2016 vintage

Burgundy vineyards experienced a mild, very rainy winter. Spring began with mild temperatures and quite a bit of rain which filled the water tables.

This year will be long remembered by wine growers for the spring freeze on the night of 27th April when temperatures feel to -2 degrees and the buds were saturated with water.  The sunrise the next day caused a magnifying effect which intensified the phenomenon. The lack of wind was fatal.

Result: 40% of the buds were destroyed, especially in lower Gevrey. The Grands Crus could not be saved: our Chambertin plot was greatly affected. The Gevrey on the Brochon side and the centre of the village were less impacted.

Blossoming began around 20th June but lagged, leading to shot berries on certain plots.

Then, the cold and wet spring brought heavy mildew to the vines. All of the plots were affected. It was very difficult to treat as copper-based treatments were washed out. Then, there was a crop loss of around 15%.

Luckily, the summer arrived around 14th July with wonderful sunny days and very hot temperatures which remained until the end of September. The pressure of disease finally stopped...
The grapes began to show signs of drought and scalding heat. We decided not to remove the leaves.

The summer work was long as we had to work the frozen plots which had grown heterogeneously so there was a lot of work for a meagre result.

The month of September made it possible for the remaining bunches to ripen.

We started harvesting on 24th September 2016.  The grapes harvested showed an excellent sugar maturity, good acid balance and significant colour intensity.

The acidity would remain stable due to the low malic.

The grapes were in perfect conditions of health.

Unfortunately, the harvest was one of the weakest since 1997.  30 low Gevrey sections were harvested out of the habitual 90 and only one Chambertin section was harvested out of the habitual 5.

We hope the quality will be exceptional...