Burgundy's harvest diary closes. Rain shaved a point of alcohol
Steen Öhman’s last 2026 cut: Côte de Nuits still picking. Rain dropped ~1% potential alcohol on richer soils, almost nothing on stone. The market will not forgive 15% from average houses.
The daily diary is over. The pick is not.
Steen Öhman published his final 2026 harvest cut on 2 September from Nuits-Saint-Georges. Wednesday morning the vineyards had gone relatively quiet. Quite a few had help from the rain. In some plots the potential alcohol dropped about 1 percent, down below 14. That shows mainly on richer soils. On stony soils the rain barely moved the number.
He still prefers below 13.5 percent. The market, he writes, is looking more and more at the alcohol. It will be hard to sell 15 percent wines from poor and even average producers. There are plenty of those in this end of Burgundy.
Surprisingly many vignerons are still harvesting in the Côte de Nuits. Everyone has a plan, a crew, a window. It was a difficult harvest. His neighbour Marchand-Tawse finished yesterday. That is why the diary stops.
The bottle will tell the rest. Stony terroirs can carry weight. Big terroirs can too. A point of rain is not a style. It is a number the shelf can see.
Mini-concept: rain is not a vintage. It is a point of alcohol, and only on some soils.
A flavoured can never had to drop a degree. These Pinot rows still do, or they don't, depending on the dirt.
Remember: rain shaved about 1% on richer soils, and Côte de Nuits is still picking.
Source: WineHog