Photography by Jon Wyand
NOUVEAU §
2022 Burgundy: The smiles return After three small harvests in a row, the much more abundant and
highly promising recent vintage will be widely welcomed. At least one more generous harvest will be required for stocks to recover and prices to stabilize, but it now seems easier to see cellars as half full. Neil Beckett reports
I
f 2021 was the Burgundy vintage on which Bacchus stopped smiling (see pp.166–201), he—along with all his devotees who love the region and its wines—was beaming from ear to ear in 2022. In her detailed and insightful report Viva la Vida! (from which, as well as the annual harvest report published by the Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne, most of the following details are taken), Ludivine Griveau, régisseur of the Domaine des Hospices de Beaune since the 2015 vintage, describes 2022 as a year “in which nature definitely had a series of surprises and wonders in store.”
A good start to the year Winter was drier than normal but fairly seasonal in terms of temperature. (It dipped below freezing on 58 days out of 135 between November and March.) After a very warm final week of March, the first green shoots were observed on Chardonnay vines in early April. A mass of cold air from the north caused temperatures to drop (as low as 26.5°F [–3°C]) and anxiety levels to rise, but despite four nights of frost April 3–11, and some damage in the earliest- ripening sectors, the situation was much less serious than in 2021. Moreover, the weather soon warmed up, allowing the vines to return to growth and to develop secondary fruit-bearing buds. In mid-April, summery temperatures
encouraged the vines to grow rapidly, and they grew even more vigorously after three days of rain the first two weeks of May. Flowering took place May 19–26, two weeks earlier than normal, in very favorable conditions, so there was very little coulure and only a touch of millerandage, suggesting a generous and
18 | THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 79 | 2023
very early harvest. Fruit-set around mid-June was also two weeks or so ahead of schedule.
Rainfall the saving grace Drought, however, was an ever-growing concern (rainfall between January and May was 25 percent lower than usual), especially after the earliest-ever summer heatwave June 15–20, with temperatures of 95°F (35°C) in the shade and as high as 100°F (38°C) on June 18. Wine growers’ prayers for rain were finally answered via occasionally violent thunderstorms June 21–25. An average of 2in (50mm) of rain fell across the region, but varied from less than one inch to more than 3.5in (20–90mm). The total rainfall for June was much higher than normal, but despite some damage from hail in some sectors and the need to treat against the risk of disease, the vines benefited, soaking up enough water to get them through the rest of the summer. June turned out to be a month of extremes in other ways as well, with not only above-average rainfall (+3in [75mm]), but also higher-than-usual sunshine (+28 hours) and temperature (+5°F [2.8°C]). Yet “June 2022 probably made the vintage what it is,” Griveau reflected in her report, “even though we didn’t realize it at the time.” The weather remained very dry
and hot for the rest of the summer, with veraison in late July or early August and an average temperature in August of 100°F (38°C). The grapes generally ripened well in the heatwave conditions, which helped keep disease at bay. Younger vines and those on shallow or sandy soils suffered more, but hydric stress and scorching were not too widespread—the Domaine
des Hospices de Beaune eventually eliminated only 1–5 percent of shriveled grapes on the sorting tables—and some very welcome rain in mid-August refreshed the vines at exactly the right time, allowing them to finish ripening and produce their juice. Harvesting began slowly on August
16 for some Crémant de Bourgogne vines. Grapes for still wines began to be gathered from August 20 on the Côte de Beaune—not as early, in the end, as in some recent years—but on the Côte de Nuits, the Hautes-Côtes, and in Chablis, the last bunches were not brought in until the third week of September, making it an unusually protracted harvest. For the Hospices be Beaune, it was spread over an “unprecedented” 17 days. This was necessitated by an even greater than usual need to assess each parcel individually, due to the very different levels of ripeness following the ups and downs of the growing season, as well as by the higher-than-expected yields; and it was made possible by the sustained good weather. “Ripeness checks coupled with berry and juice tastings were the only guides,” concludes the BIVB report. “Almost all the grapes had good sugar levels towards the end, so it fell to the acidity content to determine when the grapes needed to be cut. Yields were good for both white and red, with crates filled with perfect bunches leading certain producers to vinify in whole bunches.”
More record highs in Beaune The Hospices de Beaune charity wine auction was held at its traditional time on
Right: Broad smiles all around and secateurs raised in victory during the happily prolonged 2022 harvest.
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