Late sunshine in August in Touraine
After a long and very dreary spring leading to a late flowering, the weather in July and August may well have helped to improve prospects for the 2013 vintage, apart from those producers and regions hit by summer hail.
Stats from the weather station at Tours over the last three months show how prospects have changed.
June
Temperatures:
2013: 21.4˚C average maximum
Average from 1981-2010: 22.8˚C
Rainfall
2013: 69.5mm
Average: 46.1mm
Sunshine
2013: 202 hours
Average: 228
All stats down on the average.
July
Temperatures:
2013: 27.7˚C average maximum
Average: 25.5˚C
Rainfall:
2013: 38.5mm
Average: 53.2mm
Sunshine:
2013: 299 hours
Average: 239 hours
Marked change around with both temperatures and sunshine hours well up on the average with less rain than normal.
August
Temperatures:
2013: 25.6˚C average maximum
Average: 25.4˚C
Rainfall:
2013: 23.4mm
Average: 42.5mm
Sunshine:
2013: 274 hours
Average: 236 hours
Although temperatures for the month are close to the average, rainfall is well down while hours of sunshine are substantially up. The stats over the past two months look good, although much will depend on the favourable weather continuing into September and on into October as the vintage will still be later than many in recent years. It is also no bad thing that the average maximum temperature in August 2013 is close to the average as is the overall average temperature for the month. High temperatures tend to burn off acidity and may do little to assist full ripeness, instead pushing up the sugars.
2 comments:
Jim, do wild boars thrive there as well ? They constitute a true plague this year, both in my region and in Bandol, as I’ve just been told. It seems the hunting associations in the Var set off at night with floodlights to try and decimate the roaming herds, killing literally scores of them only to collect the brutes during daytime!
There are certainly some in the wild plus instances of them being farmed but not aware that moccasins are a major problem in the Loire, although they may get under some people's feet!
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