Grape vines are temperamental plants. They change enormously depending on the weather conditions across the seasons.

This is the beginning of June, and we’ve witnessed some simply unbelievable weather. Not only has there been not a drop of rain for a month, but we’ve had a string of beautifully hot and sunny days too, reaching 35°C in the shade. It hasn’t been this hot in the Beaujolais since the 6th of June 1942.

And of course, with this fantastic hot, sunny and dry weather, the vines have blossomed quickly and in the best of conditions. Thanks to this excellent weather, we’ve been assured fine blossoms and we’re able to avoid any vine “coulure”. All of these well-fertilized (and therefore well-formed) grapes will ensure optimum ripening consistency and a prodigious harvest for the winemaker. That is, if the weather stays good.

What’s more, we’re seeing a relatively modest number of grapes appearing on the vine stock this year. This is certainly a very good omen for the onset of ripening and excellent maturity. Overall, it looks like this vintage is going to be of excellent quality, as is often the case with years ending in 5.

Of course, for the very early-flowering, smaller plots in the Beaujolais, the vines blossomed ten days ago. Their weather conditions were a little less favourable and a little cooler, but most importantly the weather stayed dry.

In any event, with a combination of perfect blossoms and a small number of grapes, we should be blessed with an earlier harvest than the past few years. This itself is a promising sign of great quality to come.

This is true for all of the Beaujolais. However, things are a little different in the Mâconnais. There too, we’re looking at a very early harvest. But here it promises to be excellent, if not exceptional, in terms of volume as the number of grapes per vine is higher than in the Beaujolais.

Great news for the Mâconnais! The demand is extremely high and the volumes in stock in our cellars are almost non-existent. However, this only really affects yours truly, so I’ll move on.

For winemakers and winemakers, our lives are controlled by the weather. Today, we’re delighted with this splendid weather which warms our hearts and gives us hope for a great harvest. But tomorrow will be another day and we may well have very different weather. We’ll be sure to keep you informed of the good or bad news it brings.

Like every year, unfortunately, we’re seeing storm clouds on the horizon. This weekend they hit the commune of Vaux en Beaujolais. And with the high temperatures we’ve had, we saw hailstorms which could have devastating results...

Just to remind you, we’ll be taking part in the VINEXPO wine fair and we’d be delighted to see you there. Our stand is in Hall 1, stand BD205.

It will be our pleasure to welcome you to VINEXPO or Beaujolais this summer.

From Beaujolais with love,

Georges DUBOEUF 9th of June, 2015