Harvest 2023: serene harvest after challenging season

Almost all grapes are now in the cellars for the 2023 harvest in Bordeaux, and after a complicated growing season, it’s been a remarkably easy harvest, with very little rain, and the only issue some overly hot days right into October that have meant a loss of yield in the final furlong, compounding issues with mildew for some.

Château Pape Clément finished after their longest harvest on record on October 4, with 29 days of picking stretching from the first Sauvignon Gris that began at the end of August. Technical director Jeanne Lacombe said, ‘With levels of maturity varying considerably between lots, it was essential this year to stretch the harvest out to ensure every grape variety could reach its full maturity. The first juice in the cellar is dominated by fruit, generosity and balance’.

I’ve spent the past few weeks visiting vineyards (including harvesting at Tour St Christophe for a morning), tasting the first vats as they transform from sugary grape juice to young wine, and spoken with harvest teams along the way. It’s always too early at this stage to really assess the quality of the vintage, but there are a few takeways that are already clear:

• This was a challenging growing season that has ended up with a sense of relief. Far less frost than in recent years, and a sizeable floraison and fruit set meant excellent yield potential early on – meaning healthy yields in many cases.
• This will not be true for those affected by the worst attack of mildew since 2018, following a rainy start to the season (or more specifically damp weather with warm temperatures described by consultant David Pernet as ‘tropical’). It has meant that grape sorting has proved key – both in the vineyards and in the cellars. ‘Just 5% of mildew-affected grapes in a vat during fermentation will have an impact on taste,’ Emmanuelle Fulchi-Aligny, technical director at Vignobles K, told me, underlining how crucial this step is for the 2023 harvest. Tastes that you can expect from mildew grapes include a slight metallic tang, along with dusty or mushroom flavours, and a general lowering of pristine fruit.
• The impact of the mildew however has been extremely uneven, meaning that while some yields are down as low as 15hl/h, other properties are recording extremely healthy yields of up to 60hl/h or more. In general, the worst affected vineyards have been located around Entre-deux-Mers, and those that have escaped with the least damage have been in the Médoc. There are of course exceptions to this at every turn… but it may be explained by the fact that Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc in general are less impacted by mildew than the Merlot grape.
• To escape serious issues with mildew you needed – besides luck – to be able to work weekends, and to have the manpower and resources to be present throughout the most challenging periods. As ever, this benefits those with sufficient financial clout. As Fabien Teitgen at Château Smith Haut-Lafitte said, ‘(June) was typically very favorable to mushrooms, with some nice baskets of porcini mushrooms, but unfortunately also very conducive to the development of vine mildew. Thanks to our years of work in Organic Agriculture and our mastery of phytotherapy, our vineyards are in good health, losing only around 10% of estimated production – also thanks to the close and tireless work of our teams, present 7 days a week, with frequent but light applications of Bordeaux mixture’.
• Another similarity with the 2018 vintage has been the strong heatwave during harvest, which is 2023 has seen temperatures in the mid 30s even in early October, and began with a wave of heat between September 4 and 7. Some young vines particularly suffered, but the heat also helped bunches with high yields (‘sometimes excessive,’ as Pernet says) reach maturity. Hydric stress at this point has also reduced the size of the berries, particularly Cabernet on gravel.
• Summer temperatures were cooler than last year though, particularly in August, and overall we can expect wines with good levels of tannins and colour compounds, particularly those harvested after the September heat waves, but generally more balanced alcohols and natural acidities than in 2022.
• We can expect less even results overall than 2022, with big differences between estates. And the widening economic disparity between haves and have-nots in Bordeaux will be once again underlined.