I got up early today to visit Chablis – an 08h30 producer appointment before tasting a range of wines from Irancy (2015).

I often encountered temperatures of 1-2°C whilst on the autoroute, but nothing lower – the skies were clear blue and the sun was shining.

As I approached Chablis I could see that it was just about the only place with some overhead cloud – but I noted it wasn’t the usual white-grey, it was brown-grey – it didn’t take me long to work out that this was the accumulation of the smoke from all the vineyard candles that are used to guard against the frost – there was no wind, so the smoke simply stayed put.

After my visit in La Chapelle-Vaupelteigne, the direct route back to Chablis took in the Chablis 1er Cru of l’Homme Mort – a cru that for many years made up a percentage of many Fourchaumes. It was now 09h30 but I was greeted by the water-cannons still working in the vines – I decided that it was time to get wet! What was instantly clear was that, in this location, if the vines weren’t getting a good soaking, then they were brown and already lost to the frost – those covered by the cannons looked normal and green. Driving further round to the grand crus, clearly here the preferred protection was the aforementioned candles, allowing the vines and earth to stay dry – which endows 2-4°C more protection from the frost.

Having discussed with Frédéric Drouhin on Saturday, I had the chance to ask a couple more producers what they though – both were non-commital, and had a very similar message;

“Clearly some places have lost at least 50%, and a little rain in Maligny and Lignorelles at the start of last week means that those areas were much more sensitive to the frost. But the difference between the plots are so marked that it won’t be before the end of the week before I have a decent idea, myself, what is lost and what is saved. I need to see how some of the opposing buds come through this, and we have cold and wet forecast for the end of the week – so it’s really not over yet!”
 

Last night in the Côte d’Or there was nothing to report – unlike the devastation in my Swiss domicile – not just vines but the fruit industry too. The corridor to Burgundy – the Jura – is likewise terribly affected.

Here in the Côte d’Or, the last days saw lit candles in the vines in Volnay and St.Romain – I hear that there was damage in both Savigny-lès-Beaune and St.Aubin, but for the moment I’ve no more info. There has been a relatively strong north wind and the vineyards were very dry so damage has been relatively minor. The Hautes Côtes have seen at least -4°C and some vignerons re-purposed the ‘chariots’ used for burning the pruned material, making fires from pulled out old vines – they say that they definitely save some buds.

I caught up with Frédérick Drouhin this morning in Beaune’s market and asked him how it was for him in Chablis, where it was colder than here. The grand crus were of-course well-protected, but losses in premier crus were ‘not too bad’ – say 10-15%, and the villages wines had lost more like 30% – “But it’s not yet over” he counsels…

Anyway, to brighten the picture, there was the produce of Beaune’s market in the sunshine this morning – the strawberry aroma was fabulous – though it looks like there wont be many from Switzerland this year!
 

April 2016…

To be honest, I hardly remember frost in Burgundy – I began tasting here in 1997 (the 1996s), and I’ve rarely seen much – but there was a sense of deja-vu to this week’s weather forecast.

Typically, back home in Switzerland, I brought out my non-hardy plants last week after literally weeks without rain and often-times temperatures above 20°C – this week whilst in Beaune, there are weather warnings back in Bern, already some snow and -6 to -8°C forecast for Thursday and Friday night – there go the plants! It could also be the second year running that the second half of April sees colder temperatures than much of the deep winter. Note that most of the Côte d’Or is close to two weeks ahead of the growth schedule of an ‘average’ year – so potentially there is as much growth to lose today, as there was at the end of April last year.

In Chablis yesterday evening there was plenty of damage as temperatures dipped below -3°C. Here in the Côtes it rarely got below -1°C and there was virtually no damage reported – last night at-least – it’s not yet over. The water sprays and ‘candles’* were out in action in Chablis – but many areas are unprotected and saw loses – it was worse in the Châtillonais – between Chablis and Champagne – here were much bigger losses. It would have been worse-still had there been any rain to speak of in the last week or two – any damp exacerbates the effect of the frost such that plants might survive -3°C in very dry conditions – but succumb to -1°C when wet/damp – chardonnay at least, pinot is less hardy…

I asked one producer from the Côte de Nuits ‘So if you already knew that on Friday evening the vineyards would touch -5°C, could you actually go out and protect your vines with, for instance, candles?’ Their answer:

“The problem is that we have 15 hectares, so you can multiply that by at least 3 or 4 to come to the actual number of parcels – it’s actually physically impossible for us to be in all those parcels to light candles as required – not even taking into account the cost of doing so. Ideally if you’ve great relations with some fellow producers, you could let them be responsible for one vineyard while you take responsibility for another – and so on. Frankly, such cohesion and organisation would be a remarkable thing!”

Fingers crossed for the next days…

*‘Candles’ really doesn’t give you a true idea – rows of 5 kilo cans that have more to do with petrochemicals, with dark smoke – not a bit like the domestic candles in your house – and environmentally friendly they are not…

#bougies et #aspersion pour lutter contre le #gel.
We have been fighting against frost with candles and spray.#williamfevre#chablispic.twitter.com/iWNaiMKdIs

— William Fèvre (@williamfevre_) April 19, 2017