2023 Burgundy Vintage

The 2023 weather year ran from a mild winter and a mixed spring into a summer that swung between heat peaks, cool wet spells and storms. Despite the mild winter, budburst came a few days behind average because the weather stayed unstable into April, and that slight delay let the vines escape the rare spring frosts. The first green tips appeared on April 2 on Chardonnay in early sites and on April 12 on Pinot Noir and Gamay. From May 20 temperatures stayed above seasonal norms, the first flowers opened at the end of May, and mid-flowering came on June 7 in very good conditions, with generous bunches. Spring ended on a water deficit, carried over from 2022, that lasted the whole season, even though June storms dropped 80 to 140 mm per episode in parts of the Cote d'Or. July stayed unstable, with storms, temperature peaks of 35 to 36C and high humidity that kept growers watching for disease all summer. Hail fell on July 11 and 15, and in early sectors the first berries reached veraison between July 11 and 18. Ripening ran warm and sunny, rainy spells in August protected the crop, and the month ended in heat unusual for the season. Cremant de Bourgogne picking opened in the Maconnais (Lugny) on August 25, with more than 35C in the sun until the end of the first week of September. Still whites followed the next week, Pinot Noir around the second week of September, and the harvest ended at the end of September in Chablis and the Hautes Cotes. The crop is estimated at about 1.9 million hectolitres, a record.

The two hail episodes of July 11 and 15 caused very localized damage in the southern Maconnais, the northern Cote Chalonnaise, Meursault and around Dijon, while Burgundy as a whole, Chablis and the Grand Auxerrois included, came through unharmed. The July 11 storms struck in the evening, between 10 and 11 pm, mainly in the Cote Chalonnaise and the Cote de Beaune. In Mercurey, Aurore Devillard, co-owner of Chateau de Chamirey, gave a first count of 50 percent damage on the estate's Chardonnay parcels and about 20 percent on its Pinot Noir, figures she said were still to be refined. In Meursault, grower Emilien Millot saw hailstones grow to the size of ping-pong balls and put the damage at 5 to 40 percent depending on the sector, averaging 10 to 20 percent; Volnay and Beaune were reportedly hit to a lesser degree. Chablis was spared: the storm passed there in the early afternoon, without hail.

Heat was the main constraint at harvest. The heatwave at the end of August temporarily halted ripening and made picking conditions difficult. Several growers and cooperatives picked at night, while others started as early as 5am, just before sunrise, to bring the grapes in cool. The BIVB called the Chardonnay and Aligote bunches magnificent. Pinot Noir, more sensitive to heat, needed careful sorting in the vineyard and at the winery to remove scalded or shrivelled berries, and the large volumes made strict sorting easier. Grapes were often cooled so that fermentation could begin at a leisurely pace, and the BIVB called the vinifications easy.

Chardonnay, Aligote and Sauvignon reached full ripeness in perfect health while keeping freshness, and Pinot Noir, after often severe sorting, gave very fine juice with great aromatic richness, in the BIVB's assessment. The choice of picking date produced a range of wine profiles. The whites are highly aromatic and plainly delicious, and the reds' success rests on yield control and meticulous sorting: pure and aromatically complex, with a fresh, lively palate and well-integrated tannins. The BIVB suggests enjoying them early but gives the wines a potential to evolve of 2 to 5 years depending on the appellation. Whites have an intense nose of ripe white fruit, supple and elegant, already enjoyable young, and reds are marked by fresh red fruit and floral notes, with a dense body and a silky structure.

• Whites: white fruit such as peach and pear, supple and elegant, enjoyable young
• Reds: fresh cherry and raspberry through to black fruit with some spice, floral notes and a silky structure
• Red quality rests on yield control and meticulous sorting
• Potential to evolve of 2 to 5 years depending on the appellation

The 1.9 million hectolitre estimate was announced on November 19, 2023, at the Hospices de Beaune sale, a provisional figure from a survey of operators. That is just over 253 million bottles, above the previous records of 1.82 million hectolitres in 2018 and 1.75 million in 2022, though below the region's full potential of about 2.5 million hectolitres. The record is explained by exceptional yields and a growing planted area, now 32,000 hectares, and the crop splits 63 percent white, 25 percent red and rose and 12 percent Cremant. It includes 149.6 million bottles of white wine, is up 9 percent on 2022 and 29 percent above the five-year average, and winery stocks were around 12 percent above the five-year average at the start of the 2023-24 campaign. By contrast, frost and mildew left 2021 33 percent below the five-year average.