Montrachet

Puligny

Romanée-Conti

Fleurie…

It’s started to get warm, but it’s only 10 days since the candles, windmills and burners were doing their thing in many parts of Burgundy.

The worst of the frost seemed to be, as usual, in Chablis. Temperatures as low as -6°C were seen near Chichée – and that’s not a place that’s afforded much protection; Their premiers are quite distant from sources of water (for aspersion) and the village wines can’t really support the cost of using candles. I know that the assessors from the insurance companies have been on site this week – with early estimated of 25-40% losses – in places. In other places, mainly the higher value vineyards, where candles and water sprays were used, the damage seems to be much, much smaller – but we will see – it’s how the flowering and grape development goes that counts…

In the Côte d’Or it has, so far, been another year of prophylactic vine protection measures. Yes, temperatures hovered around -3°C one night, but the weather was also dry and windy. The next day was also supposed to be minus 3°C, but turned out cloudy and closer to zero. Again, we will have to see how the flowering goes, but damage seems rarer than in Chablis – which was already ahead of the rest of Burgundy in growth.

The Hautes Côtes de Beaune had a few losses – particularly near Paris l’Hôpital in the south of the Côte d’Or, but the Côtes Chalonnais, Mâconnais and down into Beaujolais seemed to have avoided damage.

The next days are forecast to be cooler again after some days hovering around 25°C – but nothing close to frosty, indeed many domaines have already cleared away their candles…

Of course, it’s very early, but the current stage of growth is already indicative of a late August harvest !!

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Although, to an extent, already deployed in Chablis, the last of the candles, ‘smudge-pots,’ trace-heating wires, heat-cannons and windmills were put in place in the Côte d’Or during Wednesday and Thursday.

For the last two nights, they have been put to use with temperatures well below zero Friday-Saturday, after the night before showed roughly 0°C. It seems tough in the Mâconnais too…

The frost of recent years has arrived around the 10th April – it’s 2 weeks earlier in 2026 – but with enough early growth that there will certainly be some yield-reducing damage.

For now, all we can do is watch and take stock – these are sleepless nights for the working vignerons…