After the journey down western France it was time to return to the beloved Languedoc. It had been a few years since we were there in Springtime but, with the added pull of Bons Vivants, it was time to return. This is so often the nicest season in the area, flowers blooming before the summer heat makes them wilt, birds everywhere and the sunshine to warm you up without being too hot. In the vineyards too the end of April sees the budding and flowering of the vines, a renewal of hope for the vintage ahead. Well, that was the plan.
Unfortunately, we arrived for a fortnight of cool weather with a chilling Tramontane blowing for ten days. Indeed Jeff told me that the Spring so far had been cool, other than a few days, and as a result, the vines were a bit behind. Budding was taking place but it was still too early for flowering, delayed by the cool weather. On the Thursday when some of Jeff’s friends came to share lunch and wines we actually sat through a shower of very small hail, fortunately not enough to cause any damage for Jeff. Elsewhere in France and Italy vignerons were less fortunate. Hail and frost hit widespread areas from Alsace and the Moselle to Sicily via Burgundy (especially Chablis) and Beaujolais. Many winemakers will have lost much of their 2024 crop before it has even flowered. Yes, the vines will carry out a secondary budding but that is never the same as the first in quality or quantity.
As climate change unravels our ecosystems it is becoming an almost annual story. Vines bud and flower sooner (despite the Languedoc’s story this year) and are therefore more vulnerable to Spring frosts. The famous Saints de Glace (the saints days which traditionally mark the end of frost risk) took place on the 11th to 13th of May this year so April budding and flowering is exposed to that risk. Sadly, that risk became all too real again.
For Jeff, however, the main problem on my first visit to the vines on April 17th was the lack of rain. Again. Another feature of climate chaos, drought has been affecting the Roussillon and a band of the Languedoc between the coast and hills. When talking to friends, like Olivier Andrieu in Faugères, they were happy with this Spring, rain had fallen and all was set fair. A dozen kilometres south though and the rain had not fallen on Puimisson, 25mm up to that date at Jeff’s.
Jeff and I toured the vines and all was looking well at first sight. Vines were small still, not as tall as I recalled at this time of year but growing steadily. Jeff told me though that the vines were using their reserves of water already. New plantations such as the Parellada in Peilhan and Syrah of La Garrigue were requiring plenty of watering to survive their first few months. The reservoir in Peilhan, designed for animals to drink, was very low in water. It was however, attracting animals, birds and was full of tadpoles and froglets, a true oasis in a very dry landscape.
As a result of all this Jeff had not ploughed this Spring, just a light raking. He did not want to turn over the soils and expose any dampness buried in the soils. It is ten years since he ploughed Rome vineyard and the vines there looked well. The soils there are also full of mycorrhizae. These fungal threads carry all sorts of benefits to and from the vines and other plants building a whole network of energy, information and life. It is an area of study which is only really starting to be understood, we are scratching the surface literally and metaphorically. Such study will inform Jeff and others about their practices in the vineyards, there are already many who have abandoned ploughing altogether such as the aforementioned Andrieu family at Clos Fantine.
Back in the cellars Jeff, niece Flora and others have been busy bottling some of the 2022 and 23 wines and on the 17th Flora was labelling some of them for orders to the USA with a new machine to make the job easier. Another change was the van. The little Renault Kangoo had been working for 30 years and as this video shows it had certainly given its all! Now Gilles and others can travel in relative comfort.
So, that was the scene on the 17th of April. Have things changed? I’ll update next time.
amarchinthevines 