GUFFENS

2007, the latest early year…

The year 2007, in Burgundy was exceptionally warm at the end of winter and in spring. March and April were the warmest ever recorded, with really unusual sunshine.

In 2007 the vine budded very early, 20 days ahead of schedule. Temperatures above 30°C in April increased the vegetative advance of the plant and its flowering. But this flowering, though it was early was also very heterogeneous. During this phase, the weather shifted to cooler temperatures and higher rainfalls. As a result, the flowering spread over a long period on time. And therefore maturity between and inside the parcels was very uneven with of course a strong impact on the harvest.

June and July were rather cold which prevented the grapes from going rotten. But these months were also very rainy which considerably slowed down the developemnt of the grapes.

It took until September to regain warm temperatures and sunshine. The harvest, planned mid-august eventually took place between September 5th and 18th, about 120 days after flowering, which is unheard-of (100 days on average, 80-85 days in 2003).

As each year, our aim was to harvest at full maturity in order to have nice and sound grapes. We were among the last ones to harvest, often two weeks after most of the wine-growers.

As a result, the wines are crunchy without being acid while having a certain richness due to the three weeks of sun before harvest. Here is the situation for Maconnais and Cote d’Or.

As for Chablis, the conditions were the same but it was impossible for us to delay the harvest. Our winegrowers refused to pick at full maturity for fear of losses due to possible grapes diseases. As Jean-Marie Guffens says : “We’re never in a hurry to make bad wine”. So we chose not to purchase the grapes if they harvested before the dates we had set. Only one wine grower accepted the challenge. We will therefore have only one Chablis in 2007 but one of greatest renown : the Chablis Grand Cru les Clos.