06 June, 2002

Bad weather bad for the grapes

 
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Chardonnay in flowers in Loisy-en-Brie.

Whilst the last flowers finish, we have begun to wait for the results. A good pollination gives many grapes. The weather is the joker.

Kindly it let pretty, rather quiet days of sunshine accompany the very first flowers at the feet of the plants, where we now see the first, small grapes. More capriciously it turned down the heating and up the wind, rain and even storms, as the amount of flowers increased.

When the flowering is over, what you see is what you get. This year the flowering has been long, because the weather turned out the capricious way. Thus we may end of with both less grapes, smaller grapes and millerandage - grapes with berries of different sizes. A phenomenon, we now look out for. So does some vignerons in Verzy. The expectations for a big number of grapes for the harvest are not too positive.

Due to the weather, always the weather. I'll wait another bit before I repeat the good old proverb of the locals: That "flowers in May are never good". We'll see.

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