Bordeaux 2023 en primeur: Decoding the yields
Many top appellations have seen higher yields in 2023 than in 2022, and some estates reached record levels, despite huge mildew pressure and winemakers dropping grapes to help concentration, aerate bunches and remove unripe or shrivelled berries.
An incredible flowering and fruit set period, not seen since at least 2016, set the scene for large potential yields in the Bordeaux 2023 vintage.
In the end, these were reduced to still-very-high crops in many cases – although it’s worth noting disparities in yields from one appellation to another, and even within appellations.
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Northern Médoc appellations St-Estèphe, St-Julien and Pauillac saw yields above their 10-year averages, as did St-Emilion Grand Cru and Pomerol on the Right Bank, although Margaux, Pessac-Léognan reds and Sauternes were down on their average for the past decade.
When compared to 2022, however, average yields in all Médoc appellations rose year-on-year – apart from Moulis (-7%), Listrac (-22%) and Graves (-19%).
It’s also a mixed picture on the Right Bank compared to 2022, with St-Emilion and St-Emilion Grand Cru down 15% and 6% respectively, Montagne St-Emilion down 7%, Lussac down 8% and Puisseguin down 14%.
Whereas, St-Georges St-Emilion is up 27%, Pomerol 39%, Lalande de Pomerol 19%, Fronsac 37% and Canon Fronsac 6%.
Bordeaux AOC red yields are down 26% to 33.3hl/ha, with Bordeaux Supérieur down 19% to 28.9hl/ha, while Entre-deux-Mers reds were 32.4hl/ha. These were the areas hit hardest by mildew, with natural conditions exacerbated by the presence of abandoned vineyards.
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Bordeaux 2023 yields in context
Generally speaking, total production in 2023 across the region was just under four million hectolitres, or around 384m litres. That’s down 7% on 2022, which came in at 411m litres, and slightly up on 2021 (377m litres).
According to Gavin Quinney’s 2023 weather and crop report, which sourced data from French Customs and the Bordeaux wine bureau (CIVB), the three-year average from 2021-2023 of 390m litres was 20% lower than the annual average of 487m litres over the previous decade (2011-2020).
In 2001 to 2010, Bordeaux made 581m litres on average per year.
However, the 2023 stats were also affected by the uprooting of 4,000ha of AOC Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur vines. There was a 4% reduction in total hectares compared to 2022.
It’s also worth noting that Bordeaux en primeur generally only accounts for a tiny percentage of the region’s total wine output.
Click here to see a breakdown of 2023 yields across all Bordeaux appellations, provided by the CIVB using data from French Customs.
St-Estèphe
2023: 51.6hl/ha
2022: 31.5hl/ha
Variance from 2022: +63%
The appellation saw frost on 5 April, then five days of hot weather in May (between 25 and 30°C) that caused ‘incredible flowering’, said the team at Cos d’Estournel.
St-Estèphe also saw around 153mm of rain from May to the end of September. This was less than in appellations further south, but it included 80mm in June – with a record 47mm on one day on the 22nd, which meant estates had to spray three times.
However, the appellation’s proximity to the Gironde estuary meant there was also more wind than in some neighbouring appellations, a key factor in drying the grapes quicker and therefore limiting mildew damage.
Cos d’Estournel performed some green harvesting, on Merlot, for the first time since 2008, with a yield higher than 40hl/ha.
Phélan-Ségur’s harvest was the longest on record. It saw an eventual yield of 52hl/ha, with no mildew and no green harvesting. The estate also reported 12 days of temperatures above 40°C in July and August.
St-Julien
2023: 50.3hl/ha
2022: 34.3hl/ha
Variance from 2022: +45%
St-Julien saw more sunshine in August and September than in 2022. Annual rainfall was 584mm, with 133mm in summer – leading to less mildew pressure than in some other appellations.
Château Ducru-Beaucaillou said its vineyard teams reduced the potential crop by around 50% via green harvesting and decompaction of grapes for aeration and sanitary reasons.
‘Nature gave us what we wanted in the late season heatwave, but you needed the resource,’ said Tracey Dobbin, special advisor wine and markets. The team waited until 21 September to start picking the Cabernets and continued until 3 October, with the estate retaining 130 pickers on stand-by for the whole month.
Both Branaire-Ducru and Léoville Poyferré produced high yields in 2023 – 53hl/ha and 52.78hl/ha respectively. The former was using new winemaking facilities for the first time, while it’s the ‘first time the cellar has been full’ at Poyferré.
Storms were a big threat in 2023, and Poyferré used its anti-hail system several times.
Pauillac
2023: 47.1hl/ha
2022: 34.8hl/ha
Variance from 2022: +36%
Localised storms and heavy rain in June caused problems with mildew. Lafite Rothschild, in particular, saw more than 20mm difference in rainfall across 2km.
There were heatwaves in August and again in September, as well as rain on 19 and 20 September – although 100mm had been forecast and the actual amount was between 20mm and 40mm.
‘The rain came at a complicated time,’ said Saskia de Rothschild, CEO of Domaines Barons de Rothschild (DBR Lafite), explaining the team had to decide whether to wait or begin picking the Cabernets.
The threat of 70mm of rain prompted the harvest to begin, but in the end the estate saw 28mm; ‘not enough to cause any real damage’. Lafite reported yields of 45hl/ha, the highest since 2018 (40hl/ha). All other vintages since 2015 have been under 40hl/ha.
With an eventual yield of 37hl/ha, Pichon Baron green harvested Merlot, leaving six to seven bunches per vine. It lost 30-40% of grapes to mildew on three parcels, with a 10% loss on the rest.
Pontet-Canet had its longest harvest on record, stretching from 7 September to 10 October – with 250 pickers taking more than 10 days to pick the estate’s Merlot, when usually it would be done in three. The team also waited until 28 September to pick Cabernets, much later than the rain during the middle of the month.
Lynch-Bages also had its longest harvest, starting on 13 September and finishing on 4 October for reds.
Nicolas Glumineau, general manager and winemaker at Pichon Comtesse, said 2023 is ‘definitely a Cabernet year, because of the long harvest’. However, he also said the Merlots were the best the estate has made in 25 years.
‘The late season is perfect for Cabernet; Merlot is a sprinter and Cabernet is a marathon runner. The best Merlots give the density and the flesh on the mid-palate, which is what the Cabernet needs in 2023, but it was only a quarter of our usual production.’
Margaux
2023: 37.7hl/ha
2022: 31.3hl/ha
Variance from 2022: +20%
Due to its size, and estates having vines spread out across the appellation on different soil types, there are varying yields in Margaux. Some areas experienced more rain and more mildew pressure than others.
Almost incredibly, in the same appellation, estates may have either half or double the yield of their neighbours.
Margaux seemed to have suffered the most of all the major appellations from mildew in 2023. Average yields are the lowest since 2018, with the exception of last year.
Rauzan-Ségla winemaker Nicolas Audebert said a mix of vineyards across the appellation helped the team ‘build’ the wines as they wanted, mitigating the effects of the weather, but commented that there was as much as 3°C difference in temperature between some of the plots on any given day.
At Lascombes, new winemaker Axel Heinz spread the harvest out over five weeks with a big team required to sort sunburned grapes and make several passages through the vines to pick only what was ripe.
The maceration duration was shortened from an average of five weeks to three, with a touch of saignée for Merlots on heavy terroirs. Lascombes had a yield of 35hl/ha, with some loss from mildew.
Pessac-Léognan reds
2023: 38.1hl/ha
2022: 35.7hl/ha
Variance from 2022: +5%
Smith Haut Lafitte lost 40% of its Merlot to mildew, and used seven different sorting stages ahead of, and during, the harvest.
Harvest for the whites started on 23 August and winemaker Fabien Tietgen said that it was the first time the team had started picking before the property’s sister estate in Napa Valley.
He also commented on an anomaly in the technical data regarding the presence of mildew. ‘We thought we knew mildew, but last year our analysis said it was impossible and yet we still had some.’ The estate had a yield of 26hl/ha, which is roughly the same as a normal year, albeit below the appellation average.
Domaine de Chevalier also experienced low yields, and lower than in 2022, with 31hl/ha in reds – although it saw a large 45hl/ha for whites.
Malartic Lagravière’s harvest lasted from 12 September to 5 October, with a yield of 39hl/ha for the reds. Haut-Bailly had a potential yield of 45hl/ha, which was reduced to 40.5hl/ha after the dry and hot weather in August concentrated the grapes.
First growth Haut-Brion had two lines of sorting for the second year, with a vibrating table and densimetric bath. It saw 50hl/ha yields, the same as Les Carmes Haut-Brion, which is the largest ever.
Pessac-Léognan whites
2023: 50.3hl/ha
2022: 31.6hl/ha
Variance from 2022: +45%
Smith Haut Lafitte noted that 2023 had 959mm of rainfall and was the fourth wettest vintage in 25 years, yet the summer was slightly under the average rainfall for the last 20 years.
The dry July and August saved the vintage, drying out the soils and, together with cool nights, preserved acidity and freshness in the white grapes.
Generally, across the appellation harvest started between 18 and 24 August. At Smith Haut Lafitte, the white harvest began on 23 August, with the young Sauvignon Blanc and finished on 9 August.
St-Emilion and St-Emilion Grand Cru
2023: 43.1hl/ha and 40.6hl/ha
2022: 50.2hl//ha and 41.2hl/ha
Variance from 2022: -15% and -6%
Widespread mildew pressure meant estates had to be extra vigilant and reactive. The appellation saw 239mm of rain from May to the end of September, although Beau-Séjour Bécot quoted 330mm of rain during the entire vegetation cycle.
Cheval Blanc has its biggest-ever vintage in the cellar – after the longest harvest on record – with a yield of 40hl/ha, despite regulating a portion of the estate’s young vines via green harvesting and de-compaction. Troplong Mondot had equally generous and record-breaking yields, at 53hl/ha.
For La Dominique, the year was separated into three parts; ‘managing the frost, managing the mildew then managing the harvest’, which was the earliest and longest ever. The team spent 22 days picking the Merlots.
Laroque green harvested for the first time since 2018, because it was ‘important to balance each vine’, said winemaker David Suire, who noted that old vines and their massale selection ‘really helped’ combat the weather in 2023.
For Nicolas and Cyrille Thienpont, some estates had to be sprayed three times-a-week during the biggest threat of mildew, while others had none. Their Castillon and Côtes de Francs estates in particular experienced less rainfall than in St-Emilion.
For Ausone, Edouard Vauthier said successful mildew treatment was about being fast, but ‘you needed to find the time. When it rains for eight hours, you need an open window with no rain’ – particularly important for certified organic estates.
At Beau-Séjour, Joséphine Duffau-Lagarosse was ‘completely ready’ for 2023, preferring the vintage conditions to 2021, having purchased special caterpillar tractors and doubling the harvest time from four days to nine. The estate produced its highest yield since 1990 – 53hl/ha.
In 2023, to cope with the conditions, Clos Fourtet’s Matthieu Cuvelier hired one new member of staff just in case the team needed to treat in the evenings and weekends. ‘You needed more tractors and more drivers [in 2023]’, he said.
Pomerol
2023: 45.2hl/ha
2022: 32.3hl/ha
Variance from 2022: +39%
Petrus harvested between 11 and 20 September, finishing before the rain. The team did some de-compaction but little green harvesting. Due to the ratio of juice to skin, no saignée was done, with 2% of press wine in the final blend.
Winemaker Olivier Berrouet said the wines showed high tannic potential during fermentation and so the team decreased the volume of wines during the pump overs, with no mechanical punching down, and instead lengthened the time in vats to better control the power of the vintage.
For Omri Ram at Lafleur, 2023 was ‘an extreme vintage with no extremes’. Instead of hl/ha, Lafleur uses the quantity of one bottle of wine per vine as a measurement of quality, noting that 2023 is ‘at the top of our normal range’. Despite the heat, 2023 was considered a ‘cool vintage’, with no green harvesting and no de-leafing.
Clay soils helped retain moisture with no need for irrigation measures, which were called for in 2022.
Sauternes and Barsac
2023: 12.2hl/ha
2022: 14.1hl/ha
Variance from 2022: -14%
Estates generally reported high average sugar levels, but with balancing acidities thanks to a quick, warm and dry end of the growing season.
Like much of Bordeaux, Sauternes suffered from a ‘virulent outbreak of mildew’ in June, seeing 45% more rainfall than normal that month alongside higher-than-normal daytime temperatures, according to Sauternes expert Bill Blatch.
While quality was largely not affected, some estates had far lower yields than normal, because of losses due to mildew.
Château Climens in Barsac, for example, had only 2.7hl/ha and Château La Tour Blanche only three. Conditions were somewhat cooler than normal in July and early to mid-August, promoting acidity and freshness, while hotter weather in late August and a hotter-than-normal September led to concentrated grapes – albeit with little botrytis.
Initial September pickings featured many raisined grapes with some botrytis, although this period accounted for only 15-20% of everyone’s total harvest, Blatch said.
A powerful September heatwave – with temperatures reaching 42°C – also scalded some grapes, said Jean-Pierre Meslier, at Château Raymond Lafon, prompting the need to discard desiccated grapes.
Significant rainfall on 21-22 September finally brought considerable botrytis, and an ideal ‘rôti’ stage of botrytis developed in October – so that pickings from 2-12 October provided about 75% of the total harvest.
Additional reporting by Panos Kakaviatos