September 9th, 2003:
Frost, hail, drought and heat waves: we got it all this year!
The weather conditions at the beginning of the year brought about a highly unusual early development of the vines. By the end of the first trimester, the lack of rainfall coupled with an unusually hot March were already causing widespread concern. The early bud burst at the end of March had everyone worried about the risk of frost and sure enough it came on April 8 with temperatures dropping to - 4 C to – 6 C . Almost half the buds were killed depending on which direction they were facing. With their lightened loads, the vines put all their vigor into the vine shoots. These weakened vines were not able to stand up to the violent gusts of wind which hit in May and again losses were heavy: 15%, 20% and even 50% in some parcels.
This very early spring led to a very fast flowering (May 26-28) and heralded what would be a whole series of early landmarks that would be seen this year:
Flowering – eight days ahead of the norm
The end of flowering – 10 days ahead
berry formation – 13 days ahead
Véraison (change in the color of the grapes) – 15 days ahead
June was hot and dry (7 degrees warmer than usual) with very light precipitation. By this halfway point through the year, we had gotten less than 100mm of rain (the amount we would normally get in a three month period). But grape vines are plants with deep roots.
July was also very hot, but also brought an enormous hailstorm on July 16 which destroyed up to 90% of the crop of some plots.
In August, the heat wave ( 40 C in the shade) sped up the ripening process even more and kept the grapes healthy because the grapes that had been damaged by the hail fell off.
All of these factors led to a harvest that started 10 days ahead of schedule. Originally planned for August 25th, in our case, it started on August 18th. Such an early harvest has not been seen for a century or a century and a half.
An early harvest also meant harvesting in hot weather. The high concentration of sugar and the loss of volume resulted in natural degrees of potential alcohol of 13.5% to 14% on average. With percentages this high, one might be concerned about difficulties with fermentation, but luckily, we have cooling equipment to control the temperature in order to keep the fresh fruit so characteristic of Beaujolais.
During the harvest we set up three stages of triage:
- The first as the pickers selected which bunches to cut
- A second selection on a open gridwork sorting table which lets any dried out grapes fall through
- A third before entering the cellar with a manual inspection or passing through the destemming machine which removed any dry material stuck to the grapes
In conclusion, it seems as if every time the harvest takes place in August, the quality turns out to be pretty good thanks to the fact that the final stages of ripening benefit from the longer days.
Upon our first samplings of this year’s wine, we have noticed raspberry and cassis aromas and very supple, silky and deep tannins in the mouth. However, it is hard to say at this point whether or not the Fleurie will have great aging potential. We will have to wait until after the malolactic fermentation to know for sure.
On the whole, I am satisfied with the quality of this vintage because working with a harvest so rich in sugar and in such high temperatures is no easy task.
The only negative: quantities. With yields between 22 and 25 hl/ha, in other words, we will only have half our usual amounts to sell this coming year.
