I chatted with the ‘home domaine’ today to get a better feel for how things are running:

It seems that, despite great weather in August and (so far) in September, the harvesting timeline has been extended a little further. Whites and the first Côte de Nuits reds will probably arrive at the winery around 27-28th September, but this year will not be the usual concentrated 10-day blast, probably the Côte d’Or harvest could easily last 3 weeks (the Hautes Côtes is often a couple of weeks later).

The hailed Côte de Beaune vines lost about 2 weeks of maturity (versus the unhailed), and whilst you might expect them to catch back up (as there’s less fruit to ripen) there’s no sign of that yet. Another domaine that I know of in Morey isn’t planning to start until ~4th October, so I guess Laurent Ponsot will be penciling-in a Halloween party to coincide with his vendanges, but whether that aligns with his start or finish is yet to be seen!

Given the awful news of hail for Côte de Beaune vignerons, many people (even the French!) have fixed in their mind that 2013 is going to be a difficult/poor vintage, yet they lose sight of the fact that hail hit from the Meursault/Volnay border to Pernand-Vergelesses, but no more. The whites largely look magnificent, and the Côte de Nuits still has the potential for a Great vintage. Disease pressure was only very early in the season due to the wet spring / early summer, thereafter, the weather has been dream-like. Let’s see how that weather treats them over the next 4 weeks.

Meanwhile I’ve culled a few ‘Facebook bunches’ for your delectation: As always, Alexandrine Roy leads the field with her photogenic clusters(…!), but for balance, I’ve include a few from Pommard too.

Can’t wait!

[Photo credits: Jeremy Seysses, Thomas Bouley, Nicolas Rossignol, Alexandrine Roy]

Claude asked yesterday ‘What are current harvest date estimates?’, and given the amount of permutations it seemed worth making an additional post…

As a sidenote, earlier today there was a report that the vintage for the whole of France would be bad due to hail, so Philippe Bouzereau of Meursault, posted a picture (right) taken today to show just how terrible his hailed vines really are 😉 I also read that of France’s 900,000 hectares of vines, ‘only’ 37,000 hectares have been hailed – Alsace was also hit by hail this week – but that was clearly quite enough for Olivier Thiénot (director of l’école du vin à Paris) to declare the vintage a ‘fail’!

Focusing on the Côte d’Or; I showed the picture of veraison in Richebourg yesterday, but my contact in Beaune tells me that Beaune Cent-Vignes had a few coloured berries already 2 days ago – they are competitive these growers! Whilst some of the vineyards were dealt a very heavy hand by the hail, there is no real consistency; generally, losses range from 10-70% – sections of Savigny’s Liards and Lavières may be at 90% – higher parts of the Pommard/Beaune border were, likewise, decimated. A quick view of one grower’s holdings suggests the following losses: Corton 5-10%, Corton-Charlemagne 30%, Savigny 20%, higher-slope Beaunes ~60%, lower-slope Beaunes 20-30%. For their total portfolio the losses are estimated at 30% – but let’s not forget the Côte de Nuits wasn’t affected, not so far, at least – they still have a very special vintage to conjure with – likewise mid-Meursault (where most of the 1ers are) and south into Puligny and beyond.

But why all this talk of hail when we want to know about harvesting? Well the hail will play its part in when to harvest. Except for the hail of the 23rd, the Burgundians simply couldn’t have had better weather in July. August has started a little cooler and with rain, but it’s becoming warmer again. Already there was a feeling that some of the Côte de Beaune vineyards might be picked concurrently with, or even later than those of the Côte de Nuits – though those vines that have been hailed will almost certainly be picked after much of the Côte de Nuits – estimates are that the hailed vineyards have lost about 10 days of ripening – so would need 110 days from flowering. Growers of Côte de Nuits Grand Crus are currently estimating (August/September could of-course make changes) 27th or 28th September for harvesting, the Côte de Beaune reds were looking at the 25th, or were before the hail. The first whites are currently anticipated 20-25th September – let’s see – but it certainly looks like the 2013 harvest will compressed in to a few less days than usual.

And for those of you still unsure about what hail can do, take a peek at this short video from quite close to the Côte d’Or, you don’t need to speak French, the feeling of shock and awe is universal!

Of-course, just for now it is seldom seen, but today it was first seen in Richebourg, Domaine Grivot’s Richebourg to be precise…

I just got off the phone with a grower in Beaune – I’d called to get a bit more information on the flavenscence d’orée insecticide spraying ‘story’ – in the background I could still hear the remnants of the thunder-storm. The temperature was now just 18°C – 1 hour ago it had been well over 30°C – that was before the storm hit.

Like last year, hail has ripped through the vines from Volnay to Savigny; further south I’ve no info yet; further north, the Côte de Nuits experienced only about 1mm of rain and no hail. I’m not sure where the border lay – was it Savigny or Corton? – we’ll know later…

The grower said he called somebody in the vineyards, and the hail on their tractor cab sounded like gunshots. He then drove towards Pommard and said it was like somebody was throwing rocks at his car and the roads were all flooded – there were even fallen trees in the roads. He visited Beaune Grèves and said he was almost frightened to see the quantity of water coming down the vineyards towards his car, all boiling and brown. The scene was apparently apocalyptic, with leaves strewn about the ground. A quick glance in the heavy rain made him think losses could be 50% – he heard from growers in Savigny and Volnay who said 60-90% losses. They are all a bit emotional right now as very many in the Côte de Beaune desperately needed a good volume this year. A better idea of losses will come with the new light tomorrow, and when the emotions have dimmed a little.

I would have added some of the photos that are now filling facebook and twitter – but it just seems too voyeuristic. As for the insecticide discussion, we put that to bed – the leaf-hoppers will anyway have been drowned…

A subsequent note from ‘a man in Aloxe’:

As you know, hail yesterday at c. 4pm was both widespread and intense – almost exclusively in the Cote de Beaune.

I spoke with a few people we work with this morning. In northern Meursault and especially throughout Volnay and Pommard ( serious and widespread in both villages ) , Savigny ( several village plots and Les Lavières ) and the Beaune vineyards ( Beaune Premier Crus – Bressandes, Greves, Les Cents Vignes, Clos des Avaux too ).

Re. the point you raise in Big Red Diary about where the border lay, I would say right about here on north side of Aloxe-Corton. I was in Aloxe-Corton all of yesterday afternoon and we seemed to be on the cusp of the weather with a lot of torrential rain but little powerful hail – our village plot of Les Caillettes is fortunately fine, but behind us further up the hill of Corton there is some damage.

That was a nice view on the in-car map!

The weather in the Côtes has been just about perfect so-far in July – and the forecast is more of the same for at least the rest of the month. Temperatures have been late 20s / early 30s °C, but with a dry breeze, so there is virtually no disease pressure, just isolated instances of a little mildew but without the conditions for it to spread.

There are plenty of bunches on the vines but coulure is causing problems for pinot noir – mainly, but not only, in the Côte de Nuits where flowering was a few days later. Some vines will again deliver low yields because of this, but generally there is optimism for both good yields and quality. Ploughing, ploughing and more ploughing has been the work of late June and July, but more controversially, the mandated spraying of insecticide in the vines of the Côte d’Or is a hot topic locally – whether you are Biodynamic or not! – yet has been little reported. I’ll give you more info later in the week.

Overall, 2013 is ticking along very nicely – let’s keep our fingers crossed! And to keep you occupied a little longer, a modest selection of images from the end of last week:

Pic, Caroline l’Estime

I hope I’m not writing this just a little too early, but yesterday and today were forecast to be stormy, and given the awful experience of growers in other places this week we shouldn’t get carried away, yet the hail has so far been absent in the Côtes. No hail, but still 40 mm of rain yesterday, and there was further heavy rain this afternoon too.

As for flowering, I’d already reported the first stirrings at the end of last week – mainly Côte de Beaune chardonnay – but there was already a little flowering pinot on Monday in the warm spots of Beaune and Corton Vigne au Saint – I’m sure there were others too! Today I’ve seen pics of flowering in Morey too, so we might consider the weekend or early next week to be a mid-point in flowering. It seems that those vines that didn’t have shoots ripped away by the wind, actually look to have plenty of flowers, so no yield issues today, but we don’t want 40 mm of rain every day, do we(?)

If Thursday evening brought a few wind-related losses, then Friday delivered the most precocious of flowers: Just one or two were reported by Olivier Lamy in Chassagne, but with the warm weather (we are enjoying!) set to continue, probably much of the Côte d’Or vines will be in flower by the end of this week. There are storms forecast for Wednesday; let us hope that they will be inconsequential!

Anyway, add 100 days to Friday 14th of June, and you arrive at: Monday 23rd September…
(Just saying…)

Yesterday, late afternoon, and up and down the Côtes was a bit of a storm. No worries about hail, and the rain that fell wasn’t really damaging as the flowers haven’t yet opened – but!

There were heavy gusts of wind on the more exposed slopes, such that the long shoots that haven’t yet been tied down – say 1 metre in length – were often ripped straight from the vines and thrown to the floor. That will sicken those who had been hoping for better yields…