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Vintage Report 2018 /
Winter arrived late, with a very cold and relatively dry spell in February. But the end of 2017 and the month of January 2018 were mild and notably rainy, which allowed for ample replenishment of water reserves in both the soil and beneath ground.March saw the return of copious rainfall, and cool, and the vines took their time in awakening. It wasn’t until we saw the first real evidence of sunshine in early April that spring set in for real, bringing with it the first signs of budbreak. At this point the cycle was neither late nor early, allowing for growth to develop in perfectly bright, sunny conditions.This brightness proved to be the hallmark of the vintage, with remarkable levels of sunshine prevailing from April through to September. As the month of May rolled past, the vines grew like, well, vines thanks to conditions that were both hot and humid. Numerous thunderstorms literally created an electric atmosphere throughout France towards the end of spring. We saw the odd sprinkling of hail here and there, but the damage caused was negligible. Up until this point, there was little evidence of fungal diseases in the vineyards.Flowering occurred in ideal conditions over the course of a few days towards the end of May/beginning of June, promising homogenous ripening.
The end of the vegetative growth cycle took place in hot and often very dry conditions across the region. Isolated localised thunderstorms in July brought with them a sprinkling of rain. In the Côte de Nuits, the south of Nuits Saint-Georges was struck twice by hailstorms. Luckily, however, there was little damage to the vineyards. The vines remained healthy and the sun shone consistently throughout summer.Veraison kicked off during the early part of July and lasted for nearly six weeks. The unusual extension was caused by the high summer temperatures and the lack of water in certain appellations (Mâconnais, Chablis). Ripening was a long, slow process, therefore, and by the end of August, the berries were still fairly firm and the skins were thick. Some of the younger plants and those with little access to water reserves began to suffer, but by and large the vineyards coped well with the conditions as these had prevailed for several months already and the vines were largely acclimatised.
During our vineyard visits at the end of August we saw that the grapes were in a near-perfect state of health and that yields promised to be generous for both reds and whites. Skins were thick and it was important to give them the time necessary to ripen fully. Luckily the weather forecast allowed us to do so with confidence. We began picking right at the end of August (Thursday 29/08), with the first bunches harvested from some early ripening parcels in Volnay, Meursault and then Beaune. These areas had ripened ahead of schedule, and the Pinot was right at the end of its maturation cycle. From 4 September onwards, we began the harvest proper, particularly when it came to the Chardonnays. There was barely any need for triage, and it took us a fortnight to pick the entire domaine.
Vintage Reports 2017:
Chablis
After a real winter, with truly cold temperatures (particularly in January), but with less rainfall than average, budbreak took place earlier than usual at the end of March during a superb early spring that saw vigorous vegetal growth. During the last fortnight of April, some rain fell on the already well-developed plants (many of which were already showing 3-4 leaves, sometimes more). On the 18th and 29th of April intense, deadly frosts caused widespread damage in Chablis, the Couchois (to the west of the Côte Chalonnaise) and part of the Châtillonnais (which lies to the northwest of Dijon). Despite the use of both protective systems, the buds – and in some cases the shoots – were wiped out. For the second year in a row, potential yields in Chablis were signicantly reduced. Subsequently, there were a few weeks of slow growth as both the dry soils and the cool conditions meant that the vines took their time to put on a growth spurt. The frost-aected sectors were signicantly delayed. Then in May, several falls of rain and higher-than-average temperatures reminded us that the vine is, well, a vine... Growers picked up the pace in the vineyard and began lifting the canopies. At the start of June, vines in the earlier-ripening areas owered, but then suered a little bit in the hot conditions. There was some evidence of poor fruit set, particularly when it came to the whites. Pinot owered later, in more moderate conditions, and promised well in terms of future fruiting. Overall yields promised to just about reach the average in whites, but the red harvest was clearly going to be generous. We saw little in the way of disease pressure, although there were a few spots of downy mildew fairly late in the growing season, but these were quickly brought under control. There was some evidence of powdery mildew in July, but it caused little damage. Overall, summer was ne. There was little rot and the grapes ripened steadily, although the lack of rainfall (a shortfall equivalent to two whole months of rain compared to the average) began to make itself felt. There were no signicant hailstorms. Veraison took place during July during rather dry conditions, but the weather turned in our favour towards the end of the growing season, and we saw good levels of rainfall at just the right moment towards the end of August. This triggered the last bit of ripening and the grapes were in perfect health at the start of harvest at the beginning of September. Picking took place in good conditions, with little need for triage and good levels of ripeness overall.
Beaujolais
After a December in which the weather conformed to seasonal norms, January saw a precipitous drop in temperatures, with the mercury stuck below zero for nigh on two weeks. Despite this chilly episode, the rst three months of the year were fairly clement, thanks in large part to the mild weather of February and March. These conditions sparked an early awakening in the vines, with the rst
buds opening during the last days of March in the bush vines of la Rochelle – a whole week early on the average of the past 30 years. With the arrival of spring came the widespread realisation that we were in a period of drought that was to last several months. Favourable weather continued to dominate throughout the early weeks of April, but a dramatic change arrived around the 20th, when temperatures plunged and we began to fear a repeat of the great frosts of the previous year. Thankfully, only a few rows of Chardonnay were aected. The largely sunny conditions of April and May permitted the vines to continue their growth, and owering began on 1 June. The end of spring unfolded in idyllic sunny, warm conditions, suggesting an early harvest along similar lines to those of 1997 and 2007. On the morning of 10 July, just as the bunches began to close up, we nished up the main viticultural tasks of the season and began to anticipate the reception of the grapes in our new winery with great excitement. Then disaster struck. At the end of the afternoon, a devastating storm ravaged most of the cru zones, from Regnié to Chénas, aecting pretty much all of our vineyards. Around the 20th of the month, while the vines were recovering from their injuries and just as the rst berries became tinged with colour, a new hailstorm attacked the Côte du Py which, up until that moment, had escaped the damage unscathed. Calm weather returned in August, which allowed the vineyards to regain some of their equilibrium, and a heat spike during the last week of the month accelerated the ripening process. The rain we had been waiting for nally fell, bringing an end to the drought and creating fresher conditions that helped bring about optimal ripeness. Thick skins, rich in anthocyanins, nut-brown pips, all the elements were in place to give birth to a good vintage. The key to ultimate success was the ability to adapt ourselves to this unusual year, in which the hail had created huge disparities in the vineyards. While the rst bunches in the Côte du Py were harvested on the 1st of September, we waited until the 20th to pick individual berries from the most damaged bunches and from the Syrah, the domaine’s new babies. Harvest at the Château had not taken place over such an extended period in living memory. In a nutshell, 2017, from January through to August, had provided a textbook example of the eects of climate change. The unusual weather patterns in Beaujolais, which lies at the crossroads of continental, Mediterranean and Atlantic inuences, explains both the climatic extremes that aected us and the unique style of our wines. In 2017 the whites from the Clos du Loyse show a vivid brightness as well as their typical richness, and the reds, which are currently maturing, show a remarkable purity of fruit and an unusual density of avour, a good omen for the vintage’s potential quality.
Mâconnais
Despite the rigours of January (when icy Arctic winds blew in creating weather whose level of challenge was only matched by February’s drought), the truly memorable conditions were created by a remarkably mild spell that set in towards the end of February and persisted throughout March. By mid-April, the vegetative growth was already far in advance of the norm. Budbreak was notably early, taking place right at the start of April, so we trembled with fear when we heard that night-time temperatures were due to drop to around 0°C at the end of the month. The spectre of the spring of 2016 our Beaune colleagues had to struggle with haunted us... But, phew! Only a few grafts were damaged. The sunny conditions continued to smile on us and the rains fell in appropriate amounts, and as a result we witnessed a veritable explosion of vegetative growth towards the end of May – we saw a new leaf on each plant every two days! June saw a race between man and near-untameable vines, such
was the extraordinary pace of growth in the vineyard. According to our growers, at no point in the past 50 years had anyone witnessed such luxuriant growth! Management of the vineyards during this period has proven to be one of the keys to this vintage, and it was important not to allow the vines to get carried away with their enthusiastic expansion. Towards the end of June, temperatures rose rapidly. Growth in the vineyards picked up pace again thanks to soaring temperatures that made this the second-hottest summer since the start of the last century – and these unseasonably hot conditions set in right at the start of the growing season. The heatwave continued through the start of July, with two heat spikes on the 5th and the 17th, before some gentle rain fell. The vines were in a superb state of health, despite the overall lack of water. Our work in the vineyard, which was conducted at just the right time, allowed us to keep some freshness in the soil. At the start of August, the hot weather persisted, with night-time temperatures of more than 20°C and waves of heat that were even warmer than the temperatures registered in 2003. By mid-August we knew that the harvest would be early, but we were really hoping for some rain. We were told that some rain was due at the end of the month – potentially heavy rainfall, in fact, possibly even some thunderstorms. The tension was rising... The bright green colour began to pale, and the berries looked as if they were lit from within with a yellow tint that shone through the translucent esh of the fruit. Then we began to travel down the path that leads from rm berries to soft, juicy ones, over the course of a few days. We knew then that we needed to pick. Pick? The fruit oered itself up to us so generously that it seemed to us that we were merely twisting the stalks to release them from the plants. We therefore took the decision to pick on 30 August, starting o with our two top cuvees: Ménétrières and Tournant de Pouilly. The grapes were sublime, with a latent richness. As we lled the last case with grapes, dark clouds rolled in, the rain fell, soundlessly but heavily throughout the night. By the morning, 60mm had fallen on our valley – thankfully without thunder, lightning or hail. Nevertheless, we had to react fast. We decided to pick that morning and on the two following days, in order to ensure that the vines didn’t take up too much water. Then we stopped picking for a few days to let the cycle re-establish itself and so as to ensure that we didn’t allow our tasty grapes to become diluted. We followed through, serenely, in September. This time, too, the harvest period saw favourable conditions, dry and sunny, along similar lines to other recent vintages. As we take stock of the vintage, 2017 stands out for its hot weather and dry conditions, all of which makes the year comparable to 2011 and 2015, another of those remarkable vintages that combines hot weather and drought that we have seen over the period 1959-2017.