Right: Beaune’s Saturday market:

The 2025 harvest has started with more of a whimper than a bang, so today (the weekend) I saw fewer teams picking in the vines.

There are some plots of reds being picked – but almost always they are the exceptions and young vines. The heat of 2025 has not been kind to the shorter-rooted younger vines, as many of them have smaller grapes and they show the clear signs of thirst with their dried yellow leaves at their base.

I’m expecting a larger wave of producers making their first foray into the whites on Monday, but today, for the first time this year, there were some notable teams in Chassagne, Puligny and Meursault:

Most famous was Domaine Leflaive who began their picking in their Puligny 1er Clavoillon, and in the same village was the team of Alvina Pernot in Bienvenues Bâtard-Montrachet and some others. To the south, Simon Colin was picking Chassagne 1ers, and to the north, Dominique Lafon was picking the Meursault Narvaux of his own label.

I jogged around the hills of Beaune at midday and saw nobody…

Puligny 22-Aug-2025, Caillerets to the left, Pucelles to the right…

Let’s get it out of the way – yes, it could be a very good vintage. Though, clearly, it’s not over until the she/he/other with above average body mass index starts to sing !!

A little background:
It’s been a vintage where growth got underway early, but not especially so, in the context of many recent vintages. If we consider vintages like 2018 and 2020, the growth and flowering in 2025 got underway as much as 10 days later. What accelerated things was the heat of June. Days of 35+°C are relatively common in Burgundian summers – but from mid-July into August – not in June. But this June, there were many such days – in fact, they occasionally came close to 40°C. That there was some rain every 5+ days avoided a drought situation. There was some concern about mildew again this year, but the intervals between the rains were just enough to avoid issues – unlike in the Mâconnais and Beaujolais, where mildew was, again, problematic.

So the June weather meant that the expected harvest dates were nudging much closer to those of 2018 and 2020 – until the cool weather of July. Still, I discussed the harvest with Pierre Lafon on the 21st July and he responded “ I’m sure we won’t be harvesting on the 20th August, but I plan to be ready for the 20th, just in case. Monday the 25th seems more likely.” But August got hot again – many days above 35°C and some touching 40°C, so Pierre was already doing some picking today! Normally, this heat might cause some blockage of the ripening, but the ground was sufficiently wet (and there was heavy rain in many parts of the côtes this week too) that the ripening continued – certainly in the whites.

This remains a very early vintage.

Jean-Marc Roulot was harvesting his Meursault Clos de la Baronne already on the 19th, and Sylvie Poilot of Domaine de la Vougeraie was harvesting her Bâtard-Montrachet on the same day – “Bill, the degrees were rising so fast – it was time to harvest them!”

And so this year, the whites are the first wave of harvests. Many of the well-placed reds – certainly in the Côte de Beaune – are already at or near 13° of potential alcohol. Only the phenolic maturity needs to ‘improve.’ I think we can look forward to many domaines harvesting whites from Monday, 25th August, and the reds, largely 1 week later, on September 1st.

The domaines always seem to like vintages that end in a 5, and it looks like this sequence will continue. Assuming no terrible storms in the next 2-3 weeks, we only need to worry about how high the alcohols might be. Otherwise, buckle up!!

Meursault-Charmes

Meursault-Charmes

“Pierre – the Charmes is ‘coming…'”

Meursault – hotbed of harvesting today

Meursault – hotbed of harvesting today

Beaune 1er Cru

But what was happening today?
Nothing was apparently underway in Santenay, but just over the border into Chassagne, where whites were being picked in Morgeot (Dugat-Py) plus another team lower down and opposite, just over the route des grands crus, too. I noted another small team in the flats of Chassagne, too.

Crossing the main road (St.Aubin had some action, but I missed it) the vineyards were quiet except for the ‘high’ part of Bâtatd-Montrachet on the Chassagne Side – two teams at work here.

Onward was quiet today except for one team on the mid-slope of Folatières. Meursault brought the most action: the team of Lafon at the top corner of Meursault-Charmes, plus a couple of teams in the middle of Meursault-Perrières. And then it was clear all the way to Meursault.

Clear to my eye, but I know that some of the whites were also picked in Beaune today – the Hospices white Clos des Mouches, for instance – it’s usually the young-vine parcels that are more precocious…