La nature est parfois difficile avec ceux qui pour autant l'aime encore.
Exemple confirmée à La Charpenterie.
Photo by
Near La Chapelle-sur-Loire
(Photo taken from a post by Sabrina Cyprien Caslot-Bourdin.
I hope my use of her very sad photo will be acceptable.)
This is a further round up of news of the serious frost during the night of Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th April. A shorter version was published in decanter.com on Friday.
Parts of the Loire
were very severely hit by frost during the night of Tuesday 26th and
Wednesday 27th. Temperatures
in a few places fell as low as – 6˚C.
As in April 1991 a
lethal combination of damp ground from recent rain, clear overnight skies, very
low temperatures in the latter part of the night followed by bright early
morning sunshine has virtually destroyed the 2016 vintage in some sectors of
the Loire.
Although it is too
early to know the full extent of the damage some parts of the Loire have been
very badly hit. The worst hit areas appear to be Bourgueil, Montlouis, Saint
Nicolas de Bourgueil, Azay le Rideau and Touraine Noble. The important communes
of Cravant-les-Coteaux and Panzoult in AOP Chinon are reported also badly
affected.
Couly Dutheil, whose vines are mostly in the more western part of the Chinon appellation, reports that 20 hectares of their 90 are affected. In Ligré Jérôme Billard (Domaine de la Noblaie) finds that 20% of his vines have been affected by the frost. Mainly those less good parcels parcels that Jérôme reserves for his rosé. Here the damage is as high as 60%, while in his best parcels of Cabernet Franc for his reds only 10% of the vines appear to have been hit.
Guillaume Lapaque,
director of FAV37*, told Decanter: “Noble Joué has lost 94% of this harvest,
70% in Bourgueil and Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil and 50% in Chinon. Overall
Appellation Touraine has been much less affected.”
Sabine Corsin,
Syndicat de Montlouis reported a 90% loss in Saint-Martin-le-Beau with 50% loss
in the appellation’s other two communes. Losses in Vouvray are reported to be
less overall and more variable.
Jacky Blot (Domaine de la Taille aux Loups – Montlouis, Vouvray) expects to make 25% of normal if all goes well from here. In contrast the outlook is more optimistic for his Domaine de la Butte (Bourgueil). Here the loss is 20% essentially Pied de la Butte on the flatter ground. The rest of the vines on the steep slope are intact.
In Saumur-Champigny
the communes of Chacé, Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg and Varrains have been badly hit.
Closer to the Loire damage is much less. “We have lost 10%,” said Florence
Chevallier (Château de Villeneuve).
“We have been very
badly hit in our vineyards which are close to the River Layon,” said Emmanuel
Ogereau (Domaine Ogereau, Anjou). However, we have no damage in Savennières
where our vines are on high ground.”
The picture in the
Pays Nantais appears to be very variable. Domaine Luneau-Papin (Muscadet) has
suffered damage in some parcels, while others haven’t been touched.
“A third of my vines
have been badly hit with up to 100% loss in some parcels, one third slightly
affected and one third not touched at all,” said Vincent Caillé, Domaine Faye
d’Homme (Muscadet). However, fans of Vincent and Christelle Guibert's Terre d'Gneiss will be relieved that this boutique parcel was spared.
In the Central Loire
Vineyards Benoît Roumet, the director of Les Vins du Centre, reports that
Menetou-Salon, Pouilly-Fumé, Quincy and Reuilly have all been hit to a greater
of lesser degree. Sancerre, in contrast, has largely escaped. However, Roumet
cautions that things will be clearer next week.
Although this April frost may not be as
extensive as that of 1991, wine stocks would have been much higher after the
very good and generous 1990 vintage. Now stocks are low after four small to
below average vintages. On top of that you have to factor in the current annual loss from esca, which was not a factor back in 1991. Esca is not only one of the reasons why yields are lower than expected but there is also the constant cost of replacing dead vines.
Negotiations with
government and banks to help to see badly hit producers through this crisis
will start next week.
