Our first organic vintage Our first organic vintage

It had been a long time since we experienced a “real” winter with temperatures relatively low and steady until March. In 2022 this coincided with the exact date of the spring equinox, meaning that our vines did not experience budburst too early. 

However, Mother Nature played an April Fool’s trick on us with snowfall on the 1st! Frost at the beginning of April spread concern throughout France that we would have a catastrophic cold spell similar to that of 2021, but fortunately in the end, no harm was done. Spring finally arrived as of April 12, which allowed the leaves to begin their development splendidly in our vineyards.

The beginning and end of flowering occurred very early following a record-setting month of May (the highest average temperatures since 1959, with extremely dry and sunny conditions). With flowering finishing on May 28, 2022 was the 3rd earliest vintage since 1993, just behind 2007 and 2011.

June also experienced a heatwave between the 12th and 23rd, which speeded up the growth cycle and created stormy conditions (with an increase in precipitation as of June 21). A hailstorm destroyed approximately 20% of the harvest in our Fleurie vineyards during the night of June 24-25.
 

July and the first half of August will stand out forever in our memories due to extremely dry conditions, the likes of which had not been seen since 1958 in France. The drought was a real threat to agriculture nationwide. 

Fortunately, grapevines are extremely resistant and our team did all they could to protect our grapes from the heat. All that was needed was a little rain to save the day, which fell on August 14 and 17, meaning that we could expect to harvest under good conditions in all of our plots and appellations. 

2022 will go down as a historic vintage for the estate in terms of its extreme climatic conditions and because it was our first certified organic vintage for our Brouilly AOC.