Things have certainly changed since we did our last update a couple of weeks ago. The rain in the past week has been welcome and kicked things off after a rather stagnent period when vines were shutting down due to the excessive heat and lack of water.
Walking though the Vouvray vineyards yesterday afternoon, on the whole vines seem to be in good condidtion.
There’s plenty of fruit on the vines and sugars are accumulating.
Chenin bunches don’t ripen in a homogenous way but we tasted plenty of grapes that were sweet alongside others that were still unripe. Things are moving quickly which is good news.
One or two parcels look to be struggling severely from the lack of water. Mostly younger vines and vineyards nor farmed organically or with a lot of marcotage (layering of vines to propogate new vines from a mother vine).
A little more rain in the next couple of weeks would be good. Skins seems to be quite tough and some berries small. Careful vinification will be the order of the day.
