The Wines

After mild autumn and winter, with more water than normal (+90 mm), the vine showed its first signs of recovery in mid-March. 2020 promises to be a record of  earliness because over 6 months (October to March) we had the coldest temperature at -5° C (only during one day). Excessive rainfall during the winter allowed us to replenish the soil’s water reserves.

Despite a cool beginning of April 2020, it is the fastest starting vintage over the last 25 years. With strong sunshine and temperatures that reached more than 24° C in mid-April, the vegetation started to exploded. The buds had to be removed in a hurry because they quickly get tranformed into leaves. By april 20, we already noted 6 leaves spread out on chardonnay and 4 leaves spread out on pinot noir. On april 21, we were 24 days in advance compared with the 2019 vintage.

In May, the growth dynamic was intense (2 leaves per week). the disbudding  was barely finished when the tying-up started in Meursault Perrières and Pommard Clos des Epenot. On the estate, we demanded our winegrowers a precise work of disbudding in order to control the yields and the quality of the future harvest. The first flowers appeared around May 16 and by May 25. 

At the same time, the diseases (powdery mildew and mildew) were not very present. We had to pay attention and closely monitor our plots. At the beginning of June, despite more disturbed weather, the climatic conditions were favorable to a dazzling nouaison. In less than a week, the berries reached 5 mm and we could  already  plan the harvests on August 20th.

On July 5th, the Chamber of Agriculture informed us that the 2020 vintage is the earliest ever recorded and gave us the weather forecast for the up-coming vintage. July and August were marked by very hot, sunny, and dry  weather which helped us to maintain a perfect sanitary state. The drought began to affect some pinot noir plots. On July 10, we saw the first pinot noir berry turning red. On July 20, the veraison started in  all the sectors. As a result, we actively started to prepare the vat room,  while the harvest  was approaching….