Burgundy’s Catch-22
A special derogation allows growers to buy grapes. Or not
Posted: Sep 27, 2013 11:40am ET
On Sept. 24,
the prefecture of the Côte d'Or passed a bylaw allowing growers in Burgundy who
were affected by the July 23 hailstorm to purchase grapes or
must from the 2013 harvest to make up for the loss of their crop.
The
derogation pertains to producers who lost more than 30 percent of their grapes,
based on the average crop of the past five harvests, in the villages of
Aloxe-Corton, Auxey-Duresses, Beaune, Chorey-lès Beaune, Ladoix-Serrigny,
Meursault, Monthélie, Pernand-Vergelesses, Pommard and Volnay.
The
allowable amount of grapes or must cannot exceed 80 percent of the average of
the past five harvests. Also, vintners have to buy from the appellations that they produce. So, for example, if they
lost fruit in Beaune, they can't replace that with grapes or must from
Gevrey-Chambertin.
On the
surface, this seems like a reasonable solution to deal with agricultural
businesses that suffered the vagaries of weather events. You might even think
this is good regional government working the way it should work.
The problem
is, there are no grapes to buy. Nor will there be must available. Entire
vineyards or parts thereof in the communes affected were wiped out. It would
make sense if you could purchase fruit from the Côte Chalonnaise or Mâconnais,
two areas of Burgundy where the harvest looks good and there may be grapes
and/or must to purchase.
With the
2013 harvest looming, many growers in Burgundy are facing their own Catch-22. It
is the fourth vintge in a row with small crops in Burgundy, particularly for areas hit
by hail during the past two seasons. With strong demand worldwide, this will
likely translate to higher prices.
Bruce
At a tasting at Drouhin a few weeks back they commented that there yields at the top of Clos des Mouches were down by 95%!
Over that week I walked many sites, around Beaune, Volnay and Pommard that will have no fruit to harvest.
Mischief and Mayhem recently closed on a new Domain parcel of Savigny les Beaune Les Gravains, 4 hours after the contract was signing the hail came down, luckily we had little damage.
MT