2021 vintage
It is a vintage that has truly put winemakers to the test.
The 2021 season started off in early April with unprecedented frost from 6th to 8th of the month. A cold wave came in from the poles, leaving temperatures of -3°C to -5°C which hurt our little buds. A few less-developed ones did not suffer so much; others further into the green tip phase were destroyed. We tried to fight it off with our bougies (large paraffin candles), but our resources were just not enough in view of the significance and duration of this frost.
The weather afterwards was rather mediocre with hardly any heat or light meaning we had to wait until the end of May for the vine shoots to finally appear. Then, in the beginning of June, the moisture from the precipitation and relative mildness led to incredible plant growth. Flowers bloomed mid-June in less than a week.
June and July were quite rainy without much sun. There was a major storm on 9th June in the northern Gevrey area with 60 mm of rain mixed with a bit of hail.
This poor weather made the already-weakened vines due to the frost even more sensitive to fungal diseases. The pressure from downy mildew was immense followed by powdery mildew at the end of the season.
We had to double down on the pace and frequency of copper and sulphur treatments, taking advantage of the few windows of opportunity for intervention available.
In early September after the summer break, the vineyard showed even more growth. We began trimming again and removing weeds using a brush cutter as the work was intense.
We decided this year to thin out the leaves in the entire vineyard to preserve the health of the grapes and for good cluster ventilation.
After several hot seasons since 2016, we’re now back to a classic Burgundy year.
Although the sugar maturity is good and the acidity is still quite present, we’re not sure about the phenolic maturity. Following ripeness controls and many doubts, we finally decided to start harvesting on Saturday, 18th September 2021, as some rotting had already been observed.
A rainy spell on 19th and 20th September forced us to halt the harvesting efforts.
A dry period of about ten days was forecasted as of 21st September: just the right amount of time needed to pick all the grapes. Wind came in from the northeast which dried up the rotting problem.
Meticulous care will still be necessary with extreme sorting in order to find the best clusters, which will be quite rare.
This Vintage is already expected to be made with very small quantities of clusters....
