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Harvest Report 2010

As I write (October 22, 2010), the harvest is finishing up in France. Burgundy and Champagne are done, much of the Loire is finished, while the south is in the middle of it and Alsace is perhaps one third harvested. Reports of quality this year are varied, but mostly positive (even very positive in Burgundy). Reports on quantity are pretty much uniform: it’s down compared to the norm.

Some unadulterated snapshots follow.

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From Muscadet’s Domaine Claude Branger: Following a beautiful summer, we began the harvest on September 9 under a beautiful sun. Just one small morning of rain kept us from the vineyards. We finished the grape harvest on September 23 as we had begun: under the sun. The year 2010 will be promising. (Sébastien Branger, October 7th)

From Alsace’s Domaine Pfister: Regarding the vintage, we still have more than half to pick. Yields are very low for sure (especially in Pinots and Gewurz), but the weather is now beautiful. We had a poor August and September, but October will save the year, ouf! We picked our first Pinot Gris grapes today, those for the Pinot Gris Tradition: excellent balance to make a dry PG. We will pick a plot of Gewurz tomorrow, and then stop until next week, thanks to the good weather still forecasted for next week. Rieslings mature gently, and show great potential. We just need 2 more weeks of this present weather, and 2010 will be very good. (Mélanie Pfister, October 6th)

From Volnay’s Domaine Joseph Voillot: There was only rain from 10h00 to 13h00. We picked Les Cras and Chevalières before and then we stopped. This afternoon we picked Pézerolles and Rugiens. Tomorrow we’ll harvest Champans and then there will remain only the Bourgogne parcels. The wines are beautiful but the yields are very low. (Jean-Pierre Charlot, September 24th—the only day rain fell during his harvest)

From Côte de Brouilly’s Domaine Pavillon de Chavannes: We finished the harvest better than envisaged. Beginning with a cold spring, followed by a rainy July, made us fear an average harvest. Then, a hot August and good September made for a beautiful harvest, healthy, fruit on average with 12,5°; the year 2010 will be good. For the quantities in Beaujolais wine, it is correct to say that the quantities will be weak because of the cold spring and hail, which struck hard. (Paul Jambon, October 1st)

From Vacqueyras’s Domaine Montirius: There remains approximately 5 days of grape harvest and we are collecting the grapes in Gigondas—Grenache and Mourvèdre. The medical condition of the grapes is excellent. The quantity seems good. The climate is favorable. Two pretty rains before the beginning of the harvest and then the marriage of sun and Mistral were welcome. Currently the weather is beautiful with heat in the day and fresh temperatures in the night. We have a team of harvesters made up of 24 people. These people come from various horizons. It is a melting pot. They are fabulous. The grapes are collected with much respect and conscience. We are very happy, Eric and myself, of our selection of people. People sing, laugh in the vines. (Christine Saurel, September 27th)

From Côteaux du Languedoc’s Mas des Dames: About the quality: really happy. As you know we’re working organic—but never had a cleaner harvest than this year. Real clean grapes—no illness whatsoever, a great, concentrated taste. Just one minor point: THE QUANTITY!!!! Not much, hélas. But better than last year. About the harvest: had a discussion with my oenologist and in fact this year seems, especially for the Syrah, more than exceptional. Growers are stressed since this variety doesn’t at all taste as they are used to. The fact is it has all the characteristics of a Syrah of ... Côte-Rôti! Much more Rhône than Languedoc this year—an acidity that’s not usual at all in the area—really interesting and promising to see what this will bring. The summer of course was exceptionally dry—that’s where the low yields come from and the concentration of acidity. (Lidewij Knijper, September 27th)

From Château Unang in Ventoux: Harvest—I am becoming happier with it. Being amongst the last to pick means that late years can be a little nervy. But in the tanks we are starting to see some merit, after a week of maceration, where I was previously fearful. The wild boar have enjoyed our tardiness...(James King, October 12)

From Sancerre’s Domaine Merlin-Cherrier: But this year, we decided that the grapes were sufficiently ripe and, with the heat and the rain, that we risked rot. So, I began harvesting on September 27th and finished 6 days later—very quickly. Lots of juice and very ripe since I had to ask for special dispensation for alcohol content above 13° for le Chêne Marchand and another tank. So you see that it is good! Forgive my tardiness in letting you know—I was born with clippers in one hand and a glass in the other rather than a pen. (Thierry Merlin-Cherrier, October 18th)

From Chablis’ Domaine Gilbert Picq: Here is news of our last born: the difficult but very beautiful vintage 2010. From the beginning, nothing was simple starting with a very long and delicate flowering. In the most precocious of our parcels like Vaucoupin and Vieilles Vignes, the flowering began early (beginning of June) but in bad weather conditions. There was a lot of coulures (failure of the flowers) and millérandage (irregular ripening of the grapes), and, along with the other parcels, the flowering spread out until June 20th and longer. There was a lot of rain, and work in the vines was rather difficult. The month of July was not very good with alternating clouds, rain, and, thankfully, some sun. The last [anti-rot] treatment in the vines was done on July 26th and with careful control---only using a small amount which was rather risky in spite of the conditions but succeeded well because the vines were very healthy and no trace at all of any disease, which became very important in the following days. The month of August was beautiful with a few storms which weren’t too wicked and which brought a little water, necessary by then. It was even very hot some days, and the beginning of September was also sunny. We expected to harvest by September 25th, but on September 15th, we realized we had a little problem: the alcohol content was already good at 11 to 11.5°, but the acidity was also elevated, a phenomenon like the 1996 vintage. We had to wait, although some chose not to do that and harvested on September 18th. The weather was hopeful and the few days that followed were advantageous and important, with cool nights and warm days. We began to harvest on September 22nd and two surprises awaited us: the first one was magnificent—elevated alcohol content—and the other one was that the acidity had dropped a lot (from 12.5 to 12.8° alcohol content for the parcels of Dessus La Carriére and even 13.5° for Vaudécorse which was a little too much for me, and the PH was between 3.10 and 3.15 for a perfect balance). We already knew that, with the difficult flowering, yields would be a little less, but now the yield on the grand grand cru of 35 to 42/hl/ha—we are not used to that . But the grapes were magnificent and the juice very sweet-scented, so we harvested in 2 days, 22nd and 23rd September, more than 4 ha. We couldn’t wait any longer and if all went well, we would be done in 4 days.

Unfortunately, the sky decided otherwise: a big storm on Thursday night with more than 40 mm of water disturbed our work and the following days were very difficult. We had to choose the best days, and rot was beginning to show its face, so certain vineyards had to be harvested very delicately.

Those are all the details, but to finish, we spent 11 days in total harvesting and thanks to our well-adapted equipment which was of particular help this harvest, our triage table of patience (no harvesting when it is raining, especially with the machines), and finally a meticulous work we were able to bring to the cave beautiful juice. These difficult and delicate years do not displease me because I think that the wines will be magnificent, a little like the style of 2008 but we will be able to take more credit for having succeeded so well.

The only small advantage of the rain was, with the more than 80 mm during the harvest, we lost from ½ to 1°. This is not at all a problem this year since I don’t believe in Chablis that are more than 13 °. We succeeded in harvesting an average of 50 hl/ha, which is important in allowing us to keep our prices reasonable. (Didier Picq, October 21st)

Download PDF Files: Harvest Profile