Tagged with "Loire valley vineyard update"

Harvest is in full swing here in the Loire and for the first time in three years we are seeing broad smiles on the faces of our partner growers as they bring in decent volumes of lovely looking grapes.

After incredible amounts of rain in June, the hot weather finally settled in the Loire and has continued for most of the month.

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 earlier.

Well, what a month we’ve had since I last reported from the Loire valley vineyards. Huge amounts of rain during the first 2 weeks of June caused chaos around the region. On the 11th June Amboise had 80mm of rain in just 2 hours.

The sun has finally made an entrance after 6 weeks of stormy wet weather and huge amounts of rain.

The weather has been dire over the past week with huge quantities of rain making vineyards practically inaccessible. This is worrying as the damp, humid conditions lead to mildew (downy and powdery) which requires treating on a regular basis, especially if you are working organically.

Both the Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc are flowering here at Le Tasting Room. Here in Anjou we are always a little behind the vineyards further east where many vines have finished flowering and the fruit has set.

Well, it seems like we made it past the frost saints (11th, 12th and 13th May) so growers are beginning to relax as we approach the second half of May. We had one or two nights in the past couple of weeks when temperatures dropped dangerously close to zero but it seems that we are out of the major danger zone.

We noticed while driving through the vineyards of St Nicolas de Bourgueil and Bourgueil today that practically no-one has tied their vines down.