Bordeaux 2013: The Harvest
The 2013 vintage was running late from the start, and late harvests are always risky harvests. Having seen a late bud break the Bordelais were fearful, and sadly those fears were realised. There is always the chance that a vintage can be saved by an Indian summer, gloriously dry and unexpectedly warm weather in September and October coaxing sluggish vines to ripen their fruit. I have even known dedicated Bordeaux proprietors hold back their pickers until November (and yes, I am talking red grapes, not a Sauternes harvest) if the conditions allow it. That was in 2007, another difficult vintage. Although the trials of 2007 were not a patch on 2013, which I have heard described by old hands as the most difficult vintage in the past thirty years, and those with a fewer vintages under their belts – the new, younger generation of winemakers and cellar masters – as the most testing that they have ever worked. There was no Indian summer in 2013 to save the day. Instead, the Bordelais were handed rain and rot, and there was panicked picking.
As is always the case with rain and rot, it is impossible to generalise across a region. Some vineyards are hit harder by rain, some less so, and both soil type and methods of cultivation can make a difference. Vines on sand and gravel soils are often worst affected, moisture-absorbing clay and limestone perhaps less so. Cultivating crops between the rows might help to take up the water, although if the vines are trained low and the grass is long, it might also increase localised humidity and therefore increase the risk of rot around the bunches. I will therefore look in more detail at the vintage in my region-by-region reports in subsequent instalments, but first a broad overview of the harvest.
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