Crushing a grape sample to test the analytics

Two bite-sized snippets that afford plenty of perspective:

“With the potential harvest parameters of % veraison & vine health being heterogeneous from one plot to another it is, for the moment, very difficult to precisely project the optimal dates for the onset of the harvest. In terms of the stages of vine growth and summer rainfall (125mm in July-August in Beaune, which would be classed as ‘historically normal’), 2021 can be compared to 2012. These trends, to date, indicate starting points of 18-20 September but the evolution of the state of health in the first half of September (notably any development of botrytis) will come into play in the decision.”
Chambre d’Agriculture, Côte d’Or – 24 August 2021

“For the white grape varieties, due to excessive frost damage, only 2/3 of the data points will be available this year. Two-thirds of the sampled plots of chardonnay have passed the mid-veraison stage, however, maturity is not very advanced from an analytical perspective. The plots of aligoté, severely impacted by frost, cannot be sampled this year. For the black grape varieties, samples from a little more than 3/4 of the plots could be collected. These black grape varieties are the most advanced in maturity, particularly the pinot noir where most of the sampled plots are close to full veraison. The sugar contents vary from 145 to 150 g/l, except in the Yonne. The acidities are currently high, in particular, due to a significant presence of both tartaric and high levels of malic acids.”
BIVB Infos – 24 August 2021

Chambertin, 12 days ago

The last week, or so, has brought some welcome summer weather to Burgundy – even a few days with temperatures above 30°C. There has still been some rainfall, but more modest than in previous weeks, so the veraison is progressing. It seems that veraison in the Côte de Nuits is currently a little more advanced than in the Côte de Beaune or the Chalonnaise. The current estimates are about 50% veraison in the Côte de Beaune and closer to 90% in the Côte de Nuits. Not surprisingly, the veraison in the Hautes Côte is behind these two – but that’s completely normal.

It should be noted that the modest rain of the last days follows on from no lack of rain in the previous weeks – so, there is still much humidity in the Côtes and in the vines. This week the temperatures have been modest – largely under 25°C – it could get closer to 30° at the weekend but next week we will return to 25°C or a bit less.

Given the continuation of warm but not hot weather and still plenty of humidity there remains the question of ‘maladies.’ The bunches of grapes have largely passed the stage where they can be infected by mildew – so those that were clean should remain so – but the weather is allowing plenty of new shoots to be produced and these are susceptible to the disease. Oïdium remains present in the vines – exacerbated by the heavy morning dews.

The harvest date predictions have remained quite stable – though the window is wide – 15-25 September remains the window for most producers, red and white – for now! Officially after the last treatment, you shouldn’t harvest grapes for 30 days – so most producers have already finished their last treatments and are now on holiday.

At least the weather this year will mean that there will be significantly fewer sun-burned clusters of grapes to triage.

This is the week that marks the outliners of veraison – the first berries are changing colour.

There’s been a consistent delivery of rain across the summer – actually dryness that has been punctuated by rain – sometimes heavy, causing short-lived rivers on vineyard paths. That said, coming from a Springtime deficit of rain, the Côte d’Or is now just below or already above the long-term rainfall average – it just depends on the village. Despite many stormy incidents and plenty with hail in the region. the vines have, so far, avoided new incidences.

So far it’s not really been a hot year – plenty of days have exceeded 30°C but there have been many cooler days too. This mix of warm and humid then cooler is keeping the risk of mildew high and oïdium remains an issue. Even a little botrytis can be found – but it’s too late for any treatment for the latter. The last treatments before the harvest will depend on the approach to viticulture of individual domaines but some have already made their last treatments before heading for their summer holidays and others will probably spray for the last time next week.

To date, the general timing of maturity in 2021 still resembles the trio of vintages; 2019, 2016 and 2012.

And, the best thing to do on a rainy Saturday in Beaune:

Today the weather is changing in Burgundy and once more for the worse.

The growers had been hoping for a couple of weeks of dry weather to rid themselves of the growing issue of downy mildew (right) even powdery mildew in some places too. Here are the main differences.

It seems that, for now, it’s going to stay wet and cool – the rain arriving today and holding station until at least Sunday. Whilst mildew is relatively under control in the Côte d’Or and Hautes Côtes, you don’t even need to get out of the car to spot strongly affected areas of vines in the Côte de Chalonnaise.

Coupled with the rain we have, once more, cooler temperatures too – this week, the forecast suggests that we will hardly break 20°C. At least the cooler temperatures are keeping the threat of oïdium under control though it’s still more prevalent than 1 week ago. From the perspective of weather, this is going to be a very different vintage to those of last 5 years. For now, the pacing of the maturity has retarded from 2012 to more like 2016 – so currently three weeks later than 2020 – but it’s likely to speed up in the areas where the yields are smallest – a lower yield ripening much faster than a higher one.

We are still probably about 2 months from the harvest, but the habitually earlier pickers tell me that their smaller yielding parcels might be ready to pick around Monday the 6th of September. I’ll keep you posted.

Yesterday was just another day in the waves of storms that we’ve seen at home for a week, or more. Hail caused some damage to the leaves of many garden plants – my pinot noir a little too. But my garden was relatively untroubled compared to about 25 km away in the Emmental where the hail-stones were much larger – they killed storks in their nests on the rooftops – 15 juveniles and even 2 adult birds too.

Not a good day…

Pouilly-Vinzelles, today…

Just 2 days ago, Solutre & Pouilly(-Fuissé) were badly hit by hail. I managed to take a tour of the vines while visiting today.

Much damage was done to the leaves and to what grapes there were – even the wood of the thicker stems was badly bruised and often snapped off towards the end of the branches. Yesterday, it didn’t look too bad as everything was still green, today the browning of the impact points had begun and I’m sure it will look even worse tomorrow.

The hail really came in a band and was accompanied by a high wind that exacerbated the damage – it just so happens that (in and around Fuissé) this band of weather followed the line of the new 1er Crus of Pouilly-Fuissé – and in only their second vintage too! As one vigneron of Fuissé described it today: “In some places there is no real drama, though we still have some effect from the hail, in other places it’s much worse and we wait for the official inspection. In these latter places, it’s clearly not just a case of this year’s losses but also how easy it will be to make our pruning for 2022 – some vines will clearly be complicated in this respect. You can see where there are puncture holes in the leaves there is generally damage to the grape clusters below too – and we’d only just, say 95%, finished the flowering too.”

Indeed, it wasn’t just a case of various grapelets taking direct impacts; the recently flowered ‘bunches’ when taking a hail impact usually break off completely or lose at least half their length – and, given the frosts of April, there was so little potential yield in the first place.

At least in Vergisson they had some luck and were not touched – but then they have already lost about 80% to the frost so…

2021 is not for the faint-hearted vigneron – particularly, so far, the producers of whites. Some images from today:

I thought I’d update you after this first image of the iris crop chez-moi this year. Two were missing in action this year – no blooms – but still a creditable 14 different ones this year. The yellows were the first and the last…

With all the seedlings, I’m running out of space for more.

A later flowering year but still a good year for them, without too much rainy weather over the flowering season – maybe I’ve another 10 days to enjoy the blooms before it’s all over for 2021…