Spring frost - A Burgundian winemaker's singular cross

Raymond Blake on winemakers’ battle against dreaded spring frosts in Burgundy – just one of the many nasty curveballs that nature hurls from time to time

- Raymond Blake

Puligny-Montrachet. White wine doesn’t get more patrician than this. Indeed, if ever a wine village were to be designated as the capital of Chardonnay it would be difficult to look past the claims of Puligny-Montrachet village in the Côte de Beaune. The neighbours to north and south – Meursault and Chassagne – might not agree but, valid as their claims might be, in my view Puligny just shades it. As I wrote in my book Côte d’Or a few years ago: “Whatever your feelings about the rival claims of Meursault and Chassagne, Puligny is generally regarded as the village where the Chardonnay grape reaches its apogee. Refinement and restraint, opulence held in check by civilized acidity, sumptuous flavours that never obtrude, succulent fruit counterpoised by mild minerality, integration — harmony — structure — polished power. These wines have breed and plenty of it. A great Puligny has it all…”

That is, until spring frost makes its dreaded appearance. Wreaking devastation and laying waste great swathes of some of the most prized agricultural land in the world. In recent vintages two years are carved in frosty infamy: 2016 and 2021. The night of 26-27 April 2016 will live long in Burgundian memory for, in a matter of hours, a venomous frost hit the vineyards, destroying at a stroke several months of painstaking vineyard work. As if that was not bad enough, the morning’s rising sun added a cruel twist, for the globules of ice on the buds magnified its rays, compounding the damage by burning the buds.