Here.

Olivier Fichet (the Mâconnais one) started harvesting yesterday – the 12^th August is, of-course, a modern-day record – Olivier started his 2003 harvest on the 20^th August. It’s one of their parcels of pinot too – machine harvested in this case…

Veraison 04 Aug Fixin Clos des Perrières

Of-course, it’s normal.

There was a bit of emotion with the tempest of hail that hit Nuits on Saturday, so it’s always better to wait 3 or 4 days before considering the full effect. And the effect seems to have been limited. The storm itself – thankfully – seems to have been centred on the town of Nuits itself. Some vines have been hit, but it’s predominantly a few puncture wounds to leaves and the occasional berry that has some impact damage on the southern side of Nuits. It was reported that the damage was all the way to Premeaux, but that wasn’t the case, the hail stopped quite close to the housing of Nuits – I’ve no info on damage to the north of Nuits but most villages actually remained dry.

And July? The average temperatures have been within a degree of a ‘normal’ July but there has been an almost record low of rain and many more hours of sunshine than the average. The sun has certainly managed to shrivel some of the directly exposed grapes, but unlike those few hailed berries around Nuitswhich have the time to dry completely, the sunburned grapes rarely fall to the ground so need more work to triage. The final treatments have already been made, so whilst growers might like a little more rain, they will happily so ‘no’ if it entails a storm. The projected harvest date remains one of the earliest on record and will be a function of both individual viticulture and attitude!

In Beaujolais, the harvest date is projected to be a little later than in 2003, but still the second earliest since data recording was properly established in 1992. Much further to the north – the sauvignons of Saint-Bris need another couple of weeks to be anywhere close to showing their maturity, but in general, like the rest of Burgundy, all is clean in the vineyards and the yields look modestly generous.

Some vines from today in Nuits 1er Les Procés:

Hail damage

Hail damage

Hail damage

No hail damage to grapes, only the leaves

It’s better to wait for a proper picture – but today’s ‘red warnings‘ of hail in the Côte d’Or were not for nothing:

Uh-oh……… https://t.co/skAiSb0kko

— 🅱️ill nanson (@billnanson) August 1, 2020

Veraison is everywhere in the pinot – almost!

In Gevrey-Chambertin, it depends on which side of the Route des Grands Crus you look. Here are some images from yesterday afternoon and you can see that the lower side of the road – Charmes, Griotte & Chapelle-Chambertin – here there is lots of colour, but on the other side of the road – Latricières, Chambertin, Bèze, Ruchottes – you have to really search for a little colour – these latter vineyards are, for the most part, still ‘green:’

Charmes

New Drouhin plantation in Griotte – emphasising the short but appreciable slope

Griotte

Griotte

Chapelle

Chambertin

Ruchottes

Puligny-Montrachet, 22 July 2020

Steady as she goes – and still 3-4 days ahead of the 2003 growing season.

Many in the Côte de Beaune are looking to have their teams back from holidays by Monday 17th August to prepare for their harvest but actual picking around 18th-20th August is not out of the question for the early pickers. The earliest estimated start that I know of in the Côte de Nuits, so far, is 22 August but habitual late-picker Pierre Damoy is thinking more along the lines of 8-25th September, for now.

This week we see temperatures of 31-35°C – the first time this year with such consistency of temperature – and for the very first time there are a few yellow leaves starting to appear on young vines – that’s a combination of the heat and dryness – last week’s few mm of rain (3-20mm) hasn’t really done very much. Most vines look in great shape; veraison is underway in most red wine vineyards now and is becoming much more visible in Hautes Côtes too – right, Puligny 1er Clos des Caillerets. Mildew is very rare this year, and as the sugar starts to rise in the berries, those areas with a little oïdium are being less affected.

The last treatments in the vines are largely done now, tractors in the vines more likely to be doing a little trimming of the vines – overwhelming now it’s the start of the domaine holidays…

Food traps have been set up* to follow the evolution of the populations of common fruit flies and their Suzuki cousins – this monitoring will continue until the harvest. There have been, for the last two weeks, some reports of ‘large populations’ of Suzuki close to fruit orchards (cherry, plum, etcetera) but nothing yet in the vines.
*Chambre d’Agriculture

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!