When people find out that Yvonne and I and of course our children Chloe and Lucy spent almost 10 years living in the heart of Champagne region in France and yet chose to come back to England, they look at us as though we’ve got three heads and green skin.
Moving to France and starting a new life is certainly a seductive idea. We all tend to imagine ourselves buying a vineyard and enjoying a succession of balmy days, good, honest, outdoor work and the satisfaction of producing and selling our own wine. Whilst there are a great many good things about living in France, there are some disadvantages too, especially for a vigneron, or a grower of grapes particularly in Champagne.
I’m not even going to start about the bureaucracy and the incredibly complex rules and regulations surrounding champagne making – you probably wouldn’t believe it anyway – but if they don’t make you give up, the weather might.
Champagne is a long way from the sea and is situated on the western side of a huge land mass that stretches back into Asia, so it can get some quite extreme weather.
If your vines survive temperatures as low as -20 0 C in winter you still have the late Spring frosts to look forward to. Frost in early April is the most dangerous, just when the young buds are appearing. If the frost gets them, that’s pretty much the end of your harvest for the year. That’s why if frost is forecast the vineyard workers can be up all night with braziers to warm the air in the fields and with water to spray on the vines – believe it or not, if the buds are encased in ice the temperature inside the cover of ice is just above freezing and the bud survives !
2003 was a bad year particularly for Chardonnay grapes in the Côte des Blancs area. Chardonnay vines bud earlier than the other varieties and because of this, are most susceptible to Spring frost. In 2003 the entire Chardonnay crop was ruined in some villages and the average loss was around 80%
After the hazards of Spring come the hot, heavy days of Summer and every year there are some huge thunder storms and truly spectacular lightning shows in the sky. The hot, humid air seems to get stuck in between the slopes of the Marne River valley and the thunder and lightning go round and round and can’t seem to escape. The rain is often torrential and what’s worse is that the water cascades down the slopes of the vineyards taking half the soil with it to deposit it in the middle of the streets below, or in your house if you’re unlucky. Our house was often in the path of these mud torrents, but there was a sturdy wall all around the garden and luckily it always held firm.
Added to this there are incredible hail storms with jagged hailstones the size of golf balls. Needless to say these can do a lot of damage.
On one occasion back in 2000 I foolishly parked my new car outside the house instead of in the garage. By the time I realised what was coming it was too late to move the car - you don’t want to venture out in one of these storms. The storm passed in 5 minutes but it left my car just a mass of dents and gouges.
There was another huge storm this year on June 16th.
Humans can take shelter of course but the vines have no choice. Vineyards caught in the path of the hail are devastated and the leaves and young grapes are pummelled to the ground leaving a trail of destruction and, you’ve guessed it, no harvest for the year. Fortunately the hail is very localised , almost like the path of a tornado, but for those in the path of the storm it’s no joke. This year some 600 hectares were ruined. Not much in the scheme of things, unless of course it’s your vines that are affected. If they are, then you start thinking about next year.
If you get through all this then you cross you fingers and hope that the sun doesn’t roast the remaining grapes on the vine. Usually the temperatures in the height of Summer are somewhere around 30 -350 C - hot yes, but not too hot.
Back in good old 2003 however temperatures got up to 400 C which starts to shrivel the grapes on the vine. The harvest took place at the end of August, at least a month earlier than normal. Not conclusive proof of global warming though – the previous record for an early harvest was in 1822 .
What with all this to cope with it’s a wonder that champagne is as cheap as it is
So, if you plan to start a vineyard in Champagne take plenty of patience, an iron will and plenty of cash to tide you over.
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