France’s Expects Smallest Grape Harvest Since 1991

France Expects Lowest Grape Yield In Two Decades -- France 24

France’s wine producers start harvesting in earnest in September. But particularly bad weather in 2012 means some areas anticipate shortfalls of up to 20%. It is likely to be France’s smallest grape harvest since 1991.

French wine producers expect this year’s grape yield to be the lowest in almost 20 years, as a result of exceptionally bad spring and early summer weather.

The harvest is being gathered in the coming weeks in what the French call “les vendanges”, a highlight of the country’s agricultural calendar.

Read more ....

My Comment: Expect prices to go up.

French Wine Map Shows The Best Vintage, From 1978 To 2011

Interactive Graphic: French Wine Map Shows The Best Vintage, From 1978 To 2011 -- The Telegraph

Mayfair-based Berry Bros and Rudd, wine merchant to the Queen, has rated the wine from different regions of France out of ten for each year for decades. Browse by year to see the quality of each region's vintage, and click to see Berry Bros and Rudd's reviews.

Berry Bros and Rudd also suggest whether you should drink the wine now, or lay it down to mature in your cellar.

The quality of the wine each year depends on a number of factors, but the most important is the weather.

A sunny growing season, with occasional showers - particularly when the vines are in bud - is vital. Too much rain and the fruity "extract" in the wine will be diluted; too much sun and the grapes could be burnt.

Read more ....

My Comment: An excellent graphic on French wines.

The Rise In Popularity Of The Carignan Grape

Red Wine: The Rise In Popularity Of The Carignan Grape -- The Telegraph

The much-maligned carignan grape is being re-evaluated by the growers of the Languedoc, and further afield.

Pierre Bories isn’t shy about his love of the carignan grape. Actually, the French city trader turned Languedoc winemaker doesn’t seem to be shy about anything. “I like carignan a lot,” he says with cheery defiance, “so there’s a lot of it in that wine,” nodding at the bottle.

How much? The wine I am tasting on a cold winter day in the south of France is an AOC Corbières so it can’t, by law, be made from more than half carignan, like it says on the technical sheet I have in front of me. Can it?

Read more ....

My Comment: I hate to admit it, but I am not familiar with these wines. I guess I now have a reason to try some.

The Chinese Invasion Of French Wine Country

Chinese businessman Richard Shen Dongjun feels right at home in Bordeaux Photo: AFP/GETTY

Chinese Buyers Snapping Up French Vineyards -- The Telegraph

Chinese businessman Richard Shen Dongjun feels right at home in Bordeaux. And he's one of a growing number of Chinese investors buying French chateaux to produce their own wines.

In the ancient domaine of Laulan Ducos, a 15th century French chateau on a gravelly Bordeaux outcrop surrounded by fine vines, Chinese businessman Richard Shen Dongjun feels perfectly at home.

He is, in fact, at home. The diamond tycoon has just bought the estate, and its vineyard, lock, stock and oak barrel.

It is the second to be taken over by Asian investors in just over a month, and the sixth Chinese-owned vineyard in this celebrated wine-producing region.

Read more ....

My Comment: I can't blame them. They want quality, and they have the money to buy it.