Loire Valley harvest report – “2013, the (not so) easy vintage”

Giant hail – a ballsy vintage

We’re just into the New Year and vintage is already underway in parts of Australia. In the northern hemisphere, the impact of last year’s challenges (including deer-felling hail) have become clearer. Here is Loire courtiers and La Grille brand owners Charles & Philippa Sydneys’ further reflections on “2013 , the (not so) easy vintage:” 

“First things first : whatever you may have heard about the 2013 vintage, there’s one simple fact – in the Loire, this is a perfectly normal (if slightly stressed-out) vintage.

In our preliminary report [here], Phil and I stuck our necks out slightly by saying exactly that. We based our opinion on what we’d seen in the vineyards, on the grapes we’d tasted, on the juice we’d tasted in vat, on the (slightly stressed-out) opinions of the winemakers – and on our faith in their skill.

At the time our report met with some measure of disbelief, but the more we taste (something like ten million bottles so far), the more we visit with clients, the more this one simple fact stands out : 2013 is a nice vintage.

It started cold. A cold winter, a cold spring and cold spring frosts – 29th April saw Montlouis lose some 30% of its crop, while Patrick Vauvy’s eoliennes [wind turbines] earned their keep in the Touraine, saving his Sauvignons from a -2° frost. Even the rain seemed to freeze, with hail in Pouilly causing damage.

Come June and Vinexpo, we thought maybe we were safe – and then Vouvray was hit with hail (BIG hailstones that killed deer caught in the open), with crop loss estimated at 70%. Even if that % had shrunk a bit by harvest, that means there is no ‘spare’ juice or wine being sold in bulk.

When the flowering finally started end June, it was obvious that the harvest was going to be late (a week later than last year, 3-4 weeks later than normal), so the more canny growers adapted their vineyard management accordingly to get all the maturity the vines would give. It was frustrating to see just how many growers didn’t change the way they run their vineyards – and these guys were the ones who ended up picking rotten or unripe grapes later. Luckily for some, they’d been given the right to chaptalise 2° this year!

Luckily for us, summer came with a vengeance and July, August and September were dry and hot, with temperatures regularly over 30°, causing its own problem as the drought in some areas blocked the vegetation, to the extent the vineyards really needed the rain when it came end September.

Clearly, rain end September on a late harvest led to outbreaks of rot. This was present to the extent that some growers were picking 23 hours a day at the end, working their butts off to bring in as healthy a harvest as they could. But this year the mass of pourriture was healthy – fraîche as they say – so there are very, very few problems of geosmine or rot taint. If anything, growers tended to over-react to clean any juice through cold settling or extra finings. So any hesitation we have about the vintage is perhaps a loss of complexity through extra-careful winemaking.

So what are the wines like?

In Muscadet, picking started in the last week of September. There was already quite a lot of rot, especially where the vines hadn’t been grassed through, and degrees weren’t high, so some growers picked early and fast, bringing in juice that was lean and that wasn’t going to gain in structure by being de-acidified.

 Growers who had run their vineyards more carefully waited those extra few days for the pre-harvest rain to soak in, and degrees rose a little – while acidity levels dropped. The best guys (like Jérôme Choblet who’d de-leafed and grassed-through all his vineyards) picked around 11 –11.5° at harvest, with under 5 g/l acidity and pH at around 3.25, but with a tiny yield of just 40 hectos/hectare. Other growers picked between 10 and 11°, chaptalised to 12° and have wines with slightly less concentration, but still with really pretty balance.  On paper, that looks like nice maturity at lower % alc than normal – and that is exactly what the wines taste like. They’re nice and easy, with plenty of fruit and balanced acidity. You’ll see this apparent phenolic maturity at lower % alc seems to recur wherever growers did the necessary in the vineyards.

The Sauvignons are fine. In the Touraine, picking started end September, or the very first days of October (so one full month later than 2011!), with smallish yields averaging around 50 hectos/hectare. As in Muscadet, there was a tendency for less well run vineyards to start to rot before the grapes had time to ripen, but these days the more experienced winemakers are more than capable of coping. The wines are attractive, with balanced acidities (some de-acidification was needed in some cellars, also some vats benefitted from a malo), good fruit and typicité.

Just one week later, picking started in Sancerre and Pouilly. Some growers who picked really early would have done better to wait for the rain to soak into the grapes as this helped lower acidities and – especially – soften the skins. Equally, waiting was not really an option as we estimated 30% rot a week after picking started.

 What was needed was careful picking, careful inertage of trailers, presses and vats and careful settling of the juice. Too little care and the wines are lean and naf. Surprisingly though, too much care at picking (some growers cut out all the rot) seems to have left wines lacking a little breadth and complexity.

 Otherwise? Even André Figeat chaptalised a degree for the first time in years, but with just 5 g/l acidity, a pH of 3.23 and loads of scrummy fruit and aromas, I’m happy – and I’m sure the public will love the wines!

 Back at the ranch, picking for the Cabernet Franc started in Chinon, Saumur-Champigny and Bourgueil around the 10th October – earlier than we’d have liked, but everything depended on how each grower had run his vineyards. It is clear that with a shorter growing period, top class vineyard management was needed, even if we were never going to get the maturity of 2009 or 2011.

That said – again – tannins and acidities seem to have ripened at lower degrees than before, so where the vines have been well run the wines are really pretty – if suffering again from a teeny vintage of just 30 h/h.

As for the Chenin Blancs, we’re pretty relaxed. While it was obvious that overall yields in Vouvray and Montlouis were going to be dire, the wines there look good, with finely balanced dry and off-dry wines to enjoy young (but no moelleux and precious little demisec).  As smaller growers kept what little they had (or shared any extra with their friends) there was no ‘spare’ juice for the négoce, so supply will be a problem this year. 

In the Anjou there are some fab dry whites (reports of some producers bringing their dry Anjou and Savennières in at under 12° potential bump up against people like Claude Papin & sons picking at over 13°), wines with genuine breadth. There are a lot of smilies alongside my tasting notes.

The stickies were more complicated – first pickings came in at 17 or 18°, but then the weather got in the way, so it’s really only the stars who got further without chaptalisation – with Gilles Bigot at Château de Fesles bringing in a tri in Bonnezeaux at over 20°, while the Papins hung in for a last picking on the 6th December (!!), bringing in a final tri of Quarts de Chaume at 24°.

This is not a ‘great’ vintage – we needed an earlier flowering to have a chance of that. But even if we’d maybe have liked a little more concentration, the wines are genuinely pretty and will be ready to drink young. 2013 is a year for nice, easy wines – even if the vintage was far from ‘easy’ at the time!”