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…

Or just storms with some hail? It’s merely cloudy in Beaune right now, but in Gevrey:

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Recent vintages compared – each at the end of May – Chambre d’Agriculture, Côte d’Or

2021 So far:
– A year with reasonably cold winter temperatures followed by sunglasses and t-shirts in the vines in February/March.
– April turning colder then, for a few days, hotter, then heavily frosted – of note, many areas experienced an extra volume of vine-munching caterpillars.
– May was wet and cool
– Now it’s warming up again – and we could be moving into a rapid phase of growth for the vines – but they need it!
– The concerns over mildew are yet to be substantiated…

From the graphic above, ex Chambre d’Agriculture, Côte d’Or, this is (at the same date) five days behind even the 2013 vintage where many/most finished harvesting in October. There’s definitely some catching up to be done…

As you can see from the above – this was Beaune Day 1.

Day 1 of the opening of restaurant terraces – and suddenly Beaune has woken from its slumbers – so many people, so few parking spaces!

Despite a long-range forecast that suggested rain every day this week – there have only been intermittent showers. The temperatures, even when sunny have stayed in the teens. There has been plenty of rain this year so far – though compared to wet (starting) vintages such as 2013 and 2016 we currently have about 75% of the rainfall of those two. You know about the April frosts and the return of some frost at the start of May too but Saint Glace is now nearly a week behind us.

The cold and cool weather has had its effect on the growth of the vines – we are close to 4 weeks behind the growth of the vines last year – so whilst the arrival of hot weather will see a spurt of growth it’s unlikely that we will see harvesting before the 20th September. I can also see this delay in my garden; my collection of irises continues to grow and there are many flower buds and whilst the irises of Beaune are well underway, in Bern I am still waiting – none have opened yet – the first last year was Tuesday 5th May! Maybe this weekend…

But what exactly will the Côte d’Or be harvesting?

For reds, it seems that the late pruners have lost the least – but still, a conservative one-third of the crop is gone – Savigny was terribly frosted in 2016 but the growers tell me that 2021 will have better yields – though at least 80% of the whites have been lost in that village. Wandering around Corton there are vines with 5 or 6 bunches starting to show – assuming an okay flowering – but other vines show nothing. Perhaps one-third to half a crop here. Of course, such estimates can be taken with a pinch of salt pre-flowering…

I’ll keep you posted.

Oh, and given the lack of 2021 harvest to look forward to, I think you can already guess where the bulk prices of the 2020s are going…

05 May 2020 – Bern

Growth this week in Corton

Growth this week in Corton Vergennes

Savigny Clematis

Last week I noted many vineyards still with frost candles waiting to be collected – it seems it wasn’t a case of the owners being lazy, rather they were waiting for more cold weather.

Overnight 02-03 May – so yesterday morning – the temperatures dipped again. In certain sectors of the Hautes-Côtes such as Chevannes and Villars, or villages lower down such as Marsannay, Gevrey, Vosne & Premeaux – even Meursault and Chassagne too – the temperatures, once more, sunk below zero. The thermometers registering between –2° and –3°C in some places. Some vigneron(ne)s have posted pictures on Instagram today of sad looking leaves.

It’s still too early to say what the effect of this year’s frosts will be, but this clearly hasn’t helped.

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