Cognac is hoping for rain to plump up the grapes

Winegrowers would be wise to quickly return from their holidays to prepare their winery”, warns Pierre Forgeron, an independent viticulture advisor in the Grande Champagne appellation area. This week, one of his clients is harvesting 3.5 hectares of Folle Blanche. “His grapes were already ultra-ripe on the last inspection on August 23 with potential alcohol levels of between 8.3 and 8.8% and acidity totalling 7.5g/L H2SO4”, he explains. “The heatwave prevented the fruit from growing but did not stop it from developing. It’s treacherous – some of the grapes are tiny and yet sweet”.

“Ugni Blanc ripens two weeks after Folle Blanche so it is unlikely that harvesting will only start on September 15 as some people are saying, especially as the most developed blocks have already reached 10% by volume [Ed. on August 25]”, adds Forgeron. He considers this year’s early harvest as a combination of 2011, 2003 and 2022. At the Charente-Maritime chamber of agriculture, Laetitia Caillaud is aiming for harvesting to kick off on September 8, “because it’s a Monday”, but she hopes that most grape growers will wait until the 10 or 11”, “so that the grapes can benefit from the rain forecast at the end of the week”.

Pierre Forgeron also feels that “30 or 40 mm of rain could change the physiognomy of the vintage”, but not necessarily in a positive way. He fears that rainfall forecast over several days could cause berries that have been weakened by scorching to burst, leading to rot on fruit that until now has managed to escape downy mildew and suffered little impact from powdery mildew.