Capricious 2006

Vines outside the village Thil, Massif Saint-Thierry. Everything is lost in a hailstorm.

Le Vigneron Champenois places last year in the sign of heat.

The magazine notes, that the capricious weather one time after the other shakes the work and development in the vineyards all through the season until the grapeharvest begins.

Cold, storms and overcast days
To grow grapes means to watch one's step between between the different whims of nature, that can hit you as particularly bad weather, disease or pests. From 2006 I especially remember the coldness of May, the storms of July and the constantly grey firmament of August.

These are the short conclusions of the detailed presentations of the weather of 2006, as they appeared in Le Vigneron Champenois each month last year:

• January: The winter has arrived with cold weather and regular frost, even it is not too bad, fog, glazed frost, rime. This time accompagnied by drought and sunshine in unusual amounts.
  
  
• February: A cold month, dull and grey and very rainy. Finally the curve of drought breaks and with it the deficit of rain during the last six months. The winter has arrived to stay a while.
  
  
• March: A remarquably wet month of March, but with a fast transition from typically wintry conditions to thorough-paced spring.
  
  
• April: A generally mild April, very dry and a bit chaotic, when it comes to temperatures and sunshine... The arrival of spring is somewhat difficult.
  
  
• May: A very rainy May with very little sunshine. Generally seen mild, but has more in common with autumn than with spring.
  
  
• June: A very warm June, a lot of sunshine, relatively dry, and characterized by irregular precipitation, regularly with storms.
  
  
• July: A month, that sets a new, absolute record of warmth. Several storms.
  
  
• August: An exceptionally cold August, rainy and very grey... an enourmous contrast to follow the warm July.
  
  
• September: In September, equally unusually warm and dry, and with conditions, that - apart from the amount of hours with sunshine - resemble those of July.
  
  
• October: October is unusually mild and with the usual amount of rain.
  
  
• November: November is unusually mild and with a suitable amount of rain. Status for the autumn is extremely mild, and seems to postpone the arrival of the winter.
  
  
• December: December continues to be very mild, rather windy and with some fog. The cold of winter has still not arrived.

I have translated the texts from the December-edition of Le Vigneron Champenois, a magazine for winegrowers in this area. They are based on local and regional observations and data, that has been taken down by people all over the area and collected by the technical department of the CIVC (Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne).

The quality of the yield
We ourselves harvested good grapes. There were enough, and in a generally good quality, with few attacks of rot. The coop, where we deliver our grapes, talk in their turn-of-the-year-edition about good grapes in sufficient amounts in 2006, where especially the quality of the red grapes were high.

The reports on a superiour level - for the entire region that is - are positive, however not that detailed yet. At the moment the first fermentation and processes more or less linked with it are finished, and it is time to do the assemblage - your personal mix of still wines.

På dansk

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