Bordeaux 2021: Weather Report
While this report on the 2021 growing season will naturally focus on the weather, it is worth remembering that this is the second vintage in a row that has fallen under the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Of course the situation in 2021 has moved on from that endured during 2020. First of all, there is a lot less uncertainty about what is legally permissible, and what isn’t. Everybody is much more familiar with the precautions that have to be taken during the harvest and other busy periods in order to prevent or at least reduce the spread of infection. And of course many of the workers are now vaccinated, adding an extra layer of protection to those other precautions already in place.
Having acknowledged this additional layer of difficulty, over the next few pages I will concentrate on an overview of the growing season, from the depths of winter through to the 2021 harvest. Of course if you wish for the quickest possible summary, you could turn to my vintage soundbites on page four. Alternatively, if you have arrived here after Monsieur Propriétaire’s introduction, then you already have a pretty good idea of how the growing season rolled out in 2021. It was far from easy, the region having been blighted by frost, a poor flowering, rain, mildew and some harvest challenges.
Winter & Spring: Another Frosty Beginning
The wintry weather that came during the first few months of 2021 was in truth not that wintry at all. The conditions were mild, and as a consequence the buds had long burst when frost revisited the region in early April. Across all of France – even in parts such as the Languedoc, where until 2021 many had forgotten the existence of the word ‘frost’ – nocturnal temperatures plunged to levels well below freezing. The nights of April 3rd onwards saw very low temperatures, with the 6th and 7th generally regarded as the worst (especially on the morning of the 7th). Temperatures fell as low as -7ºC in some corners of the Graves and Sauternes appellations (they went even lower in other parts of France, where some weather stations recorded their lowest temperatures since 1947). Temperatures this low simply cannot be ameliorated, no matter how many vineyard candles or bales of straw you set alight.
