It’s always better to wait a day or two for ‘quantification’ – for more sombre reflection, if needed, taking emotion out of the equation – but the hail didn’t look (or sound!) good in Beaune today.

I left Switzerland at 7am, and all the way to the French border, on the other side of the Jura, it was stormy with significant rain and occasion (tiny) hailstones. So it was a surprise to arrive in Beaune to 28°C and blue skies in the middle of the morning – the forecast isn’t great for the Côte d’Or this week, but all looked fine. Over lunch the sky darkened and we had some heavy rain. At 2pm it turned to hail – about 1cm sized projectiles – at least in the centre of Beaune – and that lasted for close to 5 minutes. It’s hard to believe that there won’t be damage, it’s only a question of the ‘spread.’ The storm rumbles away for 3 hours before the sun returns, but only with modest rain as accompaniment. Judging by the weather forecast the next days will also not be easy.

Today, at best, all the hail cannons managed, was to soften the blows to my roof!

Hedging this morning in Beaune 1er Les Toussaints – very tidy!

There’s been lots of rain but plenty of warm days too, so the work in the vines is unrelenting as everything grows so fast – mainly spraying and currently ‘hedging’ i.e. giving the vines a tidying haircut.

The spraying is currently a priority because of the relative warmth and humidity – i.e. the rain. There is mildew in the vines but, so-far, it’s under control but everyone would like the rain to stop and a dry wind to blow. After a couple of weeks with virtually daily storms of thunder and lightning, it looks like next week will be warm and sunny – just what the doctor ordered.

Regarding the storms, there has been a very small amount of localised hail, but given the frequency of the storms it’s remarkable that there is practically no damage – is that down to luck or down to the anti-hail network? Nobody can say for sure, but there are 3 networks:

• Chablis and Grand Auxerrois
• Côtes de Beaune, de Nuits and Chalonnaise
• Mâconnais and Beaujolais

In total there are 145 ‘generators’ (hail cannons) in Burgundy, and they have been use about 10 times up to the 11 of June. So, as long as there is no damage, the producers can pat themselves on the back as it was such a good investment!

Pierre Vincent of Domaine Leflaive, pictured posing with the amalgamated 2016 production of 6 owners in Le Montrachet – image from October 2017

I’m sure you all remember the story of the frost at the end of April 2016, it was particularly cruel on the Chassagne-side of Montrachet – or Le Montrachet. For (even more) precision it was the domaines of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Domaine des Comtes Lafon, Domaine Leflaive, Domaine Guy Amiot, Domaine Lamy-Pillot (including their métayage of 0.054 hectares of the vines owned by Claudine Petijean) and Domaine Fleurot who assembled their production of grapes. This resulted in a measly 530 litres of wine from 1.25 hectares of Le Montrachet – 5 hectolitres per hectare. All the elevage was done at Domaine Leflaive.

I asked Dominique Lafon today if the wine was bottled yet, and what their plans were for its commercialisation – if any:

The wine will be bottled soon. There should be ~700 bottles but as we will all keep some for our own cellars, only 500 will be released. (Those 500 will all wear the same label – Bill)

We will not auction it, we plan something for charity but are still working on the distribution system. The wine will released in 2019.

So there you go…

Thunder, lightening, heavy rain and even the occasional rainbow in Morey St.Denis this afternoon.

Well, it’s already April, and we have passed the the poisson d’avril so maybe it’s safe to ask about 2018…

I was with Charles Lachaux in the torrential rain this morning, so 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?’

“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…”

Yep, the start of the year has, indeed, been been very wet:

Here, for your info, is a personal view of 2017 from the Château du Moulin à Vent. It should be noted, however, that their’s is a view based on being located in the area that was really brutalised by the hail in 2017. 95% of Beaujolais, however, had ‘normal’ yields and healthy fruit. Their results – the wines – will be very interesting to approach in another year-or-so…

2017 in Moulin-à-Vent & Pouilly-Fuissé

Monday the 18^th was Marko’s last day harvesting this year – Saturday and Sunday were ‘off’ days due to a) the weather and b) waiting for the ripeness of the Hautes Côtes fruit – helpful for Marko as he was suffering from some man-flu. But Monday they attacked:

Thank-you Marko!
 

HCDN-Arrival

The claggy plateau

HCDN – Corner plot in early mist

HCDN – Early morning coffee break

HCDN – Early morning coffee break

HCDN – Top of plot after mist cleared

HCDN – J-P-Feral one of first to lunch – as always!

HCDN – Herve readies al-fresco lunch in vines

HCDN – Vendangeurs-Japonnais – Yuka and Akko

HCDN – Lunch, liquid refreshments