2009 Loire vintage (Pt. 2)

Jérôme Choblet tasting 2008 juice: 23.9.08

Quick Skype call this morning to a buoyant Jêrôme Choblet (Domaine des Herbauges, Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu). “The vines are looking very good at the moment, so much better than they did at this time last year after the early 2008 April frost. So far we have had no frost and no hail. There has been a belle sortie (good number of potential bunches – flowering won’t happen until late May/early June). Because we pruned a little bit longer this year, in case we were hit by another frost, our potential crop is a little too big. Once the risk of frost is past – in 15 days time – then we will start removing some of the buds to reduce the crop.”

I asked Jérôme whether he thought we might see a very big crop in 2009 similar to the huge crop of 1992 that followed the terrible 1991 frost. (When the vine shave a year off they tend to produce a big crop the following year – all that pent-up energy!) “No I don’t think it will be like 1992. There has been a big change in the way the vineyards are managed since then. For instance, there is much less fertiliser used today. The vineyards are now grassed over to reduce vigour. Also because of the esca disease there are missing vines in many of the vineyards.”

Jêrôme assured me that none of the vineyards in the Côtes de Grandlieu uses the total weed kill used in parts of Touraine – instead the vineyards are grassed over. “No one uses the old conventional viticulture, now it is either la lutte raisonnée or organic farming.”

The most important thing in 2009 was for the Muscadet producers to avoid another serious frost. Barring a last minute frost that fortunately looks to have happened. Depending upon what happens during the flowering 2009 could be a ‘normal’ harvest in terms of volume after the short vintages of 2007 and 2008. Fingers crossed!