Monday 16 June 2008

Flowering

Flowering started a week late at the end of May and beginning of June. It was fast, uniform and took place at the same time for all varieties. With the new moon on Tuesday 3 June, we were expecting the fine weather to settle in and the return of the anticyclone was announced, but it is dragging its feet and the storms and showers are still prevalent!

Despite this, flowering of the vines continues and we will have a better idea, two to three weeks from now, of the potential harvest this vintage will have, depending on how well the flowers are fertilised.

Thursday 12 June 2008

Weather report

Spring is being strongly influenced by ocean weather systems with patterns of westerly winds and alternating rainy and warm periods.
As soon as the fine weather arrives, temperatures go up and it gets stormy in the evenings
.
May was tropical, like we rarely experience it here with exceptionally high rainfall of 200 mm (20 litres per sq. m) compared to the ten-year average of 70 mm. This is ideal weather for growing bananas and is also very favourable for vine diseases such as mildew
.
It took nobody by surprise this year, being so early and the risk was obvious for everyone
.

We experienced what felt to me like a real winter this year, which lasted a proper length of time with cold weather and rain.

February was dry and the budburst was delayed by about a week. Just one really warm week was enough to kick-start the vines, then it got colder again. The traditional “giboulées windy sleet showers in March came as usual and the frost on 7 April, when temperatures went down to -2°C, was fortunately isolated and had no impact at Laroze.

Monday 2 June 2008

Wine and alcohol

1) China, like Russia, are in favour of importing wines into their countries to reduce the level of alcoholism that results from the traditional consumption of strong spirits (rice alcohol, vodka, etc.). Replacing 45° or more by 12 to 14° is a good thing.
2) France, the ancestral producer and consumer of wine, under pressure from anti-alcoholic, fundamentalist or puritanical lobbyists, is trying to reduce overall levels of alcohol being consumed by discouraging all promotion of wines. Young people no longer learn how to progressively find their feet with alcohol by getting to know wine and enjoying it in all its moderation. Having no measure of their own limits, they try strong spirits with no reference point to judge by.
And the consequence: hard alcoholism is on the increase amongst young people in
France
.
Is this the right way to prepare their future? I don’t think so. It is pathetic.

Sunday 1 June 2008

Imports open up in Hong Kong

This morning’s newspaper reported that since Hong Kong has eliminated customs duty on imported wines, in the last two months, volumes coming into the country increased by 120% while the value of wine imports rose by 200%, compared to the same two months last year. The floodgates are opening to quench the big neighbour’s thirst...

Bordeaux wine merchants and China

At Vinexpo Hong Kong I get the impression that I took part in this major group educational effort organised for the Chinese on wine. Today they are hungry for contact with producers and business cards. Tomorrow, some of them will be buyers. But trying to get them to understand how wine distribution is organised around Bordeaux merchants is not easy!
It means explaining the classifications and how grands crus and crus classes are all distributed by the
Bordeaux
trade.
The value in restricting the number of suppliers, of grouping wines in small quantities to test a market is not yet appreciated by all. But the Chinese are learning fast and they will be able to comprehend the esoteric peculiarities of the
Bordeaux wine market quicker than I will ever be able to read their writing!

The Chinese and wine

At Vinexpo, I was pleasantly surprised to see as many women as men attending the tasting held by the Saint-Emilion Grands Crus Classés. In France it took almost 2,000 years for women to come to wine (sometimes having to overturn disapproval from men).
In
Hong Kong
, wine is new. It isn’t made into something sacred nor weighed down by a cultural straightjacket. The Chinese approach wine without hang-ups, naturally and spontaneously. This is so refreshing!
We must be careful not to convince them otherwise by educating them about wine as if they were learning some sort of divine knowledge. Dragons breathe fire!
Anyway, they emptied 14 of my bottles in two hours!
They are enthusiastic, thirsty (for knowledge) … and there are a lot of them around!