2022 Harvest report, A ray of hope for French winegrowers
After the complicated and challenging 2021 vintage for all the winemakers, between an intense summer drought and the spring frost, the 2022 vintage is very promising !
An increase of 16% compared to the 2021 vintage according to The Ministry of Agriculture.
Despite the hail and frost that hit some vineyards as well as a very hot season this summer, French winemakers were hopeful for the new vintage and were pleased about the quality harvested and of their grapes. Moreover, diseases was less common than 2021 year which had suffered heavy summer rains. Indeed, this year the harvest was very early due to a record ripeness of grapes, quite spectacular. Most of the winemakers started to harvest in August.
Confrérie des domaines has taken stock of the 2022 harvest by sharing with you the experiences of our partner domains.
Rhône valley
Domaine Philippe et Vincent Jaboulet
This 2022 vintage is synonymous with quality for the Jaboulet estate with a great concentration, however low in volume due to the lack of water throughout the year.
The harvest began on August 24 with the white grapes, the earliest date they have had in the history of the estate, and ended on September 13 with the harvest of Syrah for their famous cuvée “Cornas”.
The harvest is manual and the estate uses the machine according to the topology of the parcels and the age of the vines. It has on-board sorting on the machine for better quality.
"We have a lack of 30% in volume because of the drought”
Beaujolais
Domaine Chasselay
Harvesting began at the Chasselay estate on August 25 in very hot weather and ended on September 7 in stormy conditions.
The thick skins protected the juice and the grapes remained pulpy. The rain at the end of august allowed a lot of freshness and bunches benefited from that.
The work done on the vines this summer (weeding, manual weeding, lifting, etc.) and the fact that the vines have been grown organically for nearly 20 years prove that the vines grown under these conditions have all the capacity to defend themselves against this type of climatic change.
About Beaujolais Nouveaux, aromas are fruity and greedy,they notice wine has more body than in 2021 but less than in 2020.
"The 2022 vintage will be marked by that scorching summer, but completely different from 2020."
Burgundy, Chablis
Domaine des Hâtes
In the Chablis appellation, the Domaine des Hâtes is extremely satisfied with their harvest.
The quality is excellent and the volumes harvested are unexpected given the climatic hazards such as frost and drought that have affected the vineyard.
The authorized yield of 60 hL/ha has been achieved . The situation of stocks and allocations is very tense and will gradually improve from spring onwards. The first bottlings of the 2022 vintage are planned for mid-March.
"The winery, the teams and the winemakers not being close, the summer surprised everyone".
Savoie
Les Vignerons Savoyard
This year, as in many vineyards, the harvest started very early, as in 2003, with even a slight delay.
The harvest started for them on August 24th.
The grapes of the early varieties have low acidity, very high sugar levels, mainly Gamay, with yields 30% lower than the appellation. We notice very important differences in maturity and foliage condition between the plots and the different grape varieties, the draining terroirs have strongly suffered from the drought, some vines could have a very high mortality rate.
On the other hand, on deeper clay soils, the vines have resisted well and good vintages can be vinified.
Alsace
Domaine Wunsch & Mann
In Alsace, there is also talk of a record for earliness.
They started on August 25th this year.
The quality is present, with good ripeness; the vines have certainly suffered from the lack of rain in the plains, but the hillsides (predominantly clay and limestone, which retain water better) are finally more generous than expected. The volumes will thus be much higher than the previous vintage.
Integrality of harvest is all of our harvesting is done by hand.
"In the space of 30 years, the harvest has almost advanced by one and a half months in Alsace.”
Languedoc
Les Costières de Pomérols
Despite an exceptionally early start on August 11, the rains have finally upset the schedules from August 15. It is now a race against time for the estate to bring in the grapes from their 400 cooperators, from Pignan to Pomerols, passing through Mèze and Castelnau-de-Guers.
Fortunately, the domain can count on a great team to adapt to climatic hazards. However, nature is generous this year as they should not experience the poor harvests of previous years.
