Hard-Won Burgundy

(WSJ) - A series of record-low harvests means France's most highly prized wine will be rarer—and more expensive—than ever.

IN BURGUNDY, the cellars are lying half empty. Where there would usually, at this time of year, be rows of oak barrels full of maturing wine waiting to be bottled, the spaces stand bare, and the region's vignerons curse a growing season that has left the crop savaged.

"When Michel Lafarge, who made his first vintage in 1947, says he has never seen anything like this, you know it is unusual," says Jasper Morris, Master of Wine and Burgundy importer for Berry Brothers & Rudd.

Frost, rain, disease and then hail ripped through the vineyards and resulted in a vintage that is even smaller than at first feared. Estimates vary, but for the 2012, which has just been previewed in a series of tastings in London and Hong Kong and is on sale now, the yield is anywhere between 20% and 90% down on 2011. It depends on which part of the Côte d'Or, the "golden slope," you choose to focus.

The Côte d'Or—which starts just south of Dijon and ends in Chalon-sur-Saône—is split into two sections. In the south is the Côte de Beaune, renowned for its white Burgundies made from Chardonnay, and delicate red wines. The Côte de Nuits, in the north, is much shorter, and its soil is known to produce the most fascinating expression of Pinot Noir.

Ghislaine Barthod, who makes wine in Chambolle-Musigny in the Côte de Nuits, as well as a Bourgogne from the Côte de Beaune, says in some cases her production for 2012 is down 50% on 2011.