The 2015 Languedoc Vintage
June was the hottest I have known in the 7 years I have been living here and then July came in feeling like a Languedoc August normally does. Temperatures were in the high 30’s every day for weeks and for around 10 days we had a heat wave when temperatures reach more than 40°C. It was a dry heat, so good for the vines but occasionally we had some humidity which built bringing spectacular storms.
With the lack of rainfall and high temperatures I was constantly on the lookout for water stressed vines which manifests as the lower leaves shriveling and dying on the vine. Irrigation is not allowed for vines producing grapes destined for appellation wine so I was delighted to see we had hardly any stressed vines. The rainfall in the winter meant there was good reserves of water deep in the ground and all I saw was healthy vines swaying in the Languedoc breeze.
August is often very dry and hot and it’s usually during this month that I have difficulty sleeping but not this year. The days were hot but the temperatures dropped at night making it comfortable for humans but also ideal for producing very aromatic grapes. However the high daytime temperatures were a worry, it could mean very high sugar and low acidity levels. Quality wine producers needed to work hard in the vineyard all year trying to mitigate the heat using the vine canopy to shade and making sure the soils were not compacted.
August kept up the relentless day time heat and many domains decided to begin picking about a week earlier than normal starting as usual with the whites. The problem with picking early is making sure you have the right balance of sugar and acid but also mature flavours. Whites need some phenolic ripeness, meaning the grape skins and pips need some ripeness although this is not as crucial as it is with reds. As we stepped into September the weather began to cool down and we had rain quite often. Those with nerves of steel waited, not harvesting yet although they stood the risk that the bad weather would come and they could lose their crop.
I spoke with Bridget Chevalier of Domaine de Cébène in Faugères and she is thrilled with her crop and echoed what a lot of wine makers have told us; there is a good yield this year that will make the bank manager happy! The warm weather has caused her to finish her harvest by mid-September, the earliest since she began making wine in 2008, normally its mid-October by the time she has everything in. Faugères escaped the storms and heavy downpour of rain in mid-September and indeed Bridget had watched from the hill where her winery stands, seeing rain in the far distance falling in Pézenas and thanked her lucky stars that not a drop fell where she was. I was told my Patrick Moon, author of Virgil’s Vineyard of a dreadful storm that took place where he lives just north of Pézenas which might have been the one Bridget witnessed. It took out the electricity, washed away part so his driveway and the little steam that normally barely trickles had become a raging torrent. Unfortunately for some wine makers found that their Syrah grapes, that have fairly thin and delicate skins, split when the vines absorbed the
So it looks set to be a Languedoc vintage to talk about, maybe one of the best for more than 10 years and don’t worry I will let you know what I think of them next year once some of the wines start to be released. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it..!
Alan March
The storms certainly caused some damage Wendy, sorting was important both in the vineyard by the pickers and then in the cellar. However, the rain (95mm from start of vendanges to near the end in Puimisson) did add some heft to the grapes, and presumably bank balance. The reds in particular were good; Syrah precocious and concentrated (some thin skins which know was common), Grenache mostly very good, excellent Carignan and the Mourvedre was a real star. It was not the most straightforward vintage, for all the reasons you describe so accurately, but somehow it has all come together and the wines in tank are really starting to show some quality. Despite what I wrote above the whites are tasting great already, they seemed to suffer from the late August rains but patience and careful tri has paid dividends. So fingers crossed, things do look as if they are heading towards a memorable vintage.
Hope to catch up soon 🙂