Burgundy Heat Wave

The summer has been extremely hot and dry this far. Anybody knows how the 2015 vintage is proceeding?

2003 pt 2?

that was 2003;

oof. 2003 was brutal

Too soon to tell? The difference between 2015 and 2003 is that 2015’s big heat wave came in the first half of July, whereas the big 2003 heat wave was in August.

I came across this article a few days ago after wondering the same thing… I got married this year so I’d def like to put away some special wines…

Still continues to be in the 90s/high 80s there. If it stays sunny and we see just enough rain maybe we have an uber-2009?

me too Brandon. hoping that things shape up.

for purely selfish reasons, I hope harvest is pushed back to the same time as 09

mostly
But I was there at the end of June in 03 and it was brutal.

Very good news.
20mm of rain fell today in Burgundy.
I was thirsty just looking at the weather over the past few weeks.
That should rejuvenate the plants nicely.

20 cm? 8 inches of rain? That’s a deluge.

whoopsie.
I meant mm. edited.

Whew! For a minute it sounded like Biblical retribution.

For other metric idiots like myself, 20mm of rain is about .8 inches of rain.
Solid…

That´s great news Robert. Let´s cross our fingers for a nice finish of the growing season and decent prices to follow.

Thanks. 2003 was marked by no rain as well as by heat.

Several wineries I’ve recently spoken to have moved their pre-harvest vacations up a couple of weeks, in anticipation of a harvest potentially arriving that same amount earlier than normal. People seem to be generally out this week and next, returning mid-August and prepared to begin working soon after if necessary. I’m sure the rain was welcome and there’s still some time to go yet, but people are putting plans in place to be able to begin harvesting early, for sure…

Believe me. Winemakers don’t know exactly how things are going to turn out right now so speculating on the quality, and even more the value, of the wines at this point is crazy. If you want to speculate, look at graphs of tech stock. If you want to enjoy wine, just wait.

August 1st 2015

The weather has been splendid for a the whole of the month of July: day after day of warm, sometimes very hot temperatures, and almost a complete absence of rain. While this has made the lawns look rather dispiritingly brown and parched, the vines, with their deep root systems, have suffered no drought stress, and those people with swimming pools have been able to indulge in their fortune. For once, while there have been a couple of thunderstorms, the vineyards have escaped any hail damage.

The vintage is due to commence around the week of September 7th. Keep your fingers crossed that the good weather continues. The long range weather forecast indicates that, though not as hot or as dry as July, the weather in August will be mainly sunny and warm.



July 1st 2015

The weather has been splendid for a month now, and the projections continue promising. Slowly but surely during the month the temperatures rose, and in this last week they have reached well above 30°. Meanwhile it has been dry but not excessively so. The vines have flowered successfully, indicating a plentiful crop, bar disasters. As I indicated a month ago, the harvest should commence around September 10th.
June 1st 2015

It was an uneventful winter. When it was cold – and it was never very cold – it was dry. When it rained the temperatures were mild. So there was no problem with icy roads. April was warmer and drier than usual, as it often has been recently, and this encouraged a bud-break a little earlier than usual. But May, apart from a couple of days in the middle of the month when it reached 32°, was characterised by sunny mornings, clouding over by lunchtime, and temperatures which struggled to exceed 20°. But it has been dry. The vines began to flower around the 25th. So we can expect the harvest to commence around the 10th September.