Every summer, one question comes back at the cellar door like a refrain: when does the harvest begin? In 2026, it is being asked earlier than usual. In the Mâconnais, around Solutré, the vines moved ahead as soon as winter released its grip and have never really slowed since. Speaking of an early 2026 harvest is therefore not a turn of phrase: it is the reading of a growing cycle that started early and is moving fast.

This head start is no isolated weather quirk. It is the sum of several weeks of growth-friendly conditions, stacked one upon another. To understand why the picking date is drawing closer, one has to follow the vine step by step, from the first bud to the berry whose texture changes. That is the path we invite you to walk here, as we observe it in our own parcels.

Why is the 2026 harvest starting so early?

The answer lies first in how the cycle began. A mild end to winter brings forward budbreak, the moment when buds open and release their first green tips. Everything that follows — foliage, flowering, bunch formation, ripening — then unfolds in the wake of that starting point. A vine that sets off early generally keeps that advance, barring a climatic accident.

Then comes the summer heat. The vine is a plant whose development depends closely on accumulated temperatures: the warmer the days, the faster each stage follows the last. A consistently warm summer therefore speeds up the ripening of the grapes, with the direct consequence of a harvest date that moves up the calendar.

Finally, precocity has never been uniform from one parcel to the next. On the slopes of the hamlet of Pouilly, a few metres of elevation, a cooler exposure or a deeper soil are enough to shift the evolution by several days. This is one of the riches of our Pouilly-Fuissé appellation: it is never harvested in a single sweep.

From flowering to harvest: the vine's countdown

Winegrowers have long used a simple marker: roughly one hundred days pass between full flowering and the harvest. It is not a mathematical law, rather a compass. From June onwards it allows us to sketch out a harvest window and to organise the season accordingly.

Flowering is a delicate moment. It largely determines the number of berries that will make up each bunch, and therefore the volume of the future crop. A rapid, even flowering, helped by dry, mild weather, produces regular bunches that will ripen together. A flowering drawn out by cold or rain instead yields berries of differing ages within a single bunch, which later complicates the decision to pick.

When flowering comes early, the countdown starts early. That is the main mechanism behind an early year, and it explains why an advanced harvest can be anticipated well before the grapes have even begun to ripen.

Veraison, the decisive signal before the harvest

Next comes the stage we watch for every summer: veraison. It is the grape's tipping point, the moment when the berry stops swelling like a vegetative organ and becomes a fruit. On red varieties the change is obvious: the grape takes on colour. On Chardonnay it is more discreet and calls for the hand as much as the eye.

A berry entering veraison loses its hardness and its bright green hue. It softens under the fingers, turns translucent, takes on golden glints. From that instant sugars truly accumulate in the pulp, acidity begins to fall and aromas start to build. Veraison therefore marks the real beginning of ripening.

Until veraison has begun, we talk about the calendar. The moment it arrives, we talk about the grape. That is when the vintage stops being a forecast.

An early veraison mechanically heralds an early harvest. It is also the signal that intensifies our monitoring: we move from weekly observation to a far closer watch, parcel by parcel.

What precocity changes in how the estate is organised

Harvesting earlier is not decided the day before. An advanced harvest shifts the whole logistics of an estate, and that preparation takes up a good part of our summer.

  • The teams: our grapes are picked by hand, which means mobilising pickers for a date that can move forward by several days over a single warm week.
  • The cellar: press, vats and pipework must be ready and clean before the first crate arrives, with no margin to catch up.
  • Temperature control: harvesting early often means harvesting warm, which makes managing temperatures all the more important when the crop comes in.
  • The hours: starting at first light allows us to bring in cool grapes, easier to work with in the cellar.
  • The order of the parcels: it is built up gradually, according to the real ripeness of each named plot rather than a plan laid out in advance.

That last line is probably the most decisive. Our cuvées are born of distinct parcels, and each finds its own moment. It is this parcel-by-parcel reading that gives their identity to wines such as the Pouilly-Fuissé « Vieilles Vignes », drawn from a mosaic of old parcels that never all reach ripeness on the same day.

Harvesting early does not mean harvesting hastily

Precocity and haste are frequently confused. An early year brings the calendar forward; it in no way dispenses with patience. The picking date remains the result of a trade-off between several kinds of ripeness that do not evolve at the same pace.

So-called technological ripeness concerns the balance between sugars and acidity. It is easily measured, but it does not tell the whole story. Aromatic ripeness, by contrast, is tasted: the pulp becomes more melting, the skin releases clearer flavours, the pips change appearance. A grape can show a good sugar level while its aromas remain closed.

For a Chardonnay from southern Burgundy, the challenge is to pick before freshness fades. Freshness is what gives drive, length and that sense of uprightness we find on our limestone soils. Waiting too long in search of richness would rob the wine of precisely what makes its signature. Picking too early for fear of the heat would, conversely, give thin wines with no substance.

This is why we taste the berries. Analyses guide; tasting decides. No instrument replaces chewing a grape skin at the edge of a row to know whether the moment has come.

Does an early year make a great vintage?

Not automatically, and experience invites caution. The 2025 vintage was already among the advanced years, without that being enough to sum up its character. Two years can share a similar budbreak date and then diverge completely, depending on summer rainfall, the coolness of the nights and the steadiness of the end of the cycle.

What makes a vintage is the coherence of how it unfolds and the soundness of the decisions taken at the right moment. An early year offers a real advantage: it often allows picking before the autumn rains, with healthy grapes. In return it demands heightened vigilance over preserving acidity.

When will the 2026 harvest begin at Pouilly-Fuissé?

Every indication points to a harvest earlier than an average year, though no date can seriously be announced today. We will set the first cut of the secateurs parcel by parcel, tasting the grapes, when freshness and ripeness meet. To follow that moment closely, you are most welcome at the estate: our visits and tastings are a chance to see the vineyard at the hour when everything is decided.