Frost: it is urgent to wait!

All the winegrowers contacted on Monday, April 4, after two nights of frost, said the same thing: we now have to wait two to three weeks to see how the vines will react and to get a precise idea of ​​the extent of the damage.

Manually lighting a candle in Puligny-Montrachet premier cru Le Cailleret.

Waiting, with hope, simply because these two nights of frost are nothing like the three nights of early April 2021 in terms of intensity. A local winemaker Pouilly-Fuissé This sums up the difference between the two years quite well: in the same spot, at the bottom of Les Cras, we recorded -7°C on April 8, 2021, and this year it was only -3°C. A significant difference, even if Olivier Lamy, a winemaker at Saint-Aubin , in Côte de Beaune , remains very cautious. "The temperature did drop to nearly -4°C in the premier cru For example, at levels of -3/-4°C, with buds in the cotton or at the green tip stage, you don't always see the damage right away.

The plant has suffered stress, which can later manifest as poor flowering, damaged grapes, or grapes more susceptible to downy mildew and powdery mildew, ultimately resulting in a small harvest. It should also be noted that this cold snap will only have consequences in chardonnay , THE pinot noir being much further behind (as was also the case in 2021), including in early-stage sectors such as Volnay Or Beaune Moreover, the protection systems were not even activated in the vineyards planted in pinot noir .

Down to -8.5° Chablis

North of Burgundy, the Yonne suffered two nights of frost: the first (night of April 2nd to 3rd) with "reasonably" low temperatures (-3/-4°C), but vegetation dampened (an aggravating factor) by a light rain that fell on the evening of the 2nd, and a second, colder night (down to -8.5°C), but drier; it is probably the first night that caused the most damage. Elsewhere, in Côte-d'Or, in Côte Chalonnaise And in the Mâconnais region, the battle was concentrated on a single night, that of April 3rd to 4th, with minimum temperatures at sunrise of -1 to -3/-4°C, which should prevent disaster; the same is expected, a priori, for the Beaujolais .

It should be added that in many appellations, methods of combating frost have been implemented, sometimes in impressive ways, such as in Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet (more than fifteen wind turbines stirring and warming the cold air in Puligny, dozens of hectares covered with solar panels…). It is therefore urgent to wait, and also simply because the risk of frost will not have definitively disappeared until the Ice Saints, which this year fall from May 11 to 13.

Christophe TUPINIER

Publishing Director