Beaune, 21h00 tonight

This morning really reminded me of 2015 – getting the gardening done before 10am – before the temperatures got too high.

Late afternoon Beaune sweltered in 37°C – long live aircon I say, having travelled 4 hours from Bern!

Despite this week’s similarity to 2015, this time last year the Côte d’Or whites had already been largely harvested, fewer growers were in the reds, but the equivalent of next week was (red) D-Day for most producers. This year, I don’t expect much to happen before the 20th September, maybe closer to the 26th…

But what are they going to pick? The Côte de Nuits is not THAT bad, but I spoke to David Croix today, who this week was back from two weeks of holiday. “Well, we did quite the most thorough evaluation of the grapes in the Domaine des Croix vineyards that I’ve ever done, it it doesn’t look good. The average was less than one cluster per vine – about 2-3 hectolitres per hectare. I might be a little out and could be surprised and get 5 – but I won’t be getting 15. And we thought that 2012-2015 was bad! Okay this year we pruned late and had a lot of weeds in the vines – that seemed to exacerbate the effect of the frost. I might make 10 barrels this year” How many do you usually make? – was the obvious question – “oh, about 100…”

On that note, maybe it’s better to concentrate on the pretty sky this evening!

Truly awful hail hit southern France on Wednesday afternoon – there were similar storms in Switzerland too where the ground turned green-white – a mix of shredded foliage and hailstones. Over 1,000 hectares were ‘touched’ in the Languedoc-Roussillon, including most of Pic Saint-Loup. Judging by some of the images, there may not be anything to properly prune for 2017 – i.e. there may also be no grapes next year!

This time, at-least, greater Burgundy was spared, though anything can still happen between now and harvest time. Talking of harvest time, and based on the current state of veraison, it looks like the reds may be ready for picking from the 26 September – of-course some producers habitually wait longer. Usually the whites are picked 7-10 days before the reds, but there are some indications that this year it may only be 1-3 days before the reds. Let’s see!

Yesterday I did a little tour in Beaujolais. The big hail event for them was largely in the crus, little in the south of Beaujolais was touched; Mainly it was the area between Morgon and Fleurie, plus Chiroubles and some Juliennas. These vines were largely stripped of all growth in late May, but the rain that came with the hail was so hard, that afterwards, there was no shredded vegetation to be seen on the slopes – it had all been washed down the drains. Today they have recovered well and look quite healthy, despite being only half the size of usual for the time of year – but, unsurprisingly, I spotted only one bunch of grapes per 8 or 9 vines. It was also easy to see the impact of large hail projectiles on all the hard-wood parts of the vines!!

Southern Beaujolais Pinot 18 August

Southern Beaujolais Syrah 18 August

Southern Beaujolais Gamay18 August

Hail impacts on the wood

ESCA – this vine will not live long…

A blue-green cupric (Cu²⁺) tinge…

“I know it’s only July, but frankly I can’t wait for this vintage to be over. We were proud to have survived the growing seasons of 2012 and 2013, but 2016 is on another level. The harvest will not be better, very few grapes and a massive competition to buy grapes too – probably at prices that will make the bottles unsellable – it’s also probable that some producers and maisons will go out of business – it will just depend on their banks.”
A Beaune grower yesterday evening…

Extra Work
Weeds have been big problems this year – growers don’t recollect them growing so fast before – it’s clearly a vintage for weeds. There is also much extra work in training and pruning; those vines affected by frost growing more like bushes and needing particular care so that there will be something to prune to allow fruit in 2017! It’s interesting to see some occasional plots in the Beaune 1ers that seem to have been abandoned – straggly growth and lots of weeds as high as the vines – here there are of-course no grapes after the frost – some people are either prioritising – or have already given up!

Hail
After the (unreported) hail of the 24th June took out some of Gevrey’s Lavaux St.Jacques, there was more (unreported) hail in Chassagne last Wednesday (13th July) – both were localised and weather reporters simply cannot track these storms.

Mildew
July usually sees the last treatments before domaines go on holiday, but the vineyards are busier than usual. Some are trimming their vines – and quite late versus most years – and others are still treating against the threat of mildew. The weather for the last 5-6 days has joined in the fight against the mildew – there’s been a drying north wind in that time – but the damage has already been done. The northern vineyards of Champagne and Chablis have been decimated by mildew – “If you thought the hail and frost was bad – you should see what the mildew has done.” an owner in both Beaune and Chablis told me on Monday.

Oïdium
The Côte d’Or has suffered much less than Champagne and Chablis, but there is plenty of dew each morning and this isn’t going to help protect against oïdium. Normally you have either mildew or oïdium, but not both – but in a vintage like 2016 the producers are not counting what chickens they have left – indeed they are praying that the pendulum doesn’t swing too far from mildew to oïdium.

The heat
It seems almost churlish to invoke ‘heat’ when we’ve had such a generally cool vintage – but yesterday it was 33°C in Beaune and today it is forecast to be over 36°C. The heat itself isn’t really the problem, rather it is the sudden arrival of such heat without acclimatisation by the vines – “It’s the spikes in temperature are the problem. After the frost, and the mildew, those grapes that survived will probably get roasted today…”

Sometimes I’m really surprised how upbeat some producers can be – when not talking about their vines. But did I mention that storms are (again) forecast by Meteo-France for the Côte d’Or later today……(?)

Bourgogne Aujourd’hui put a article together that follows the low points of the vintage so-far (in French) at the end of last week, a week when the Rhône was badly hailed. Here. (or if you prefer a google translation, here.)

Episodes of hail are almost going unmentioned in a year such as this; Friday 24th June there was a big rainstorm in the Côte d’Or that afternoon – the same storm (presumably) that hailed Fleurie(++) on the same day – only by speaking to an owner did I find out that parts of the Côte d’Or were also hailed; their parcel of Lavaux St.Jacques being completely lost. Presumably this group of owners have no Facebook presence to announce this particular loss to the world – or have given up!

Currently, most of the Burgundian growers are spraying, and then spraying again against mildew – not entirely successfully – we have seen more treatments this year, so-far, than in the whole of 2015. Then there are the grapes; the heavy rain of Friday 24th came towards the end of flowering (some was already finished) and it seems that it did cause some further yield loss with indications of small or aborted grapes be reported to me.

In Burgundy 2016 it seems that when it rains, it really pours…