Loire 2016: Summer
Although April had been drier overall, May was very wet again, in all the major regions of the Loire Valley. This was typical of the vintage in some other parts of France as well, including 2016 Bordeaux. The rainfall was persistent and continued through until late June. Despite this the flowering, when it came, did not seem to increase anxiety levels too much, although some reported problems. At the very least it was said to be a very heterogeneous process which raised concerns about the subsequent ripening and harvest. Others reported coulure and millerandage, and there were many reports of ‘chicken-and-egg’ bunches come harvest. I wonder if, following the devastation of the frost, the vignerons simply took these difficulties in their stride. The continually wet weather, punctuated by the occasional storm, was a major burden for all though, requiring a lot of treatments in the vineyard to stave off mildew.
It was after the third week of June that the weather turned; it rained on most days from June 10th onwards, finishing with heavy rain on the 22nd, in Muscadet, although in Anjou, Touraine and the Central Vineyards it petered out a little more slowly. But as it did so the sun came out, drying out the vineyards and ridding the vines of any threat of mildew. And the sun stayed out for the next five months, so much so that it was a record-breaking year in many parts, with week after week of warm, dry and sunny weather, with time leading to drought-like conditions. Most parts had well under 10 mm of rain through July, with just 6.8 mm in Bourges (not far from Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé and Menetou-Salon), the lowest rainfall ever recorded in July, and most of which fell in one day, 5.8 mm on July 12th. It was during July that I visited Matthieu Baudry, not to mention Benoît Amirault, Jérôme Billard, Arnaud Bourgeois and Bertrand Minchin, among others, and I don’t recall a drop of rain during the entire two weeks. Vines that escaped the frost carried healthy looking bunches (pictured below, in Vouvray), while others remained bare.
Please log in to continue reading: