Loire 2023: Summer
The dry spell ended during the second week of June, rain returning to the Nantais on the 8th with 4.6 mm delivered to the vines. Anjou followed suit on the 9th, with 5.6 mm, and both regions took more drizzly rain throughout the rest of the month, particularly Anjou which also saw 8.1 mm on the 15th and 29.7 mm on the 18th. The Nantais also took rain on the 18th, 16.3 mm.
Further upstream there were similarly challenging conditions in Saumur and Bourgueil, although up in Vouvray the conditions were drier. While the rainfall in June was 48% more than the norm in Anjou, in Touraine it was 55% below the norm. In contrast with Touraine, the Central Vineyards suffered a late-June deluge, with 58.7 mm of rain recorded on June 21st, followed by 19.4 mm on the 22nd. The Upper Loire also saw heavy rain on the 29th. And everywhere the temperatures were rising, up to 33.2ºC in the Central Vineyards on the 25th, a baking 9.4ºC above the norm.
Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Mildew
These hot and humid conditions from mid-to-late June naturally raised the mildew pressure, requiring a concerted and persistent effort, with regular spraying against mildew a necessity. This was true of all regions, although Vouvray and the other Touraine appellations east of Tours were somewhat less afflicted. “We lost no fruit to the mildew, and this was true of Vouvray as a whole,” Julien Pinon told me when I visited. “This is not like Bourgueil, Chinon or Saumur, where there was a lot more rain, perhaps 100 mm more than in Vouvray.”
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