Chêne Bleu 2022 – Harvest Report
A big and beautiful vintage of top-quality potential despite sustained periods of drought and an early harvest
Summary
The good news: A bumper year, the first in a long time, with yields up 60% over 2021 and great potential for an excellent, possibly outstanding vintage. In 2022, like much of the Rhône Valley, Chêne Bleu saw intense periods of drought, which blocked some of the maturation on certain patches of our Grenache. It caused the earliestharvest on record, but ultimately we were lucky with the timing of certain weather events, plus the vineyard was largely protected from the heat by its exceptional site at altitude and deep-rooted, old vines.
The Growing Season: super dry, punctuated by “rain, glorious rain”
Ample rainfall at the end of 2021 built up the water reserves in the soil to support the vines through the dry, sunny winter with gusty intervals from the Mistral. This ran contrary to much of the Rhône Valley, which recorded significant rainfall deficits at the end of 2021, impacting the growth cycle.
Optimal conditions for flower-power at altitude, boosted by big new plantings of bee-friendly cover crops
Bud burst, always later for us than in the valley, occurred two to three weeks later than the lower-lying vineyards, helping to evade the devastating early-April frosts. Flowering took place in excellent conditions,supported by 30mm of rainfall on the 20th of June. We are convinced that our bee-friendly cover cropscontributed to the healthy yields: our SustainaBEElity program is still underway but according to published studies, a large bee population can boost vine fecundity by up to 30% and help vines fight mildew by cauterising damage to the buds. At fruit-set we saw significant clusters emerge across the domaine, our first clear indication that it had the potential to be a very generous vintage.
A tense month of waiting in July was relieved by timely rainfall in August
In July the drought intensified, raising fears of early dehydration stress to the vines and a resulting fall in yields. We held our breath and treated the most vulnerable third of the vines with herbal mixtures of Yarrow and Camomile, a biodynamic infusion to prevent damage to the grapes and vines by greatly reducing evapotranspiration of the leaves. The remaining vines performed well on their own. We even dropped bunches on the high-quality plots -- particularly Syrah for our Héloise cuvée -- to ensure optimal maturation. Rainfall came in August, giving the vines some welcome respite by breaking the cycle of drought, kickstarting the vines’metabolism and bringing great relief to us too! By then, drought had stripped some leaves from the vines, but this created a silver lining by airing the bunches and reducing disease and mildew pressure. Only the holiday makers staying with us were grouchy about the rain.
Earliest harvest ever, with high yields, proving very tempting for the wild boar
Grape picking began on the 8th of September. 3 weeks ahead of our historical averages, it is the earliest yet known harvest for the domaine but three weeks later than vineyards in the valley (usually four to five). Our Roussanne tended towards gold-tinged with brown, requiring careful sorting in the vineyard and on the sorting table. However, white grape yields, always limited for Chêne Bleu, were far superior to 2021 with 35hl/ha for our Viognier (a record!), 22hl/ha for Aliot (our Roussanne, Grenache, Marsanne blend) and approx. 27hl/ha for Astralabe (Grenache-Syrah)-- still low because of our old vines, but much improved. The yields for our top reds are still TBD, and always less because of the lower-yielding parts of the vineyard. All the whites are showing freshness and balance of flavors. Our white Grenache, destined for Aliot, is developing beautiful tropical and ripe white fruit notes in the cellar while the other tanks are showing more fresh, floral, and candy notes.
Rich, dense Syrah and great Grenache saved by the sunny start to October
Our Syrah was harvested at the perfect point of ripeness with fine skins just ahead of the heavy rain (60mm) in late September. Fermentation is showing delicious, rich, black fruit aromas. The Grenache was more problematic: drought caused certain patches of the plots to stop their maturation around 12.5% potential alcohol, well below the optimal concentration we seek for Abelard, so our volumes for that cuvee are likely to be reduced or else the blend will be significantly different. There was also some concern about dilution after 70mm of rain at the tail end of September, but the dry, sunny opening to October helped to concentrate the sugars and flavors before harvest. The much younger Mourvèdres are showing some beautiful maturity this year.
A capable crop of Harvest helpers
It’s great that for the first time in several years, yields are significantly higher than 2021, and that the vintageappears to be of excellent quality. However it meant that harvest stretched over 27 days, versus last year’s 18 picking days. Inevitably, everyone was quite exhausted by the end because of the additional amount of grapes.Luckily, we had a terrific team of harvesters this year-- in the aggregate, enthusiastic, pleasant and a joy to work with.