Heat
Mild winter, hot spring, nature is particularly early this year and the grapes are already getting impatient …
In the Rhône valley, the grapes are starting to show signs of ripening already in mid-August …
–IStockphoto
–
In some regions of the French vineyard, the 2020 vintage is announced almost a month in advance. In the wine-growing cantons of Valais and Vaud, grape maturation is also well advanced, more in the first than in the second. For Pierre-Yves Felley, director of the Valais Chamber of Agriculture: “The winter was mild and the spring hot. From March to May, the weather was dry and nature continued its momentum. Only August is a little rainier than usual ”.
–
The agricultural world is getting used to the idea of a change in the harvest calendar over the years depending on global warming: “This is not the first time that we have had early vintages, he observes. Just read MeteoSwiss statistics. Since 2010 we have had increasingly hotter years and on average the harvests start one to two weeks earlier ”.
–
From September 10
In the past, the bulk of the Valais harvest (4,900 hectares) often coincided with the Foire du Valais, which straddles the months of September and October. “This year, adds Pierre-Yves Felley, I think that from time to time a few winegrowers will start harvesting after the flagship event of the Valais winemakers, the Open Cellars from August 28 to 30. And the bulk of the harvest should start between September 7 and 10. In the canton of Vaud, this should be a week to ten days later ”.
–
This precocity is not necessarily accompanied by a better vintage: “In 2003, remembers the director, during the heatwave, the Genevans harvested in August, but that did not give a good vintage… It is not only the sugar content that is important, but also complex physiological elements and a maturation process which are linked to the plant ”. When the grapes are in too much of a hurry, one would like to conclude, they are not necessarily in a good hurry.
—
