The run of good luck that Burgundy has had in the 90's is quite uncanny, and if it holds out for the next couple of weeks we may just have a final vintage of the Millennium to go down in the history books. Here in Bordeaux the early summer was lacking in sunshine, but again the last few weeks have seen really great weather - hot, dry and sunny and just what was needed to finish off the grapes' ripening. Everything was looking terrific until suddenly on September 5th a huge thunderstorm swept through the region. A mere kilometer wide and about four long, this storm hung over the vines for about an hour, venting its wrath on the unlucky vines in its path. The harvest, therefore started a couple of weeks before schedule for these poor folks who had to gather what was left on their vines before the damaged grapes rotted.
Life is tough for a vigneron.
The fine weather returned, however and with relatively cool, breezy weather the damage was limited in most of the vineyards, with little or no rot setting in. When grapes are damaged to this extent they are terribly vulnerable to mold spores, which thrive on the juice liberated by the hail-blasted grapes. The slightest humidity can rapidly turn them into squashy, smelly masses of rotten fruit, and the fact that most of the crop in the affected vineyards was able to be rescued attests to both the weather and the exceptionally healthy state of the grapes before this storm tore through them. How St. Emilion coped with the Hail Visiting the various vineyards affected by the storm gives a dramatic picture of the power of nature, and the different ways we find to cope with it. At Chateau Angelus the entire vineyard was covered by the storm, and first thing next morning Hubert de Bouard, the owner of the estate made the inevitable decision to begin the harvest to save the crop, a good two weeks before he would have liked to.