The weekend was stormy in many parts of France, some wine-growing areas had hail – Champagne for instance – fortunately none was reported in Burgundy, in fact many producers were happy to see a little rain.

A few early pickers were already in the vines last week – Olivier Lamy for instance attacking his young-vine chardonnay – although that is still the early wave. More will be at it this week – mainly whites – for instance Jean-Marc Roulot started today as did Pierre Vincent, starting his first harvest at Domaine Leflaive with the domaine’s Mâcon – Dominique Lafon doing likewise – and then Pierre will start in Puligny tomorrow – Dominique is also planning to bring his Côte de Beaune whites this week. Emmanuel Guillot-Broux is waiting waiting in the Mâconnais until the 2nd September to attack. Armand Heitz of Heitz-Lochardet is bringing-in his Chevalier-Montrachet this week.

Faiveley actually harvested a small parcel of Volnay last week because ‘it was ready‘ (of-course!) but that was just a warm-up for them and they haven’t done more yet. It appears that not a lot will be happening in the Côte de Nuits before the 7th, though in Chablis, as an early indication, Domaine Christian Moreau seem pretty sure that they will start on the 4th of September.

Although ‘discontinued’ in the Côte d’Or, there is still a Ban des Vendanges in the Beaujolais and it’s actually today – the 28th. Without getting too excited for the moment (but seemingly still trying), the locals confirm that it’s been a dry vintage but ‘The balance between sugar content and acidity is beautiful, and we can already say that 2017 will be a solar vintage and concentrated like in 2015, but with a fruit and freshness more like 2011.‘ So no big promises then!

Saint Amour, 24 July 2017.

(Translated) From Inter Beaujolais:
Ripening takes its course in the vineyards of Beaujolais: On average we are 15 days ahead of the maturity progress in 2016 – veraison (grapes changing colour) appears to be closer to early vintages such as 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2015.

Overall, the sunny and dry weather since the Spring has both pushed the development in the vineyards and helped keep a remarkably good health, such that fewer treatments have been needed this year. There is some ‘water stress’ due to lack of rain, which will be a volume-limiting factor in many sectors. If we add to this the impact of hail in northern Beaujolais, we are heading towards an average volume harvest.

July has been very dry, leaving small berries, which provides hope for a good concentration of juice and phenolic materials.

I waited a little to post info on hail in the Côte de Nuits – emotion can cloud first judgement and some people who initially estimated parcels with 40% damage now think much less…

The biggest impact remains the crus of Beaujolais – and the central corridor of that hailstorm will yield zero grapes. The hillside of Viré was also hit, but seemingly the rest of the Mâconnais was fine. In the Côte d’Or, it was the Côte de Nuits that caught the hail on Monday afternoon – coinciding with the first veraison (grapes changing colour.) Jeremy Seysses posted that the upper part of Clos St.Denis, Clos de la Roche and Monts Luisants in Morey St.Denis had been hit by hail – he currently estimates that higher on the slopes was more affected, where maybe 25% is damaged. It seems that the damage in Morey was mainly the northern side of the village, as Jacques Devauges of Clos du Tart reports “Yes, we had some hail on Monday the 10^th, but not much. The grapes are still nice.”

You can see the storm below in a video by Domaine Philippe Rossignol in Gevrey – this was taken on the hillside between Gevrey and Brochon. He notes that vines have been lightly damaged between Marsannay-la-Côte and Couchey. It’s amazing that the damage was light when you see this.

“We had about 3 hectares hit in the northern part of Gevrey; Les Jeunes Rois and Gevrey 1er cru Les Champeaux: Also in Morey Village; Morey 1er cru Aux Charmes was hit about 25%. We hope that there’s no more hail as we need to bring in a good harvest.”
Chantal Michel of Domaine Tortochot in Gevrey

Cyril Audoin notes that in Marsannay, the Clos de Jeu, Champ Salomon and Les Favières have been ‘touched.’ He also says that there were some impacts in Les Longeroies but none in the Clos du Roy. And for another view:

“We did have a little damage in the vineyards, but it’s inconsistent. We still plan to do a green harvest, on one hand to limit the harvest, one the other hand (now!) to remove the damaged grapes affected by hail – so to avoid the potential of rot.”
Isabelle Colotte of Domaine Colotte in Marsannay

The Côte de Beaune avoided the hail.

And lest we forget the epicentre in Beaujolais, the following is courtesy the Château du Moulin-à-Vent:

A violent episode of hail crossed the northern Beaujolais vineyards just before 5pm yesterday.

From Beaujeu to Moulin-à-Vent, the corridor is almost identical to that of 2016. The area concerned is large but to varying degrees according to the zones: the north of Lantignié, Régnié (to a lesser extent), Morgon (Charmes and Corcelette mainly), Chiroubles (Grille Midi especially). Fleurie (Le Bourg, Les Quatre Vents, Champagne …) seem to be the most impacted appellations. Chénas and Moulin-à-vent are also affected.

The hailstones were not large (certainly the result of using the diffusers), but the storm was associated with mini wind tornadoes that caused a real “sanding” of some vines.

In the next few days should make it possible to make a more precise assessment of the area of vines concerned and the degree of impact on the future harvest.
From Interbeaujolais this lunchtime

What devastation looks like #fuckhailhttps://t.co/MQY2TwtZnBpic.twitter.com/oBUQ2gXjfD

— Andrew Nielsen (@legrappin) July 11, 2017

As the Tour de France reaches Nuits St.Georges today, this week’s weather has recovered from the cooler wet days at the end of last week – the latter part of the week has simmered at 35°C. But there are big regional differences – last weekend Beaune received about 95 mm of rain – much needed rain – but depending on where you were in Beaujolais you may have seen between 1 and 10 mm. There are storms forecast for the weekend too

The vines are surging forward – it’s currently highly likely that the Côte d’Or will be harvesting closer to the beginning of September – more like 90 days from flowering, whereas in Beaujolais they are already starting to pencil-in dates from the 25^th August! Even Chablis where they had over 10 days of frost at the end of April is forecasting an early harvest – though the frosted vines are of-course a little behind. Yields are currently looking ‘good’ – Chablis excepted – and given the lack of wine in cellars, that would be a logistical boon, but clearly might have repercussions for the pricing of 2016s. Let’s see, according to the BIVB:

In the north of the Bourgogne winegrowing region, in the Chablis and Grand Auxerrois, growth is comparable with the 2011 and 2003 vintages. For the Côte de Beaune, Côte de Nuits and the Hautes-Côtes, it is more like 2007 and 2009, when the harvest began at the end of August or in early September. The Côte Chalonnaise should also begin harvesting around that time. As for the Mâconnais, 2017 is a week ahead of the average for the last 10 years, and 18 days ahead compared to 2016.

The grape clusters are closing up and I’ve even seen the first pictures of some colour-change – veraison. The vineyards are currently very clean – no mildew, and so-far very little sign of oïdium. Oïdium from infection to blooming needs 40 days – so so the vignerons think that if they’ve seen nothing in the next 10 days, then they will have avoided that too. In the vines maybe there are a few last treatments of sulfur and copper – but apart from a tight ‘haircut’ to tidy the vines, the only work is preparing for the harvest – oh and the vigneron(ne)s holidays!

This week I’ve been enjoying the beautiful blue skies of the Côtes – and finding my iPhone a decent-enough replacement for my camera! Yesterday was a big tasting in Beaujolais – lots and lots of St.Amour – next week I’ll be visiting the selected producers.

Only one mid-week wine – a half of 1996 Grivot Nuits Lavières. The first sip was a little sharp, but à table with the home-made burgers it was very nicely balanced. Definitely a durable wine and of interest and fine texture too, but any pretense of ‘deliciousness’ departed the scene at least 15 years ago!