Video Here

 Photo belongs to Aurélien Blugeot

Happy are those in the Côte de Beaune that have already cut a significant portion of their whites – Dominique Lafon and Olivier Lamy leading the way with accompanying social-media images of perfect grapes picked under perfect blue skies.

Yesterday night it turned stormy – a modest amount of rain fell in the Côte d’Or, and the forecast for the days that follow is fine, but in Chablis the rain was much, much heavier – historically high levels for a 12 hour period – and at about 2am there was also hail, big hail – @Meteo89 announced that 600 hectares were touched by hail. Alerted this morning by Meursault vigneron, Patrick Essa, I then spoke with Matthieu Mangenot of Domaine Long-Depaquit and he had the following to say:

“We got got hail last night and some places our domaine vines suffered, such as Blanchot, Clos and Montée de Tonnerre. We also had a huge amount of rain – 60-70mm. My plans were to start on Friday as maturities are already high (Moutonne 12.30°), but I will build a small team to start on Thursday for the places that were injured.”

I’ll update this post as I get more producer info, such as Christian Moreau below…

Very bad hail storm last night – damage in many parcels, so we decided to advance our harvest to Thursday morning to save the grapes that can be saved specially with a cooler weather !!

And from the BIVB in Chablis the following infos:

Saint-Bris, Irancy and Chablis suffered a very localized hailstorm, Tuesday, September 1st between 1:20 ET 2am.

The love of Burgundy is lively and a lot of estimates have been circulating since this morning, but it is still too early to give any definate information. What is known is that the vast majority of the vineyards of Chablis (over 5,000 ha) was spared. Saint-Bris has been touched partially, Irancy more widely.

The plots that have been hailed, the maturity of the grapes and the return of dry weather will allow rapid harvest, which will preserve the essential qualities of this very promising vintage. The harvest will be as expected for all non hailed vines.

We’ll tell you more when we have the information.

Followed by a little more precision from the BIVB (Chablis):

The hailstorm hit a narrow corridor running from Irancy to Chablis.

It went through the towns of Chitry and Courgis, touched Chablis Premier Cru Montmains (and Butteaux and Forêts), crossed Chablis town and damaged Les Clos, and Blanchot on Chablis Grand Cru hill, Montée de Tonnerre and a part of Mont de Milieu.

We think that between 200 to 300 hectares have been damaged at different levels.

The other parts of the vineyard are safe. (Surface of Chablis vineyard : 5400 ha)

The harvest was supposed to begin on Saturday, but the balance between acidity and sugar is already very interesting that why the vine growers decide to harvest the affected vines from today to preserve quality.

It’s impossible for me to give you more information at this stage, I’m sorry about that.

#Bourgogne : de la #grêle et des #pluies intenses cette nuit, dévastatrices pour les #vignobles… #chablis#vendangepic.twitter.com/yArDa49N3q

— La Chaîne Météo (@lachainemeteo) September 1, 2015

Vignes ravagées par l'#orage de cette nuit à #Chablis Qq jours avant les vendanges, désolation pour la viticulture pic.twitter.com/36NF4MO2XZ

— Céline&Fred Gueguen (@ChablisGueguen) September 1, 2015

#Orages Les vignobles de #Chablis et d'#Irancy sérieusement touchés http://t.co/MosbRYICKhpic.twitter.com/ZMvrWroFtg

— L'Yonne Républicaine (@lyonne_fr) September 1, 2015

To be honest, it’s still very much the calm before the storm, but there are plenty of big names already in the vines…

It started with Olivier Lamy on Wednesday and then on Thursday he was joined by Dominique Lafon and Jean-Marc Roulot – amongst others. Today both Dujac and Vougeraie were in the vines – though only for their Côte de Nuits whites – in particular, Pierre Vincent was only picking his young vines in the Clos Blanc de Vougeot. One vigneron from Meursault dryly noting that much of Meursault might be picked before people start picking their grapes for cremant!

Given the thick skins of the (both colours of) grapes, it is clearly going to be something of a phenolic vintage, so maybe it’s better to be a little earlier with the whites, though not probably not the reds, as it wouldn’t hurt if their tannins had the chance to became smoother. Staying with whites; they certainly have only average acidity, but the tartaric is high and the malic quite low – so not much acidity will be lost during the malolactic fermentation, hence, people can wait if they like – yet many vigneron is now thinking that the grapes are presenting themselves very-much like they did in 2005 – and 2005 is/was rather a brutal white wine vintage, so maybe earlier will be better than later, the grapes often still look green, but many are already showing >12.5°…

2005? So it might seem.

More than one vigneron had previously told me that they thought the vintage could be a cross between 05 and 09, but as the harvest approaches, the form and presentation of the grapes reminds them more and more of 2005 – and looking like there may be just roast grapes to remove during triage as rot is so low. Tasting the pinot reveals quite some tannic structure, for this reason many will not rush into the vines to pick, despite many vineyards looking ‘ready’ already. As one vigneron put it to me “Based on the date of full flowering, and taking only an additional 95 days before picking – given that we had so much heat – that would mean that my Beaune Grèves should be picked on the 7th September – so there’s still a quite some waiting to be done, despite the grapes already looking fine.” Some producers seem pretty sure that the red grapes will continue to mature, without any great risk of rot – unlike 2007 and 2011 where the grapes turned very quickly as the rot developed.

So, just now, it looks like next week will mainly remain the realm of chardonnay harvesting, whereas the reds will mostly wait until after the 5th.

Let’s see!