2022 Grape Harvest in Provence Showing Promise
This year there has been a severe drought in southern Europe, as several heat waves have hit the countries. In Provence, the whole summer felt like one long heat wave (canicule), with temperatures above 30 degrees mid-September in many locations. As a result, virtually all departments in France experienced some restrictions on water use, ranging from “General caution” to “Crisis.” An estimation is that just below half of France’s acreage is classified as “Crisis” (red areas).
So what does this mean for the 2022 vintage? The harvest has lasted a few weeks in Provence, and the quality of the grapes is reported to be good, while the volume will be better than for the frost-affected 2021.
2022 Grape Harvest
With the scorching weather, the grape harvests started in record time, the earliest being the department of Aude in Occitania, formerly Languedoc-Roussillon, which began harvesting as early as July 25. In Provence, the harvest started during the first ten days of August, 10-15 days earlier than 2021.
Due to the dry and hot weather, the grapes are smaller with more concentrated juice. Still, at the same time, the grapes are very healthy as diseases due to moisture, such as leaf mould and botrytis, have been rare, so, despite the extreme weather, the forecast looks promising in terms of volume. The latest forecast for Provence is +14% compared to the five-year average and +18% compared to the frost-affected year 2021.
For France, the forecast is as much as 44 million hectolitres, just above the average for the last five years. On the other hand, the estimates for the harvests in Italy and Spain points to minus 10%, so perhaps France will have the most extensive wine production this year.
Continue reading the original article “Promising vintage 2022 in Provence” by Göran Boman.
Guest Writer:
Göran Boman, the author of The Wines of Provence – Tricolour, is based in Sweden, far from Provence’s vineyards. His studies at Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology led to a career with large international companies. Before retiring, Göran monitored the quality of nuclear fuel transmitted from EDF France to Sweden.
About 25 years ago, he joined Munskänkarna (“Cup-bearers”) for wine tastings and education. The association is the world’s largest non-commercial wine tasting group with 30,000 members, mainly in Sweden and Provence.
If you love Provence wines, then this Essential Reading is for you. Göran Boman covers 58 wine producers in his book and recommends 338 wines, not just rosé wines. Use the book as a guide to discovering these wines and the producers. His goal is to deepen your knowledge of everything worth knowing about the wines of Provence.
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