Excessive rainfall this winter (300ml since November) saturated the soils, and with the lengthening of the days, the rise in temperatures (an incredible 26°C in the last week in March and the first of April), and the high levels of sunshine, the vines literally exploded. All the conditions were reunited for rapid growth, especially since we had applied amendments to the entire vineyard this winter. Our race against the clock was already off to a flying start!

Then the temperatures suddenly plummeted and, faced with a frost alert combined with freezing wind on the night of 26/27 March, we installed anti-frost candles in the most exposed sectors. The mercury dropped to minus 1°C in the Côte de Nuits and minus 2°C in the Côte de Beaune. At this stage of development some of the buds were still cocooned in their down and resisted up to minus 7°C. But some were already at the first to third leaf stage and were vulnerable to the least negative temperature. We lit fires in our grand crus of Puligny-Montrachet (Bâtard-Montrachet, Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet and Chevalier-Montrachet), and the Premier Cru Champ Gain; and two parcels on the Corton hill, En Charlemagne and Le Charlemagne, plus Corton Clos du Roi, and in the Vougeot Clos du Prieuré, Clos Blanc, Clos Vougeot and Musigny.

This work is time-consuming, painstaking, and expensive, but it prevents frost damage and loss of future fruit. Apart from just a few buds and leaves we suffered no real losses, and even neighbouring vines escaped morning frost thanks to the effect of thermal mass.

This was also the season when, following the estate’s traditional calendar, we sprayed the vineyards with biodynamic preparation 500P between 31 March and 3 April using copper backpacks, to reinvigorate the earth and the plants.