I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s not just about the harvest, there are many factors that can influence a harvest, going right back to the growing season and harvest from the previous year:

• October 2017
  Many days in October exceeded the temperature of the second half of harvesting in September – 25°C was often seen. Indeed since the ‘big rain’ at the start of September – wich was about 40-100mm depending where you were in the Côtes – there had been little more than a further 10mm by the end of October. The colours of the leaves in the vines were resplendent – similar to 2016 though both 2016 and 2017 were a hint behind the flamboyance of 2015. By the end of October, 90% of the leaves had been lost, but although vigneron(ne)s might have complained that it was ‘too dry’ the vineyards were perfect for a little more vine-trimming, replacing wooden post and digging out the old/decrepit and dead vines – there was also more planting of young vines (repicage) than I can remember in Autumn – I usually see this being done in the Spring. In the end most of the Côte d’Or saw only 10 millimetres of rain in the month. The 31 October brought the first frost of the coming winter season.
• November 2017
  There were intermittent frosts – a good start to the winter – with some modest rain. Otherwise, nothing of importance.
• December 2017
  Oh – snow! It came in a couple of visits, lasting about 3-4 days each time before fading – unlike December 2016, there was to be no working in the vineyards in T-shirts! The end of December was very wet.

Wet, Wet, Wet. Even roads closed due to flooding in Chablis…

• January 2018
  Not so cold. The wet end to December continued into the start of the new year – plenty of stormy days with nearly 15°C, and with lots of rain – twice closing roads in Chablis, flooding in Paris too. The vignerons, whilst not so happy to venture into their sodden vines generally pointed to the relative lack of rain in the second half of 2017 – saying ‘it’s a good thing!’ – images of vines weeping following pruning, in January, due to the warm temperatures, were a less good thing. I noted deliveries of candles in Chablis – some domaines having run out in 2017! The end of the month brought the Saint Vincent in the Mâconnais – cloudy but drier than in recent years!
• February 2018
  With the change of the month was a change to a cold period – making the vignerons happier – every night for the first week of February, there were (modest) minus temperatures of -1° to -3°C. The start of February actually saw the very first minus temperatures of the winter in Beaujolais – they had no snow at the end of 2017, but there was 5cm on the Côte du Py on the first Monday of February and 15cm the week after – right in Fleurie.
• March 2018
  Well, the region had to wait for it, but eventually came the winter. Snow and minus temperatures in the first half of March – it was late but it gave the vines a real chance to sleep – if only for a couple of weeks. Then came the rain again – many of the flat areas of land in Côte d’Or saw vines in standing water for days on-end. The end of the previous growing season had been almost drought-like, but since the end of December the wet had been incessant – there was simply nowhere for the water to go!

Mid-March 2018 – the bottom of Meursault – nowhere for the water to go…

• April 2018
  April started to deliver some nice days of sun, but equally they were balanced with more of the rain which we were accustomed to. On the 4th I was visiting vines with Charles Lachaux in the torrential rain, when I put the question to him; ‘Given the cold, ice and snow of February and March, is 2018 a little behind the average growth-cycle today?‘ His response:
  “Well, we have definitely seen plenty of rain so far this year, but I would rather say that we are neither early or late, I see a traditional, normal, vintage so far. With a normal summer we would be harvesting somewhere between mid and late-September. Of-course, with all this rain we are only going to need a few days of 20°C-plus and the vines will explode with growth…” – as the year progressed, it seems that was an underestimate from Charles – as we entered the second half of the month temperatures were generally 25°C and more. My first images of bud-burst were about the middle of the month – and that was nearly 10 days later than in 2017 – but as we were to see later, harvesting, plus or minus 2 days – was to be at the same time as in 2017. There was a big storm, 27 April, which in the northern Mâconnais brought a small amount of hail. The alternating days of heavy rain and warmth seemed unchanging.
• May 2018
  MOre rain and more warm temperatures – there were to be no days or weekends of for most domaines – spraying and more spraying was required – the mildew alerts were at the highest level I’ve ever seen. The last day of May brought the darkest of skies and the loudest of thunder storms to the Côte de Beaune. The rain was so heavy, perhaps a few hailstones were concealed in that, but it was a close run thing – still no damage yet! I saw my first flowers the 27 May – I think some areas had already had flowers 4-5 days at that stage.
• June 2018
  Rain and thunder almost every day to start the month. Warm temperatures too so the vines really push – such a luxuriant growth – but so far the pressure of maladies is surprisingly low for the moment 6 June. By the middle of the month the domaine were already beginning to hedge and shape their vines – the flowering in quite good conditions now largely finished – the rain was a little less intense but there had been some wind. Given the frequency of the storms it was remarkable that there was practically no damage – perhaps the anti-hail network should be congratulated? Who knows, but in total there are 145 ‘generators’ (hail cannons) in Burgundy, and they had been used about 10 times up to the 11 of June. Towards the end of the month, 10km jogging was starting to become difficult in 30°C temperatures!

Corton-Charlemagne in July…

• July 2018
  Began rather cloudy and with thunder most days – much less sun than the last days of June. That first week (03 July) brought impacts of hail to some 1er cru vines close to Beaune, plus parts of southern Nuits – Premeaux and Comblanchien, predominantly. Later in July came a large storm which damaged large partes of the northern Mâconnais – from 5 to 95% – due to hail. The southern Mâconnais escaped. At first I thought it was a joke, but 09 July, I saw my first images of the onset of veraison in Corton. Some parts of Pommard hadn’t finished veraison at the start of September! On 16 July, southern Nuits was hit by hail for a second time – the first time 30%-50% had been lost in some sectors, this second event compounding that further. Two weeks after the image of veraison in Corton, there was still little colour change in the rest of the Côte de Beaune or Nuits, but I did see some in La Tâche!
• August 2018
  After a short holiday, I returned to tour the chardonnay of the Côte de Beaune – and they looked resplendent – and already tasted delicious! But where was that rot that everyone had been so concerned about? The temperatures were oppressive – from the last days of July it had been consistently 35-38°C – and no rain. Already the previously quiet whisperings were openly suggesting August for a harvest – and quite early in August too. I followed up with a tour of the pinot – they looked great too – very clean, but they were some way from finishing veraison – particularly some, lightly touched by hail, in Pommard – right. Both colours had occasional dried out berries – but generally the grapes looked fabulous. Of the famous names, Arnaud Ente began his harvest on 20 August, his brother Benoit Ente 21, Olivier Lamy 22, Dominique Lafon 23 and Jean-Marc Roulot 24 August. Less so in St.Aubin, but in Meursault they were all surprised by the amount of juice their grapes provided. My own first day harvesting in Beaune was 28 August. The 29th brough a rainstorm – Meursault and Volnay had almost 40mm to the south and north there was less. It was to be practically the last rain until the second half of October!
  Save for a few ‘surgical strikes’ of young vines, it was mainly the first days of September that saw harvesting in reds.