News from the Vineyard
Raj Vaidya
7/26/2022
Daniel has written a nice account last week of how the vignerons in Burgundy are feeling about the ongoing season (safely described as optimistic for now, happily.) He mentions the intense rain storms of late June which happened to occur just before I arrived in Beaune for a weeklong visit, and although I missed the worst of the storms that the Côte de Nuits saw on the 22nd, I did experience the most rain I’ve ever seen that Sunday the 25th - in all my years visiting the region. This is all highly unusual for the region, that Sunday in Beaune 12mm of rain was recorded in 24 hours!
A few accounts of the rains that mostly affected the village of Gevrey seemed outlandish at first; half a meter of flooding was reported in the town center, the cellars of several vignerons had over a meter of water briefly flooding their cellars and so on. The storm was quite furious and yet by luck, there seems to only have been some spotty hail damage (below left, an example), it was mostly water, just lots of it at one time….
Slight hail damage in Gevrey.
Topsoil quickly finding its way down the slopes of Gevrey. This is on the Route des Grand Crus just beneath the Chambertin, above Charmes Chambertin.
The village saw 150ml of rain within about 36 hours, and for perspective, 200ml is typical for the entirety of the growing season. The storm was vicious and fast, captured in the stunning picture below from the plains around Gilly le Citeaux.
Cellars and streets filled up quickly with water, making a huge mess and logistical nightmare for winemakers.
All things considered, the aftermath was pretty mild, in that Gevrey saw very little overall hail, and though topsoil will have to be brought back to some of the vineyards on the upper slopes the vines and managed for the most part to withstand the storm. Since that Sunday’s rain following the storm on June 22nd, (touching wood!) Burgundy has seen truly ideal conditions, cooler than the heat wave of early summer and very clear without any serious amounts of rain. This has moved the vintage’s timetable up a bit, with veraison for the reds happening now and the likelihood of a very early harvest.
Hope these images and videos help paint a picture of how scary that moment of the season must have been for the producers. Photo and video credits go to Cyrielle Rousseau of Domaine Armand Rousseau, Jean-Louis Trapet of Domaine Trapet and Erwan Faiveley of Domaine Faiveley. All of these were shared kindly by Jeremy Seysses of Domaine Dujac.
