“À point” in 2023

The 2023 harvest is peeping around the corner, and people are counting the days and hours, ready to spring into action when the grapes are ready, or “à point.”

This was also the lead of last year’s pre-harvest article, but there are some changes.

À point – at just the right time; at the peak of ripeness; at the perfect degree of doneness.

In general, winegrowers are optimistic – cautiously optimistic – as the hail and rainstorm in July did take some of the euphoria out of expectations.

In reality, much of the basic harvest planning is done before flowering, and certainly before veraison, based on experience and likely outcomes. In the end, financial limits and practical considerations will decide the details: How many are on the team? How long can you have the team on hold before it becomes critical?

And lately, the difficulties of getting seasonal workers have increased.

The best possible outcome

The rule of thumb is that harvest starts 100 days after mid-flowering – in theory, at least. 

Floraison (flowering) began this year in early June. Calculating 100 days forward from then gets us to around September 10.

For many, a better harvest gauge is 40 days from mid-veraison (colour change in the grapes). But then again, what is mid-veraison? There is quite a wide variation in veraison, and it has started fairly slowly and randomly in 2023.

To fix a calculation point, let’s use July 29. This is a rough average of the veraison reports I’m getting, and 40 days from then would take us to September 10 or so for the start. Some domaines will start sooner, others later. Either way, in a historical context, it will be another early-ish harvest.

Finding phenolic ripeness

The key to winemaking success is finding optimal phenolic ripeness, without over-doing sugar ripeness or losing balancing acidity – a daunting task.

Size and quality

At this point, the statistics for this year show an ample harvest; only the hail-punished areas are looking at low yields. Green harvesting has been done by some; there really are a lot of grapes on the vines in certain sectors.

Oidium and mildiou can sadly still lead to losses, but there are few vintages without these issues.

Size-wise, the ’23 crop will most likely be bounteous, and perhaps one of the most generous in years, particularly if the weather holds.

Expounding on the quality at this point is pure guesswork. Positive surprises have been seen in many vintages, and for a reminder, the last really poor vintage was 1994!

The rain has so far been adequate, so no blockage of phenolic ripening should occur due to lack of water. The hail could have caused minor delays in phenolic ripening, but mainly in Meursault and Rully and other damaged areas. So if we get good weather in August, then the year does look quite good from a journalist’s (and perhaps a winegrower’s) standpoint.

Good luck to all!