It was harvest time again! Wine growers have been focusing their earnest
work of an entire year to culminate in this finale. This is when everything has
to be ready to pick the fruits (in more than one way!) of their labor.
To see the Côte d’Or brimming with activity is always a very odd and unusual
sight. Travel here any time of the year and you will be find tranquil vineyards
and quiet villages. If a passing wine tourist would accidentally land here
during harvest folly, he would be dumbstruck. Because what he would see are
strings of honking cars and white rental company vans carrying crates of
freshly picked fruit; roads covered with trails of sand and mud; villages
buzzing with activity and traffic jams; every “place de la mairie” tiled with
campers that provide housing to seasonal workers; wine properties with
tented extensions to accommodate luncheon tables (and, not to forget, the
paulées!); and as far as the eye can see, vineyards invaded by what looks like
frantic ant colonies, but are in fact harvest laborers clad in dirt-covered outfits.
The 2012 season in Burgundy (and even further afield) can be qualified as an
annus horribilis. The apogee of the season was greeted with a deep sigh of
relief from many a Burgundian vigneron. Harvest began around mid
September, after what can (understatedly) be considered an inclement and
difficult growing season. Inclement, because weather conditions were
abysmal throughout. Difficult, as constant attention and spraying the
vineyards against mildew and oidium was required. It was not until the second
half of summer that the weather took a turn for the better, still saving what
could be salvaged.
Here is a summary of the various and numerous threats the weather gods
threw at wine growers:
• An unusually warm month of March, followed by a long, wet period lasting
from April until June, resulting in early onset of mildew and oidium,
destroying many vines.
• Frost occurred as late as at the end of May.
• A late and prolonged flowering due to the cold and wet conditions,
reflected in irregular bunches, uneven and limited fruit setting. The results
were: millerandage (berries of greatly different size), botrytis, varying
levels of vine maturity and low yields.
• A short but extreme heat spell at the end of July (and to lesser extent in
August) resulting in burn damage.
• Thunderstorms occurring up until July/August resulted in hail damage,
sometimes wiping out entire vineyards.
Needless to say that severe triage (the sorting of grapes for health and quality
in the vineyard or as they are brought in to the winery) was required. The
resulting fruit that I saw was generally beautiful and ripe.
Read what Clive Coates and Bill Nanson have to say about the 2012 vintage.
Here are some other observations read and overheard:
• Michel Lafarge (Domaine Lafarge, Volnay) who is the oldest still active
winemaker in Burgundy, has not witnessed a season as calamitous as
2012 since he starting working at the family domain in 1946... (via
Raymond Blake)
• Thomas Bouley (Domaine Jean-Marc Bouley, Volnay) reported via
Facebook that all his 2012 wines fitted in 56 “pièces” (barrels of 228 liters),
being an average yield of… 14.5 hl/ha. The picture below, taken in the
cellars of Domaine Jean-Marc Bouley during my November visit there,
allows you to compare the 2011 (top) versus the 2012 vintage (bottom).
Telltale! Fortunately, a picture never tells quite everything, as both
vintages promise to deliver stunning wines at this domain!
• Véronique Drouhin (Joseph Drouhin, Beaune) cited that their Beaune Clos
des Mouches Blanc yielded 10 hl/ha, where 35 hl is the norm. Drouhin’s
Corton-Charlemagne represents a scant 7 hl/ha! (via Raymond Blake)
• Nicolas Rossignol (Domaine Nicolas Rossignol, Volnay) told me that his
Pommard and Volnay crus yielded between 12 and 18 hl/ha. His Beaune
Clos des Mouches fitted one “pièce” instead of the usual five!
• One of the winegrowers who timed his harvest impeccably is David Clark
(Domaine David Clark, Morey St Denis). He finished on Sun 23 September,
before any of the harvest rain hit the Côtes de Nuits. Very beautiful fruit
here, but quantities were below average too.
• Alexandrine Roy (Domaine Marc Roy, Gevrey Chambertin) speaks of a
very demanding and small vintage in terms of quantity, but which
generated excellent results.
Here is an interesting report from a worker who spent the 2012 harvest at the
Domaine Comte Liger-Belair in Vosne Romanée.
The good news is that vintners who have devoted continued and dedicated
attention to their vines and fruit, right up until bottling, will produce superb
wines this year. But… there will not be much of it. You could say: there will be
many very good wines but not very many good bottles in 2012.
More than ever, 2012 will be remembered as a “winemakers’ year”. Unlike, for
instance, 2009 when the wines made themselves, so to speak. The ‘golden
rule’ once again prevailed: the wine maker makes all the difference!
Inevitably, this brings us to the aspect of price. Much depends on how
domains set their 2010 prices and by extension, how they will price their
2011s. However, faced with the atrocious circumstances surrounding the
2012 vintage, it is realistic to assume that many vignerons will claim higher
prices.
Peace and quiet only return to the hills of the Côte d’Or after the last cars
blow their horn marking the end of harvest, all domains have held their
“paulée”, tents are taken down, workers move on to their next destination,
cars and trucks recede from the landscape, and the rain washes away the last
remnants of activity. Quietude reigns again in the Côte…
During the month of November I visited my suppliers in the Côte d’Or. You
can read what they had to say about the 2011 and 2012 harvests in my next
post.
