2019 Loire – has heat damage become a new challenge?

 

2019 Chenin Blanc from the Clos Mosny,
Domaine de la Taille aux Loups, Montlouis

Frazzled bunch of Chenin Blanc: Clos Mosny

Unfortunately due to a number of family and work commitments, I haven't been able to make as many visits during the Loire harvest as I would like and normally do. However, it is clear that 2019 is once again a good to very good vintage in terms of quality with very like rot and very healthy grapes. In respect to the whites and rosés 2019 may well better than 2018, where some of the these wines are for me just too ripe and rich to be refreshing. For example, we quite often buy rosé from Domaine de la Grange (Bruno Curassier) in Bléré. I much prefer his fresher, leaner 2017 to the opulent 2018.
 
Jacky Blot (Domaine de la Taille aux Loups) is adamant that for whites 2018 is not a good vintage, although it is a good vintage for reds. Jacky is very pleased with the potential quality and balance of the 2019, although he was hit by both April frosts and grapes shrivelled by summer heat spikes of up to 40˚C. 

However, he has been pleasantly surprised to find that his Chenin has yielded more juice than he imagined. He thought yields would be around 25 hl/ha instead they are in the region of 35 hl/ha.

But quantity is down due to April frosts, poor weather due some of the flowering period, drought and as well as grapes frazzled by successive heat spikes.

A grey 'lawn' in Cher Valley
after four months of no rain – above and below

In Eastern Touraine it was very dry from early June until 22nd September. Tours Weather Station recorded 1.2 inches of rain from 13th June to 21st September. The drought started to break on 22nd September. Everything looked very parched and when there were high winds in mid-September the emergency services were on high alert in case of fires spreading through the dry vegetation.

2019 is the sixth good quality vintage in a row starting from 2014. The Loire has never seen such a series. Previously it was exceedingly rare to have more than three successive good vintages. Looking back over this millennium only 2013 has been poor along with 2012 for sweet wines in Anjou. The days of rotten, unripe vintages in the 1960s, 70s and 80s now seems far away. Evidence, surely, of climate change.

At the International Chenin Blanc Congress at the beginning of July the South Africans said that the Loire, with its relatively small increase in temperature, would be feeling the benefits of climate change in contrast to their problems stemming from severe differences in climate. This may be so but changes are already having their effect in the Loire through increased incidences of frost plus sun frazzled grapes.

Xavier Frissant, vigneron at Mosnes and a leading actor in the push to promote Amboise to full cru status, has also been hit considerably by grapes being grilled by the sun. Incidentally 'grillé' is an expression used by the late Gaston Huet (Domaine Huet) to describe the heat of the 1947 vintage. Xavier's Chenin has been particularly hit by the sun. Grapes that face the intense afternoon sun are always the most likely to be frazzled. It was noticeable looking at some of Xavier's Côt that bunches that faced the morning sun had largely been spared, while those facing the afternoon sun had been badly hit.

"This year during the heat spikes there was a three hour danger period – from 2pm to 5pm. We may have to look again at our viticultural practices to see how we can better protect the grapes from intense sunshine."

When I first started reporting about the Loire from 1989 it was fairly common for vineyards to look like dense hedges and to have to search about for  bunches. Over the past 20 years or so opening up the canopy has become common along with spreading out bunches to facilitate ripening and avoiding rot by encouraging currents of air to help dry the grapes. Deleafing has also been popular. Periods of extremely high temperatures as seen this year, even if some of the heat spikes have only lasted a few days, raises a question as to whether this is still the right approach.