Many Burgundy vintners finished picking earlier this week and Claude Chevalier, president of the BIVB said that yields are "almost back to normal" following a string of lower-than-average production vintages.
At his own Burgundy estate – Domaine Chevalier in Ladoix-Serrigny – Chevalier said: "The berries have good concentration, with phenolic ripeness", and – importantly – there were plenty of them.
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At the sorting table, they had rejected some unripe grapes and just a few gave off slight vinegar aromas of acetic rot – a result of the unexpectedly high number of Drosophila suzukii "vinegar flies" that struck vineyards during the September harvest.
"They love cherries and, because the cherry season lasted a long time, the flies stuck around to attack grapes in September," Chevalier said. Furthermore, temperatures in the high 20s (mid 80s F) favored their presence from the end of August through to the harvest, he explained.
Overall about 1.45 million hectoliters (38.3m gallons) of wine is expected from Burgundy, from Chablis to the Mâconnais, while the average vintage yields 1.5m hectoliters. This figure takes into account higher-than-average production in the Côte de Nuits, but a drop in production in much of the Côte de Beaune and the Mâconnais due to a terrible hailstorm in late June.
Cool temperatures and well-above-average rain in July and August would prevent 2014 from being an "exceptional" vintage, said Sylvain Pitiot of Clos de Tart in Morey-Saint-Denis, in the Côte de Nuits. But the three weeks of hot and sunny days in September "really did save the harvest", he said and "we should have a very good vintage".
"Flowering was early and we had no hail damage, but July and August were not good – to say the least," explained Pitiot, who said that he has had to clear leaves and aerate the grape bunches to prevent the spread of botrytis, and carry out a green harvest, but still ended up with more than 13 percent potential alcohol. He finished harvesting on September 22.
Thierry Brouin of neighboring Clos des Lambrays finished the harvest on September 18, reaching the "desired degrees" of between 11.8 and 12.3 percent potential alcohol. Like Pitiot, he green harvested in July. He also reported botrytis in early August, but "it did not spread and did not become as prevalent as it was in 2013".
"We had so many grapes for once," Brouin remarked, "and did not have to be nearly as choosy this year, reaching 35 hectoliters per hectare [2.6 tons per acre]." In 2013, the estate mustered 20 hl/ha.
Brouin also reported "unprecedented" amounts of vinegar flies. "Three weeks before the harvest we had to do a 'pink harvest' to remove grapes that were not ripe enough or that were affected by acetic rot," he said.
Côte de Beaune vintners harvested healthy grapes but hail damage from the massive June 28 hailstorm drastically reduced the harvest. Thiébault Huber of Domaine Huber-Verdereau reported 60 percent below-average production for Volnay and losses of up to 80 percent among his premier cru Pommard vines, but the hail made bunches less compact and, in that sense, had a "positive effect" to limit botrytis spreading in the cold, wet summer.
"The main surprise" of 2014, Huber predicted, would be the whites.
© Panos Kakaviatos|Thiébault Huber
Although hail damage meant much less quantity in several appellations – for example 50-55 percent below average in Meursault – "they seem magnificent" in part because ideal ripening in September matched naturally high acidities from the cool summer.
In Beaune, Alex Gambal of the eponymous estate, said that the "whites are more consistent" than the reds with potential alcohol of 13 percent and "a better balance" of acidity and ripeness. And in appellations less affected by the hail, such as Saint-Aubin, Puligny and Chassagne-Montrachet, "you will see quantity as well as quality", Gambal added.
Reports from William Fèvre in Chablis on September 22 indicated high quality too, with low levels of rot and oidium and a very fine balance between acidity and ripeness. Some poor fruit-set meant that quantities, although higher than in 2013, would not be as high as hoped.
