A Visit to Domaine de la Noblaie, 2019
Jérôme Billard and I came to a halt at the foot of the slope and took stock of our surroundings. Having walked down from his house through the vines we found ourselves on the floor of a little valley, which itself runs down towards the Vienne. Opposite us the land, planted with yet more of Jérôme’s vines, rose up again. Looking at these vines more closely, it seemed as if they had just enjoyed a visit to the local coiffeur, each vine having been shorn of numerous long shoots and many leaves. What had been clipped off lay scattered at the foot of the vines, like discarded hair, waiting to be swept away. “We are currently debudding, after pruning long to protect us from the frost”, said Jérôme. “It’s a lot of work”.
The Frost in 2019
I have been writing about the wines of the Loire Valley for nearly two decades now, although it is only in the past few years that I have become so closely acquainted with frost, the threat it carries, and the many and varied ways in which vignerons predict its coming and protect their vines, and ultimately their crop, against its destructive power. It seems to me that, while it was once thankfully rare occurrence, today it is a much more frequent one, and indeed in some Ligérian appellations such as Montlouis you could argue it is now the normal state of affairs, and vignerons are surprised when their vines aren’t frosted, rather than when they are. Along the way numerous vignerons have played their part when it came to teaching me about frost; Jérôme’s part was introducing me, a few years ago now, to the concept of pruning long.
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