The Awful 2016 Spring in Chablis
While the late-April frost may have been less damaging in
Chablis than it was on the Côte de Beaune, large additional swaths of the
greater Chablis region were ravaged by two hailstorms in May. By many accounts,
production of village wine in Chablis will be down by at least 60% to 65% in
2016, and that represents a huge quantity of lost juice. The second hail storm,
which struck the southern part of the appellation on May 27, was
especially ferocious: in the space of barely 15 minutes at about 1:30 in
the morning, a massive amount of vineyard acreage was stripped clean of buds
and foliage.
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While the late-April frost may have been less damaging in Chablis than it was on the Côte de Beaune, large additional swaths of the greater Chablis region were ravaged by two hailstorms in May. This map shows how extensively the Chablis region suffered from frost and hail this spring (grêle is hail and gel is frost). Note that the Grand Cru slope in the heart of the appellation was virtually untouched.
