News from the Vineyard
May 31, 2022
by Justine Puaud
The busy season in the vineyard has started
Do we really know the seasonal cycle of the vine?
In June, in Burgundy, it's the flowering period - grape berries are emerging. These flowers appear when the temperature approaches 20°C/68 °F, the clusters open up and exhale a light fragrance. The number of berries per cluster depends on this flowering. It's a delicate period that will have an impact on the quantity of harvest. Flowering can be strongly influenced by poor weather conditions.
Yesterday I visited winemaker Guillaume Lavollé of Domaine Génot-Boulanger in Meursault who confirmed “la fleur est sortie” (the flowering period has started). Grape berries are emerging almost everywhere in the appellations of whites and should be there everywhere by next week in the appellations of reds.
According to Guillaume, the weather has been pretty good for the vines. The 2022 harvest should be a good one. We usually say to count 100 days after the flowering season has begun until harvest time, but in reality it is hard to predict exactly the date of the harvest. As we have seen over the last few years, Mother Nature can be quite unpredictable. The dates of the harvest will depend on if June and July are going to be hot and sunny or if the summer is going to be sunny but with rainy days every week…
Guillaume thinks he will start harvesting around August 25-28, which is about 1 month early compared to 2021 and a few days later compared to 2020.
Right now, the focus of the month is on “the maintenance of the vine”. In the trellised vines, the winegrower "joins" the vines, that is to say, he binds the young branches against the iron wires. To contain the growth of the vine, which can quickly become bushy and invasive - which is detrimental to the proper ripening of the grapes -, the branches are also trimmed (or topping). With 22 hectares of vines, Guillaume Lavollée has 20 people working in the vineyard full time. It is a big team but it is completely necessary when you own vineyards in both Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune. Today, there is a big labor shortage in Burgundy and it is even more difficult to handle it when you have hot temperatures and see the vine growing really fast.
Guillaume recently renovated his cellar in the Château in Meursault. It is beautiful. We will be seeing him in October during our Burgundy trip that we are organizing with American Express. Email me (justine@pressoir.wine) if you want to learn more about this trip or if you want us to plan your next Burgundy trip!