I arrived today for 4 days in the Côtes, only to be greeted by April weather.

Whilst April was more like June – warm and dry with very fast vine growth that pushed forward some of the flowering into the equally warm first two weeks of May – mid-May has seen a break in the weather; it’s turned to 14°C with April showers and there’s intermittent hail in the mix too. Given that hail arrived in the south just after the setting of the flowers, and in the north just before flowering (mainly) we can (so far) reasonably expect only some diminshing of the yields.

The unpruned vines are close to 1.5 metres tall ~5 feet – that’s almost 3 times more growth than normal – it’s been a nightmare for people trying to de-bud…

Only one tasting today – in Fixin at Pierre Gelin. Tomorrow I increase the load a little with 2+ visits, peaking on Thursday with 4-6, ‘coming down’ again on Friday (only 2) before heading back to (currently) rainy and cold Switzerland.

More info to follow – if interesting!
Cheers