April Frost in Burgundy

Interesting video of early morning straw fires to fight the frost in Chambolle (Antoine Amiot-Servelle’s IG). Third year in a row they have had to deal with mid-April frost.

But at the end this vintage be the best vintage in decades. neener

Tonight is supposed to be colder than last night. Sun is setting right now. Everyone cross their fingers. Beaune has smelt faintly of burning straw all day.

I’m in Sondrio/Valtellina tonight, supposed to get to 1C or so; I think they’ll dodge a bullet as things will likely warm from tonight forward.

Hopefully Champagne hasn’t had any bud break yet either. Last night: Champagne Domaine La Borderie on Instagram: "Incroyable nuit de gel cette nuit: -6... // incredible frost night : -6... #champagne #domainelaborderie #cotedesbar #growerchampagne #gel"

Isn’t winter here or something tonight? :wink:

hope that they come out better than in 2016.

Not exactly sure why you consider this topic to be such a major source of humor - we are discussing the possibility of a major frost that could cost producers millions or billions of dollars and would cause prices to rise to consumer by a lot.

You certainly have a weird sense of humor.

Chill out.

I was in the Loire valley a few days ago, visiting producers in the savennieres and Anjou area (some world class wines being produced there those days). They’ve lost 100pc of the potential 2019 harvest to frost. And that’s after losing a bunch of the 2017 harvest to frost. That’s incredibly tough for the local producers.

Their firm view is that, due to global warming, this is the new normal.

FIFY.

Warmer climate = earlier bud break = more frost risk.

Indeed - whatever stage we are in, in any meteorological cycle - we are currently about 10 days ahead of the current average year, and this average has also been skewing earlier over the last few years.

It was the end of April in 2016 and 2017 (25-26 April) so more potential for damage - indeed actually in Chambolle in 2016 when they lost 80% - the frost didn’t do any damage there in 2017. You should look out for Vincent Dancer’s aerial image from this weekend of the candles burning in Chassagne-Puligny, initially on Instagram, and then copied a thousand times on Twitter…

Thomas, thanks for the news.
Care to say which producers?

In Savennieres, was it those at a lower elevation?

Did Roche aux Moines come through?

Talked to quite a few folks and most lost all the harvest (both at low and higher altitudes): Richard Leroy, Thibaud Boudignon (both on his Anjou and Savennieres vineyards), Dominique Dufour/Aussigouins, Jo Pithon,… Apparently a 1000 ha of vines are similarly impacted. Much worse than 2017.

That’s actually the problem.

That’s so hard to see. Watch for pics the next few days as it usually takes a short while for the damage to show. Terrible.

blahblah

Really, Mr. Lee. Are you enjoying this?

Are you? Some of you guys act like they dont deal with different natural events ever in their history of making wines. As if I’m wishing them pain and suffering. If you dont like my joke, block me or move on. Just as I’m doing with you.