When Are Wine Grapes Harvested?

You might want to schedule your holidays to coincide with wine grape harvesting time. During this period, you get to learn more about the wine-production process, deepening your knowledge of fine wines. To help you plan your next holiday, Ideal Wine Company asks: when are wine grapes harvested?

Rich wine cultures

Wine has been made for thousands of years. Over time, a variety of distinct wine-making cultures developed across the planet, providing you with plenty of options for wine holidays. With so many destinations to choose from, which wine region should you visit on your next getaway?

Read the full article with Ideal Wine Company.

How Does Frost Damage Grapes for Winemaking?

A number of external factors can influence the winemaking process. If a region experiences adverse weather patterns, the quality of the grapes used to create a certain vintage can suffer. So how does frost damage grapes for winemaking?

Effect of frost

The grape growing season spans the spring months. Wine Maker Magazine explains that during this period, vines are sensitive to temperatures below 0 °C. If there is a spring frost and temperatures drop below this threshold, it can damage the opening buds and young shoots on grapevines. Sometimes this inhibits the entire vine’s ability to produce the quality grapes required for winemaking.

Vintners invest in a number of measures to prevent their grapevines from frost damage. This includes delaying pruning, so that vines experience later bud bursts and avoid encountering devastating spring frosts. Winemakers sometimes invest in temperature modification measures e.g. installing heaters in their vineyards, to ensure that frost cannot lower the temperatures and damage grapevines.

Damage to winemaking

If a serious frost hits a winemaking region, it can cause significant damage to the area’s grape crop – as evidenced recently in Burgundy. Industry portal The Drinks Business reports that between the 26^th and 27^th April 2016, a heavy frost hit the entirety of Burgundy’s winemaking country, from the Maconnais to Chablis. Even those areas which normally escape such freezes fell victim to this frost.

The full impact of the frost is still being calculated but early estimations from regional industry body the Bourgogne Interprofession suggest that 46% of Burgundy’s vineyards – 13,453 hectares – were damaged by over 30% due to the frost. Furthermore, evidence suggests that 23% of those Burgundy vineyards affected saw their grape crops damaged by as much as 70%.

Frost damage can take a while to manifest. Therefore, several prominent Burgundy wine growers explained to The Drinks Business that it may be some time before they can fully assess the damage that this frost inflicted on the region’s grapevines. The frost also hit a number of other French wine growing regions, most notably impacting the entirety of the Loire Valley. Estimates indicate that many vineyards in this area have seen their grape crops damaged at rates which eclipse the 30% mark.

Try Burgundy wine

As seen recently in Burgundy, frost can restrict a grapevine’s ability to produce the standout grapes necessary for winemaking. Burgundy produce beautiful wine like the Clos Saint Denis 1996 using their world-class grapes. Frost damaging crops is a serious issue for wine producers and we hope a good harvest is still possible. 

Cognac Houses Unite to Address Climate Change

The Ideal Wine Company team has learned that several prominent Cognac houses have united to tackle the effects of climate change on French luxury brandy production.

Effects of climate change

Mediterranean countries such as France boast the perfect climates for grape growing, meaning they’ve developed world-class wine production industries. But climate change is warming these regions up and as the Ideal Wine Company has explained, this could forever alter France’s wine and Champagne industry.

Our neighbour across the English Channel is also the home of the world’s Cognac industry. One of the requirements of this signature brandy is that it must be made with grapes like Ugni Blanc, which boast high acidity levels. However the rising temperatures that are a hallmark of climate change could compromise acid levels found in grapes used to make Cognac.

New solutions

The industry has tried to tackle this issue by harvesting grapes earlier in the season. In the past 30 years, the harvest has been moved by 10 days to overcome higher temperatures. But with climate change becoming a more pressing problem by the day, this is a temporary solution at best.

Cognac houses Courvoisier, Hennessy and Remy Martin – you can buy the Remy Martin XO Champagne Cognac from us by the way, have united to try a new solution. According to Imbibe they’ve formed a research committee to test a new hybrid grape that will hold its acidity even when grown in hotter climates. Called Monbadon, the first crop of the grape will be harvested in 2018; the resulting eau de vie will be aged for at least three years before being used for Cognac.

Hybrid grape

Commenting on the project, Courvoisier master distiller Benoît De Sutter said: “We planted areas with Monbadon and a mix of Ugni Blanc and Folle Blanche in April 2015, testing different soils… Courvoisier’s vines are planted in the Fins Bois region, while Hennessy and Rémy Martin’s are in Grande Champagne.”

Continuing, De Sutter explained: “We’re doing the research to find whether the aromatic profile of Monbadon will be similar to Ugni Blanc… We already know that it has a higher level of acidity and lower level of alcohol than Ugni Blanc… It’s a very long experiment, but it’s for us to be ready in 30 years when global warming will really impact us.”

Try our Cognacs

We’re glad to hear this project could help Cognac overcome climate change. We love Cognac too much to lose it! If you want to see why people across the globe lover this unique French product, why don’t you purchase one of the Ideal Wine Company’s Cognacs? You’ll soon see why it’s so important we safeguard the Cognac industry from the effects of climate change!