bouley plus the Pousse d’Or – just in Volnay! In Vosne-Romanée we have a couple of domaines that are not long underway – Grivot, amongst others, headlining.
For the reds, it will be interesting to compare the (potentially) more concentrated but less phenolically ripe wines made from grapes picked before the rains to those harvested after – though it’s the different approaches to viticulture that will define when grapes are ‘ready’.
Most in the Côte de Beaune has been done, excepting the higher lying vines and some in Corton – though much of Corton was picked as producers worried about waiting with so many storms in the forecast. A lot of people are still thinking of waiting five or six days before they do anything with their higher vines – an example of such plots would be Vaumuriens in Pommard.
So mainly for a ‘before and after rain comparison’ we will be comparing Côte de Beaune with Côte de Nuits.
So how are things further north? I jumped in the car to find out:
In Chablis, most domaines have been harvesting since Saturday or Monday – so 3-5 days. The largest part of the crus (grand and 1er) have been picked – the majority of the remaining work lies with the villages.
Right: Les Blanchots
Today, though, I could see a couple of teams underway in Montée de Tonnerre, one manually going through the vines, the other with two giant picking machines. In the grand crus there was Bessin-Tremblay picking their Valmur and also the Chablisienne picking a lower-lying part of their Grenouilles – they own 80% of this cru.
But it’s become complicated in the last week !!
Mid-August, everything looked in good control, the problem started with the rain of the last 10 days. Like in the Côte d’Or, but more – 120-130mm of rain – but over 80mm came with one large wave over 36 hours – and now botrytis is starting to spread in the vines. Today was 27°C and mainly sunny with a strong wind – which should help control the problem – but it also spreads the spores of the botrytis. Unfortunately, storms are forecast for Thursday.
No names, but I did see some machine-picked villages ‘grapes’ on a moving table – and it looked more like the triage !!
But what of the base material? If you look at the grapes that remain in the grand crus, the grapes are small to medium-sized but the more sheltered clusters already have some botrytis to trie.
I spoke with a bunch of vignerons. Here are their thoughts:
Gilles Fevre: “It’s been okay up until today – with good sugar levels and the acidity is quite good too – the yields are modest though – under 40hl/ha. The crus have been harvested and we need another 4-5 days to finish the villages. We are having to speed up as the rot is coming !!”
Charlene & Laurent Pinson: “Yes, that was our (manual) picking team in Montée de Tonnerre. After last year, we’re really happy – and probably a bit more than 40hl/ha, so we’ll take that !! The low volumes are not just because of the two heatwaves leading to small grapes; the mildew of last year took its toll, so the amount of flowers was already modest this year.”
Olivier Bailly (Billaud-Simon): “The rain really boosted the grapes, which, until that time, had very small berries. But to the extent where it was starting to crack some of the skins, but then it was dry again, and things calmed. Botrytis has started to cause problems in some sectors, though we’ve got some wind now, which could further spread the spores of rot – but it will help to keep things dry, so we should finish without problems. The rot hasn’t really exploded yet – like in 2013 – but if we get another rainstorm, it really could !!”
Samuel Billaud: “I’m about halfway through. I’ve already finished all my crus, but I’ve still got about another three to five days for all the Chablis. The amount of rot depends on the sector. The volumes are variable – some are up at 50 hl/ha and I’m happy with that. The pHs are also quite good.”
There is one response to “03 September. 2025 Harvest”
Bill, So helpful. Sounds like a hyper-heterogeneous year.