Although the harvest for reds will not begin until the end of September, the Bordeaux Wine Federation, which met yesterday, has announced the end of the Harvest Banns :
It was back to business for the Federation of Great Wines which held their general meeting in Bordeaux yesterday. This professional federation unites all the department's producers.
Laurent Gapenne, the new federation's new president, replaces Jacques Bertrand.
The economic situation and harvest prospects were the main subjects for debate.
At a time when wine sales in French supermarkets and hypermarkets are on the decrease (purchasing power crisis?) and exports were down considerably in terms of volume in the first semester, the 2008 harvest promises to be a historically low yield : between 5.1 and 5.2 million hectolitres (hl), according to the Federation's estimates. If these figures are proved accurate, this year will be the lowest yield since 1991, year of the particularly hard frost on the 21st April. Lower than that of 1993, 1994 and the heat-wave year of 2003 which has so far been the lowest yield vintage record holder.
The culprits : frost and mildew : The reasons for this exceptionally low harvest potential are well known in the Bordeaux area : frost on the 7th April (which was particularly damaging to the white grape vines) and wet, cold weather through May until the last week in June.
The flowering, which occurred at the end of May and beginning of June, was chaotic and regular heavy rainfall (perhaps due to the fact that this is a 13 moon year) made treatment against mildew imperative to save the harvest. As if that wasn't enough, a disease called "l'Esca" which attacks the vine stock and for which there is no remedy, continues to spread and kill.
Late harvest :The situation is complicated to say the least, but the quality of this year's harvest could be considerably improved by sunny warm weather in September, as was the case in 2007. The last weeks of maturity are certainly decisive. In any case, the grapes need more time to ripen and consequently this will be a relatively late harvest, despite the so-called global warming effect on the climate.
The red wine grapes (representing almost 90% of the Bordeaux vineyard) will not be harvested before the end of September. In recent years September had become the "big month" for harvesting. This year, we will see a return to the past when October was the traditional harvesting period.
The white grapes will be harvested earlier as usual, the first bunches picked from the 8th September.
Harvest Bann disappears : All these start dates for the harvest will now be the result of decisions made by each individual producer as there will no longer be a public "bann" or announcement made by the "Préfecture" (government authority) to set the legal start date for harvesting. Up until this year, this traditional authorised harvest start date was set following decisions made by a committee meeting comprised of experts, who also set the date on which producers could begin the chaptalisation process (legally authorised addition of sugar to increase the alcohol content in wine).
With the new regulations in force, the wine growers themselves have maximum responsibility when it comes to making technical choices. With the disappearance of this historic " legal harvest marker", some growers may feel disorientated and it will be up to the technicians to circulate important information in the vineyards.
Of course, before harvesting, the grapes must still be analysed to make sure they have reached the maximum degree of maturity. And in Bordeaux, there is certainly no shortage when it comes to tests and quality controls...
César Compadre
doc@sudouest.com
S.O. 29/08/08
Translated by Maxine Colas.