How to start? There is so much to say about this year. It has been a vintage of extremes. Some people are calling this year the "3G" vintage for Gel (frost), Grêle (hail) and Grillure (scorching of the grapes due to the heat and drought). I would add a 4th plague: the wind which came in the beginning of June breaking many of the most developed branches which had escaped the frost but were not yet supported by being trained onto wires. Not everyone fell victim to the hail which raged across the Crus Beaujolais but spared the Mâconnais. On the other hand, the three other plagues affected the majority of the rest of us and were responsible for a generalized lowering of yields (55% lower than usual at my estate).
First came the frost which ravaged the vines in two waves: the first time during the nights of April 6-8th when temperatures fell to –6 and –7 degrees Centigrade, then a few days later at the end of the week around April 10th and 11th with temperatures at around –4 and -5 degrees C. Paradoxically, it was the tops of the slopes which suffered the most, whereas the lower sections, which are usually more exposed, were not so badly hurt. Even though the weather had been very dry, this year’s frost was much more severe than that of 1998 because the vegetation was much more advanced than it was in that year, and the secondary buds, which had just begun to develop, were frozen. In my plots, many vines bore no grapes even ones which seemed to have recovered all of their foliage and looked almost normal.
In late May and early June, the wind came and, in one or two nights, brought the second wave of destruction breaking many branches at their base. The vegetation was already thinner than usual and thus more fragile. It is not unusual to get strong winds at this time of year but usually the vines are much fuller and thus more resistant, sometimes already trained onto wires, which makes them much less vulnerable.
At any rate, apart from the hail which hit certain areas, notably the Beaujolais, the high temperatures which had been present all along, continued to go up day by day, finally reaching a level of 45 or even 48 degrees C in the afternoons. This went on from June to mid-August with the most extreme period being from August 1st to the 15th. We started seeing the young vines, i.e., the vines with the shallowest roots, and other vines planted in soil with less clay, lose their bottom leaves. To be more precise, the bottom leaves were browned and scorched by the sun giving them exactly the same look as vines which have undergone treatment with one of those thermal exfoliators used by some winemakers a few days before the harvest. The grapes, having lost the shade of the leaves and exposed to the sun and were quite literally “roasted” and dried out by the heat giving them a look of dried fruit; the best ones looked like currants. In the case of certain vines, the deficit in water resulted in a stunting of the ripening process, while in other cases evaporation of water resulted in very high concentrations of sugar. At the same time, the heat and sunlight kept burning and breaking down the acids (particularly malic acid). Many wines will probably not go through a malolactic fermentation because of this lack of malic acid.
Today, having visited many of my neighbors’ cellars for the first time since the harvest, it seems that certains areas were spared more than others, especially by the frost. This was the case for the southern parts of Pouilly-Fuissé. Chaintres, for example, came through quite well, much better than Vergisson. Fuissé, Solutré and Davayé were mixed but, in general, did much better than Milly-Lamartine, Sologny, Serrière, Pierreclos, Prissé, Chevagny and Charnay. The areas dominated by the cooperatives, famous for their “legendary overproduction”, were also hurt: Igé, Azé, Verzé, St. Gengoux de Scissé and even Lugny won’t be able to supply the rest of the Mâconnais like they did in 1998. So, globally, production will be down 30%. But we have to wait for the final verdict, that is the declarations of yields on November 30th. This year, because of the early harvest, there will be more time than usual between the end of the harvest and the declaration date….
These different elements, backed up by the first tests I did to check the ripeness levels (on August 12th, I had several parcels higher than 13%), brought about an extremely early harvest for those who were not already away on vacation, and forced those who had left to come home early. The official start of the harvest was announced on August 12th and the first grapes were cut (or harvested by machine) shortly after around August 15th. Being part of the group who had not left on vacation yet, I started on the 15th and finished on the 20th. At the beginning, we only harvested in the morning to avoid the afternoon heat and then, by the end, all day long as the weather had cooled down a bit by then. It went really quickly because there was so little to harvest. Most of us were completely finished by the end of August.
As far as vinification and my first impressions of the vintage go, there is no doubt that it is good…with the caveat that some winemakers may indulge in some questionable tinkering to compensate for the lack of volume. (We have heard that a good solution is to add 10% water and tartaric acid). One not very scrupulous producer in the Beaujolais must have literally forgotten to turn off the faucet in his trailer, because when the grapes arrived at the cooperative, his wine showed no more than 6.5% potential alcohol whereas his colleagues’ wine was at 12.5%, 13.5% and sometimes even higher percentages.
In spite of the heat, the fermentations have gone well. They are having a little trouble finishing but in terms of alcohol levels, everything is quite normal. The only negative concerns the acidity levels, as I mentioned above. Besides “add water”, the advice of the oenologists has been to add tartaric acid right at the start of the alcoholic fermentation as a precaution against fermentation accidents – especially given the heat. Many producers in the area followed this advice. I added 50g/hl to certain cuvées (the old rules allowed for this already as long as one didn’t also add sugar). These days, we are officially allowed to add both at the same time!!! The wines seem round and rich and not particularly unbalanced, with subtle not unpleasant dried fruit notes in those cuvées from the most drought stricken plots. That said, I’m not that sure if the quality of this vintage will be as extradordinary as the year’s weather.
The 2002 vintage, which has been bottled for about two weeks now, seems to me to be of very fine quality. It is very complete, bringing together good matter, fruit, freshness and good aging potential given the ph levels and the acidity and with the natural degrees of alcohol as high as the 2003.
