Côte d’Or Enjoys Burgundy Bounty of 2017

William Kelley writes in Decanter that the hard hit Côte d’Or domaines are giving thanks this year for the largest crop since 2009. Year after year of hail, rot, and frost have ruined crops, pushing many vineyards to the edge of their financial cliffs. Kelley writes:

Along the Côte d’Or, the sound of honking horns and cheering pickers announces that the Burgundy 2017 harvest is coming to an end.

After a succession of meagre years, beset by hail, rot and frost, nature has finally answered growers’ prayers, delivering a plentiful crop to equal or surpass the volumes achieved in 2009, the region’s last abundant vintage. After the gloom of 2016, a year ravished by the worst frosts since 1985, spirits this year are buoyant and the atmosphere cheerful.

At domaines with empty cellars and correspondingly depleted coffers, 2017’s bounty may prove of truly existential importance.

‘We’re thankful’, confesses Cyril Audouin, whose Marsannay vineyards were ravished by frost in 2016. ‘Everyone in the Côte d’Or is smiling this year’, agrees Véronique Drouhin: ‘it’s so nice to have full fermenters!’ Moreover, with such an abundance of wine now waiting in the wings, it is to be hoped that the pressure to increase prices for the 2016 vintage will be less keenly felt.