Loire 2021: The Harvest
Although July and August had largely been disappointing, September and October were rather more sunny, a last saving grace. Like Bordeaux 2021, this was a vintage which benefited greatly from favourable weather late in the season. Nevertheless, while it was largely warm and sunny, conditions remained variable. There was still a little rain here and there, in showers, and as a consequence there was a continued risk of botrytis. Not good for the dry wines, but for the sweet wines, ultimately very welcome.
Early predictions after the frost were correct, this was a small harvest, with volume across the entire region down by about 30% (an average figure of course, with many domaines fairing much worse than this). This makes it the worst frost in recent years, and certainly puts it in the same ball park as 1991. Typical yields in the Nantais were between 10 and 20 hl/ha, much lower than the norm.
And as already noted, this was a late harvest, later than many recent vintages, although not as late as the difficult 2013 vintage. With small volumes and a restriction on quality we can expect to see portfolios curtailed; top cuvées will be culled as the fruit is instead fed into more commercially valuable higher-volume cuvées, small volumes of red fruit will be downgraded into rosé, and so on.
Early Ripeners
For the first of the two principal early ripeners, Melon de Bourgogne, picking started late, the Ban des Vendanges – the date when picking is permitted – was September 15th. During the last few years the harvest has kicked off two to three weeks earlier than this, in early September or late August. “We started on September 15th” said Nicolas Choblet of Domaine du Haut Bourg, “a little later than usual as our average start date is September 10th”. Others, however, held off for even longer. Nicolas reported a yield 70% lower than the norm, bringing in just 17 hl/ha on his Muscadet vineyards, “when we normally aim for 50 hl/ha”. He also highlighted the difficulties with homogeneity after the frost. “It can be difficult, and after the frost we had different levels of maturity, but in the end we had homogeneity”.
