Bourgogne 2022 has ‘the potential to make a great vintage’, BIVB says

Bourgogne 2022 has the potential to be a great vintage, the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) has said, as it dedicated the vintage to Louis-Fabrice Latour, the former president of the trade body who died in September.  

The Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB), said the harvest had been “a pleasant surprise”, combining quality and quantity, despite the tricky weather during the growing season. This vintage is “a vintage of the kind we were all hoping for,” it said, and one that would have delighted Latour, who, as both a former president of the BIVB and the Fédération des Négociants Eleveurs de Bourgogne (FNEB) had been very involved in the world of wine on both a national and international level.

Conditions

The first shoots appeared at the start of April, following a milder and drier than normal winter. However, temperatures then dropped significantly, producing four nights of frost between 3 and 11 April, causing alarm for winegrowers, but fortunately, most buds were not fully out and were still protected ‘in cotton’ and although some early sectors suffered, the damage was nothing like as extensive as it had been in 2021.

Spring conditions then set in, speeding up the growth cycle, with flowering happening two weeks earlier than average, during a period of warm and dry weather. It looked like the 2021 vintage would be one of the earliest ever seen, and one with a generous harvest. Fruit set earlier than normal following some much-needed rain, followed by very hot and sunny weather as the berries developed. Thunderstorms at the end of June (21-25 June) brought more needed rain, although hail also caused “significant damage” across some areas. Hot weather continued across the summer, checking the growth of some vines, particularly those in shallow or sandy soils, although the majority withstood the hydric stress well, and were relieved by rain in mid-August.

Early expectations of a super early vintage proved unfounded and picking started on 16 August for Crémant de Bourgogne, and 20 August for the Chardonnay for still wines on the Côte de Beaune, continuing until the third week in September for the last grapes on the Côte de Nuits, the Hautes Côtes, and in the Chablis region – a “somewhat unusually long harvest”, caused by diverse ripening good weather, and unhoped-for volumes.

As the BIVB reported, the grapes were in “fine condition and wonderful health” with a surprisingly good yield of juice, and musts that were “balanced with controlled degrees of alcohol and good acidity”.

“The qualitative potential of the phenolic compounds is excellent for the reds, suggesting a vintage with good ageing potential. But for both reds and whites, the musts are very aromatic, and fermentation is happening fast,” it said.

Fall in sales

The news will come as a relief to the BIVB, following a report in French financial daily Les Echos last week that said sales of Burgundy had started to slip.

As reported by Wine-Searcher, the French broadsheet said that domestic supermarket sales of Burgundy were down by 25% in volume and 16% in value compared to the previous year, with exports to “nearly all major markets” also showing a downward trend. Sales to the US fell -10%, the UK -9% and Canada -16%, it said.

“While exports usually represent almost 50% of total sales, they fell by almost -11% in volume during the first half [of the year],” the French newspaper reported.

However, the BIVB president Laurent Delaunay said the fall was due to the low yields of the frost-affected 2021 harvest which had triggered “a drop in stock levels and an attendant rise in prices, further exacerbated by high dry goods prices and inflation”, Wine-Searcher reported.

“We will certainly need two good harvests to replenish our markets,” Delaunay  was quoted as saying.

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Tributes paid to Louis-Fabrice Latour