According to a report in the French publication Vitisphere, and research by France’s l’Institut Coopératif du Vin (ICV), this autumn, wine producers in the South of France are set to harvest grapes that are up to 26% smaller than in 2021. The explanation for this phenomenon is the same as the one for the 2022 harvest being one of the earliest on record. Vines, like every other crop were roasted in the dry summer heat.
The problem for growers is not just lower yields per vine. The lack of water has also led to a lack of phenolic maturity. Grapes will perversely have tough sun-baked skins, and juice that lacks ripe generosity.
Offering advice that will not please fans of lower-intervention winemaking, the ICV experts recommend the use of enzymes to maximise the amount of juice that can be extracted.
Not a level playing field
Over the longer term, this year’s experience will also raise questions over irrigation. Under current legislation, producers of southern French AOP wines such as Minervois and Corbières, like their counterparts in other appellation regions, are not allowed to add water to their vines, however thirsty they may be. The same producers, however, are free to irrigate neighbouring vineyards that are dedicated to IGP/Vin de Pays/Vin de France. The permitted yields for these supposedly humbler wines are more generous too.
Top AOP wines from Languedoc command prices that allow for these restrictions, but the gap between bulk prices for IGP and AOP can be a lot smaller. AOP Languedoc red sells for €125-150/hl, while Languedoc Roussillon red and rosé have averaged €93-€96.60. Given the freedom IGP producers have to blend between varieties, this year’s conditions would seem to be to their advantage.
Until now, any suggestions than southern AOP growers might be allowed to irrigate have been dismissed. Again, 2022 may lead some traditionalists in this region to change their minds, following the surprise decision by the Pomerol appellation to request, and be granted, permission to water their vines, given the ‘exceptional ecological conditions’.
Given the increasing frequency of these ‘exceptional conditions’ some may decide that a dispensation given to chateaux like Petrus, Lafleur and Clinet ought to be available to Languedoc-Roussillon producers whose wines sell for a fraction of their prices.
