Bordeaux 2015: dry but promising

Younger parcels are struggling in the current heat but older vines seem to be in “rude health” as the weather stays on-track so far this year.

As reported by Gavin Quinney for both Liv-ex and Jancis Robinson MW’s Purple Pages, there are “concerns” over la secheresse and particularly how it’s affecting younger vines which don’t have deeper roots to find moisture but this is not a problem for old plants.

As Quinney writes: “In many parcels the mature vines are in rude health, such as those planted on the best gravel and clay mounds on the left bank of the Gironde, or on the clay-over-limestone on the better hills and plateaux around St-Emilion. Where the roots can’t find any water at all, the tiny berries are dried out and probably won’t recover, while the leaves down by the bunches are yellow and noticeably flagging.”

Rainfall has been extremely low this year with Margaux, Léognan and Saint Emilion all receiving half the amount of precipitation they normally would by this time of year.

Rainfall across the northern Médoc down to the Libournais from October 2014 to March 2015 averaged 417mm against a 30-year average of 534mm so nor did the region have a surplus of water for the vines to draw on in the current heat either.

Rainfall between April and July is round 270mm on average but Margaux has only seen 126mm this year and Saint Emilion 138m. Temperatures in June and July by contrast have been warmer by one degree than the 30-year average.

Local paper Sud-Ouest has reported that it is the third driest year on record after 1990 and 2013.

These concerns aside, veraison is in “full flow” there was a “welcome blip” of rain on Tuesday of this week (4 August) and work in the vineyard is now focused on green harvesting and l’éclaircissage – removing odd bunches – and a little effeuillage – removing leaves to allow the grapes to get more sun exposure.

As Quinney concluded: “Many great vintages, such as 2005 and 2010, have been dry, warm years with a fine finish. We’ll just have to wait and see what the rest of the growing season brings.”

The current weather forecast according to Météo France shows temperatures continuing in the mid to high-twenties for the rest of this week, with rain late tonight/Friday morning and quite a lot of rain and possibly some storms on Saturday and Tuesday next week (potentially welcome as long as they include no hail).

The news from Burgundy also appears positive, the region avoided the destructive hail that has proved such a bane for the last few years and the weather has been equally fine if very dry.