We popped in to see Gilles Bigot, the winemaker of Chateau de Fesles yesterday afternoon. The last time we were there a couple of months ago a parcel of land that had been cleared a couple of years ago was lying fallow but yesterday, it had been replanted with young Chenin vines.
Planting at this time, with no rain and high temperatures has its problems but the team at Chateau de Fesles was unable to get onto the ground to plant earlier because of the torrential rains that we had in the region during April, May and early June. In order to loosen up the ground and enable planting they had to use a sub-soiler to get right down and aerate the soil. Planting by machine was impossible so each vine was planted by hand. The baby vines were watered at planting and now the estate is hoping for rain this coming week or they will have to get out again and water to keep the vines alive.
The estate has a few signs of mildew but is not an organic estate (it works along sustainable lines and uses systemic fungicides if required). The vines have been treated 6 times with a systemic fungicide and this seems to have dealt with any potential problems. Compare this with one or two of our organic grower partners that have sprayed 12 times and still have 50% losses in some parcels.
The forecast is for more hot sunny weather in the region. A teeny bit of rain is predicted mid-week but may come to nothing.
