Loire valley,
The harvest 2021 has come after months of weather incidents and worries. The weather was at least beautiful for the picking, under mild temperature and clear skies,
which was also very
enjoyable for me as I rode randomly to different producers on my motorbike in the Loir-et-Cher. The big issue in 2021 has been frost all over France in april, with temperatures going down for a week at around minus 7 C (19,4 F) and also mildew and oidium depending of the region, with some growers having more losses from the disease than the frost. Plus, summer was pretty humid and rainy, sometimes colder than usual.
When I showed up at Thierry Puzelat's Clos du Tue Boeuf they were busy unloading Gamay picked in Faverolles-sur-Cher. You can see here Zoé and Thierry putting the bunches on the belt conveyor leading atop a maceration tank. I asked Thierry what were thye losses compared to a "normal" year, he said for their own grapes he considers they got 80 % to 90 % less than usual. For example for the Cheverny red they have 4,5 hectares total and they decided to make a single cuvée from them.
Asked if he also got grapes from other regions he says yes, they had just that morning devatted a batch of Carignan, and the previous week they had devzatted a fermenter of Grenache. They also brought a large vat load of Gamay from the Beaujolais. Locally also in the Loire they found growers who had available fruit, like here for this Gamay, it comes from a young organic grower with 7 hectares in the Cher valley who doesn't want to make wine himself, he just want to sell the grapes. He sells grapes also to Domaine Roussely and to Blandine Floch.
They had begun to pick 8 days before and Thierry said they had another 10 days before the end of the harvest. I asked about the growing involvement of Zoé in the domaine, Thierry says she's much on the chai/cellar side while Louise (his other daughter) overlooks the pickers in the vineyard, while himself navigates between the chai and the vineyard. Zoé told me that there was some urge to wait for a better ripening but on the other hand some rain was forecast in the next few days and they considered it was better to pick before because the grapes could burst from taking too much rain, plus there was no certainty ripening would come afterwards. They got 40 mm of rain a few days before in the Cher valley that that was already weighing on the grapes.
Thierry said this year was complicated all along, he doesn't remember a year where it was so complicated. 2012 was somehow also tricky, but on the other hand the late season and harvest was in excellent conditions. In 2012 they had frost also, they had mildew also but very early, the summer being dry and sunny, so it was easy. In 2021, in addition to the frost they had this extended mildew pressure and a pretty bad summer.
I made a first stop at POB, short name for Pierre-Olivier Bonhomme whose chai is just a few hundred meters away from Puzelat's. Pierre-Olivier wasn't there, he was busy overlooking a harvest in Saint Aignan in a parcel belonging to Philippe Bougré. There was just his staff and pause time (there's a pause time around 10 am for the pickers but it's good that the cellar staff gets its own as well !). They're busy with a load of Côt being pressed (for 2 and a half hours) after a week-long whole-cluster maceration (these are his own grapes). Here also I was told 90 % of the grapes were lost. You can spot Jérémie Choquet [at the time of the linked story, he and Blandine Floch were still together, they since parted and have now their separate wineries] on the left, he visited here at POB as he had so little to do with the grapes of his own (and his chai is literally next door, 50 meters away).
as his own chai/vatroom is just a stone's throw away, Jérémie Choquet walked me there to speak about this vintage 2021 : He hasn't much grapes left on his own parcels here, so he bought grapes elsewxhere, as far as Gaillac in the South West of France where he got some Gamay, and he'll take some Cabernet from the Cher valley nearby. Of course, even with this purchase, he'll not reach the same volumes than last year. He'll see what brings next year but if there's another catastrophic frost he may well give up.
There was cool Rock music airing in the chai, I like that, I'm also sure the vibes help make the yeast serene... The Gaillac Gamay is in the tall white fermenter on the left, and the Gamay from here in the one at the bottom right, small tank not even full. He still has 40 ares of Gamay to pick from his own surface, plus 70 ares of Cabernet Franc, but with little volume on each. Last year was quite good, with good volumes, reaching 60 hectoliters from his 2,5-hectare surface, he'd have been happy to repeat that this year. In 2021 he's not yet sure of the total volume he'll make, but if he can reach 30 or 40 hectoliters including the purchades grapes he'd be happy.
When I parked the bike outside Hervé Villemade's facility, it was all quiet, they were in the middle of their lunch and the thing you don't want to disturb is a vigneron enjoying a well-deserved meal with his pickers and staff, so I didn't stay, thinking I'd have time to hop back later in the day.
i was intrigued by this vat standing outside, will here about it hopefully...
This refrigerated truck outside was obviously working, certainly to lower the temperature of recently-picked grapes (in the middle of the day it could become quite hot under the sun, even if very bearable on the motorbike).
When I arrived on my motorbike at Philippe Tessier's domaine in the middle of the Sologne this was obviously the end of their lunch pause (it was around 1 pm), and these 4 women were enjoying the september sun on a trailer in the back of the farm.
Good vibes also in this wine farm, i spoke with Philippe but his son Simon (center, bending) is now in charge. They had started the harvest 6 days before and estimated there'd be another 10 days. Philippe says that they had frost but not as bad as elsewhere (40 % to 50 % loss "only") but mildew damaged a big share of what remained, so if they manage to make 15 hectoliters/hectare that would be good this year. Happily, it comes after two nice years for them, 2019 and 2020 were good. 2016 and 2017 they got lots of frost, and 2018 mildew. In 2021 they had a very bad summer here, wet, grey. Today (when I showed up) they were picking Pinot Noir, both morning and afternoon. A few days before they got 90 mm rain fall along a week in 4 separate days, that's quite a lot.
Cédric Bernard whom you may recognize on the left had also lots of problems on his own parcels, and so he works as picker here too. He got the frost, then a big pressure of mildew, so virtually no grapes left. Last year was OK, and he had set up a small négoce and bought grapes, so he has still wine to sell from last year.
When I went to the wine farm of Christian Venier in Madon there
was nobody around, I don't remember who told me where they were picking (maybe Christian himself on the phone) but whatever I found the parcel, Christian was just driving through the parcel with his vintage straddle tractor (a Loiseau if I'm right) to collect the boxes. I love these straddle tractors from the 1960s or 1970s, they're so thin and light and fit perfectly with this gentle farming. The rows are pretty close to each other here and I'm not sure a regular tractor with its trailer would pass.
Guess what they were picking : Fié Gris or Sauvignon Rose, and the bunches seemed pretty beautiful to me. This is the cuvée Les Carteries blanc. I'm told they suffered mostly from the frost in the domaine (lasted almost a month, he said, the foliage restarting only in mid may), they managed to handle the mildew relatively well and the volume should be 60 % of a normal year. This was the first day of harvest for the domaine. Christian says that the volume here in the Fié Gris is low, on some rows there's que equivalent of barely a box. Christian says that the threee previous years were ok without much frost incidence. He says he's happy the grapes are quite nice on this Fié Gris, a part from a few rotten ones.
I spotted Roxane, Cédric Bernard's partner among the pickers, she also works for the harvest, here holding a beautiful bunch of Fié Gris.
They also use this good old straddle Loiseau tractor to work the soil with the intercep tool to plow under the row and take away the weeds. Christian says that it's important tyo protect the vines from the mildew because apart from the lost grapes the vine needs to make reserves for the following year and for that it needs foliage, that's why it's important to have it retain enough foliage for that, otherwise it will be exhausted the following season. They told me about the late Olivier Lemasson's surface (5 hectares) where the damage was high also, there's only the equivalent of one bunch per vine. I understand that friends will do the picking and pay the grapes to his family, who will decide in the newt months was is to be done with the domaine.
At some point as I was still with Christian and his pickers, we heard a noise in the far, this was a grape harvester on the other side of the road beginning its job. I hadn't noticed the noise at first but Christian told us about the roar of the Grosse Bertha and I understood. When I left them I stopped the bike a minute to shoot a few pictures, really a different style of approach compared to what I saw with Christian. The combine is a French-made Pellenc Activ 4240. You can see it here as it turns around at the end of a row.
I spotted this tractor for sale during the day along a road in this part of Sologne, this is a Massey Ferguson 825 from apparently the 1960s, complete with its trailer. AV means for sale (à vendre) and there was a cell phone number on the sign, so I called in the evening and got the farmer, I asked him if the tractor was in running condition, he said yes, and the trailer was indeed included. I asked for the price, it was 2000 € he said. I can't believe, it's really a terrific deal when you have a bit of land with woods for example and need to haul heating wood. If you're interested (it might be sold by now, though) the number is 06 43 56 92 14. Found another one on the web (here) for 3800 €. Here is another one that looks similar for 3000 € (sold with a plow).
I passed through the village of Fougères-sur-Bièvre a couple of times, this looks so quiet and peaceful with its Chateau sitting in the middle of the place, and no visitors or tourists in spite of the great weather.
Next I rode the bike to Soings-en-Sologne nearby where the family Courtois have their domaine, Les Cailloux du Paradis, and while the farm was empty, apart from the two dogs who barked at this tall fellow. So I walked around and ended up finding the picking team including Etienne in the Pineau d'Aunis, they were 4 people only. They had just began picking the previous day, september 20. They got losses like everyone else around, but that day they were picking one of the few varieties that had gotten through relatively unscathed, the Aunis.
The harvest on the domaine's surface is going to last about 10 days, I'm told, depending of interruptions and days off. Every day, they start picking at 8 am. Asked if the rain made the grapes bigger, Etienne says yes. Etienne says that this year there'll be two cuvées only, a white and a red, all being respectively blended together. They start picking at 8 am. I asked if Claude courtois was around but I'm told no, he's now retired and while making a bit of wine for himself he's enjoying fully his free time with his wife.
Here at some distance from the aunis I spotted how different varieties can suffer differently from the disease (here, Mildew if I'm right) : you can see the rows on the left completely decimated, few intact leaves left, while the rows on the right (I was told soon after it was Cabernet__ I had initially presumed these were hybrids) was looking much greener and healthier.
Here is a close-up on the Cabernet, looks like there will be a good load of grapes here, like the aunis. Managed to get through this catastrophic year pretty well, it seems.
As I was leaving I spotted this propane-gas cannon (it was not working that day) which they had certainly positioned there before that particular block was to be picked. I think this works well, firing loud but blank shots at irregular intervals in order to disrupt the birds and possibly as well the roe deers or wild boars. The Courtois' farm nbeing isolated in the middle of nowhere there's no risk to disturb other residents.
I'll close this first part of my Loire harvest story with this picture shot on the Courtois' farm : an old tractor from an unidentified make rusting in the open, waiting maybe for a key spare part to start a new life.
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