2023

As has often been the case in recent years, extreme weather conditions during the season sometimes gave us a glimpse of the best, but also the worst. Without talking about miracles, unlike in 2021, all the problematic situations ended positively, enabling Chapelle & Fils to achieve its best harvest since our ‘official’ conversion to organic farming in 2006...

Start of the season:
Although the winter was not particularly cold, we did not experience high temperatures in late February or early March, which meant that vegetation started later than in recent years, but ultimately quite normally. Depending on the plot, we accumulated a delay of up to 15 to 20 days compared to the 2020 vintage...

May :
The first treatments against mildew and powdery mildew begin in early May, but the vines do not seem to be in any hurry to grow... Before the first heat waves in late May/early June, growth is very slow but there has been no damage to the buds this year (no late frosts or pests...). The vines are in good health at the start of the season.

June :
The flowers are blooming in perfect weather conditions this year, which undoubtedly explains much of the excellent 2023 harvest. A slight water stress has thinned out the Chardonnay bunches and naturally limited the pressure from mildew and, above all, powdery mildew. From mid-June onwards, the hot and sunny weather has finally caused the vines to grow day and night at a frenetic pace, and we are already expecting to harvest towards the end of August, as the delay at the start of the season has been quickly made up.

July :
The month began with seasonal temperatures, favourable for the onset of veraison. Hot weather set in, but without any extreme heat waves. Rainfall was adequate for the region, without being excessive. Nevertheless, the stages of ripeness remain very uneven within the same plot. This year, a lot of sunshine will be needed to ripen what looks set to be a bountiful harvest...

August :
After the first fortnight of August, which was marked by fairly low temperatures and rainfall that we had not seen in recent years, the end of the month saw the return of warmer and sunnier conditions, allowing the grapes to ripen once again... And thank goodness!

Wednesday, 6 September :
We are starting the grape harvest. This year, my father, although still present, has decided to step back. He will still help us a lot during the harvest, acting as a luxury backup in all the stressful areas (cooking, sorting, delivering snacks, etc.). He thought he was retiring... Wrong! It's not happening this year. For 14 days, we will have between 30 and 35 harvesters working to harvest our 16.5 hectares, with one Chardonnay plot per day. Once again this year, we are starting with the Chassagne 1er Cru plot, then some Santenay vines before moving on to Aloxe-Corton and Ladoix. Our teams in the vineyard worked efficiently under (too) bright sunshine during the first week and slightly cooler weather during the second. It was still exceptionally hot during this harvest, which we cannot ignore... You have to be able to roll with the punches when nature punishes you, but also be grateful when it is generous to you two years in a row! I can only echo the words my father used last year: ‘The harvest is beautiful and abundant, both in red and white.’

Wednesday, 4 October :
As I write these lines, we are finishing racking the red wines from the 2023 harvest. The white wines are all in barrels and are quietly completing their alcoholic fermentation in the cellar.

Tasting notes red

More generally, red wines should be rich and colourful with beautiful fruit and silky tannins.

Tasting notes white

The whites, meanwhile, should produce some very fine, well-balanced, fresh and lively vintages.