Gevrey’s Clos St.Jacques after the heavy rains – somebody’s going to have to take that earth back up the hill…

Well, there has been a lot of rain in the last few days – nearly 160mm recorded in Gevery-Chambertin, 21-27 June – a volume of water that brought soil to the bottom of the hills and ripped new channels through the vineyard roads and paths.

As you move south, the volume of rain slowly receded to between 50-80mm in the southern half of the Côte d’Or. The rain of 21-June focused on the north Côte de Nuits (Brochon, Fixin, Couchey). That of 22-June was more in the northern Côte de Beaune, the Côte de Nuits and the Hautes-Côtes with much variabilty in the Hautes Côtes depending on the particular valley. These first two stormy episodes were accompanied by hail in the north Côte de Beaune, including Chorey-les-Beaune and some of Ladoix plus in Côte de Nuits. Thursday 23-June, fortunately, brought only water and the same for the evening of Saturday 25-June.

In the Mâconnais, Fuissé, in one day, saw 50mm of rain – but in only 45 minutes! They had no hail, though other places, such as Vergisson, fared less well as there was hail mixed with the rain – losses are currently estimated at 30% – so much less than the hail of 2021 and, again, with the caveat that there was already a lot of grapes on the vines.

Hail always generates strong emotions, it’s for that reason that I like to wait a few days before reporting on the potential consequences. The syndicate of Gevery-Chambertin (image: Mazis-Chambertin, right) were quickly discussing potential (average!) losses of around 15% but there are a lot of grapes on the vines this year – despite the April frost – so, at this stage, it’s not necessarily going to be a lower volume vintage. As one well-known producer told me today “Several impacts of hail and a lot of earth down the slope…. but no significant reason to cry!”

Some of the grape clusters were not looking good – as is always the case with hail – but we have a forecast with 7-10 days of reasonably stable weather and warm temperatures that will likely dry these damaged grapes and give them the chance of dropping to the floor. Biodynamic domaines in Gevrey were already spraying their teas of tisane on Friday afternoon. From Beaune south, there are hardly any hail impacts as of today.

It’s patchy in Beaujolais too; poor Fleurie has some damage – it seems that if there’s hail, they always get it – but in Brouilly there was none and so forth. All told, nearly 500 hectares of Beaujolais has some hail damage – it sounds a lot (it is!) but it’s still only 3.5% of the 14,500 hectares that they have planted. It’s the sectors of Blacé, Saint Julien and the slopes of Arnas that have been most touched.

As noted, the forecast is largely good with temperatures approaching 30°C in the next 10 days – rot remains under control, for now, so steady as she goes…

There’s been no attenuation to the advancement of the vine growth in the last week. There have been a few (helpful!) bursts of rain in the last 2 weeks since I updated you – nicely regular on the 02, 09 and 15 June – but also with high temperatures too – in the last week, 36-38°C have been measured in the vines.

Not since the 2005 vintage have temperatures been so high in June – and in 2022 those temperatures have comfortably exceeded what was seen in 2005. The combination of occasional rain plus high temperatures is the engine of vine growth this year. Despite the episode of frost in early April, we are holding a similar course of precocious maturity to the 2003, 2011 and 2020 vintages when measured at the same time – i.e. 3-4 days ahead of 2007, 2015, 2017 and 2018 – ie, other vintages with August harvesting.

Current estimates are for veraison (the grapes starting to change colour) suggest the 10-15 July. Given that dry days that have followed each delivery of rain, it’s no surprise that mildew is quite rare. On the other hand, as it is the morning dew that helps oïdium, this is where the growers’ concerns are currently most focused – but for now, the treatments have the upper hand. Black rot is a rarer problem – but was found in the Côte d’Or – and more-so in Beaujolais – in 2021 but seems largely absent at this stage of vine growth.

More in a couple of weeks!

To end, some views from Volnay – starting with Clos de la Chapelle but mainly from Caillerets – images from the end of last week:

Clos de la Chapelle 1er

Caillerets 1er

Caillerets 1er

Caillerets 1er looking east

Over Pitures 1er towards the Clos des Ducs 1er

The sun gave way to plenty of stormy weather over the last weekend – though fortunately none of the hail-induced devastation seen in vineyards in more southerly parts of France near Armagnac. There have been a few spots of hail mixed in with the storms but not enough to cause particular damage. As such – though stressed – the Burgundian locals are reasonably happy that up to 45mm of rain fell – since last Friday – on their very dry vineyards; May had delivered less than half the normal amount of rain.

Even in the Hautes Côtes, the flowering was largely over when the rain, sometimes heavy, fell – so will not have significantly affected the setting of the fruit. The chardonnay in Meursault and other places is showing a little coulure but yields still look good – though nobody knows how much juice there will really be until the grapes are pressed!

Post-rain, the weather is much cooler for now but from the weekend onwards will return to the high 20s°C. The recent cooler weather and darker skies have put the projected position in the vines about 3-4 days behind where it was in 2020 but still ahead of 2015 and 2018 – which still comfortably indicates an August harvest. The changeable weather increases the domaines’ vigilance to mildew, where incubation time is 5-6 days, so post-rain, the domaines will have a better idea by the end of this week on how it’s developing. Oïdium is also on the move in certain parcels. Fortunately, entry into the vines is not so difficult at the moment so there has been no brake on the required treatments.

The growth remains rigorous for now in the vines – so tasting appointments are at a premium – this may start to calm in the second half of July…