Awards and citations:


1997: Le Prix du Champagne Lanson Noble Cuvée Award for investigations into Champagne for the Millennium investment scams

2001: Le Prix Champagne Lanson Ivory Award for investdrinks.org

2011: Vindic d'Or MMXI – 'Meilleur blog anti-1855'

2011: Robert M. Parker, Jnr: ‘This blogger...’:

2012: Born Digital Wine Awards: No Pay No Jay – best investigative wine story

2012: International Wine Challenge – Personality of the Year Award




Thursday 6 October 2016

#2016 Loire harvest – Vouvray and Montlouis


Vines on the plateau above Rochecorbon 
The speck just above the trees is a Ryanair 
plane coming in to land at Tours Airport


Vouvray
Yesterday we had a brief look again at Vouvray – on Thursday (29th) we had dropped in on Michel Autran where we also saw Vincent Carême. 

"Parcay-Meslay was one of the worst hit communes by the April frost. We lost 80% of the crop, some lost 100%. We will start picking tomorrow. The remaining grapes are at 11% potential, which is fine for sparkling Vouvray which is our main focus. Although, however, we are increasing the proportion of our still wine as we have a good market in the United States for this."

Then on our way into Tours for CRM's late birthday lunch we dropped in on Château Gaudrelle and saw Cyril Nénin, the maître de chai:
"We haven't started picking yet as the the heat of July and August stopped the grapes from maturing. However, with the fine weather we can afford to take our time. At the moment the grapes are between 11.5% to 12% potential. We are waiting for them to attain 13%. The cool nights are keeping the acidity up. There is some noble rot developing, especially at Le Vigneau in Vouvray itself, and we hope we can make some sweet wine.

Although our old vines got frosted between 20%-30%, overall our potential yields are not bad – between 35-40 hl/ha. 

Montlouis 
Although parts of Vouvray have clearly been hit hard by the frost etc., Montlouis unfortunately looks to have come of worst. When we saw François Chidaine and Jacky Blot last Thursday both were pessimistic. François thought what little there was to be harvested would be picked this week, while Jacky said it would be surprised if they managed 10hl/ha. On the other hand he said the Cabernet Franc at La Butte (Bourgueil) was magnificent. Being on a slope his Bourgueil had escaped the April frost. Picking here wouldn't start before the middle of October.       

 Vines on the plateau above Rochecorbon 
The speck just above the vines is a Ryanair 
plane coming in to land at Tours Airport


 Picking machine in transit 

 Chenin Blanc in a vineyard above Rochecorbon 
Looked to reasonable quality but a small crop. Some botrytis developing. 
With the current fine weather this could be interesting.
(above and below) 



Mildewed leaf – one of the 'icons' of 2016!

3 comments:

peter said...

"We haven't started picking yet as the the heat of July and August stopped the grapes from maturing."

I don't understand this, why the heat stopped...?

Jim's Loire said...

Peter. Vines like other plants shut down when under stress. So here a combination of heat and drought caused the vines to shut down to protect themselves instead of expending energy on getting their grapes to ripen.

peter said...

Thanks