The great advantage of having mild winters is that it’s easier to work outside for pruning, planting posts, straightening vine stocks, grinding … all done more willingly when the weather is nice!
But for the rest it’s not ideal. Parasites, mushrooms and viruses have spent the winter under warm conditions and are just waiting for temperatures to rise to attack the vine stocks and their first leaves.
Sometimes even the pruning process must be stopped as the sap isn’t at its optimum level. The risk being that vines haven’t had time to rest making it harder for grapes to ripen accordingly for the next harvest. The other major risk is the possibility of rapid bud breaks around mid-February, endangering the harvest in the event of a late frost. Let’s not forget that winter officially ends on 20 March which leaves us two months to go ….
For more news on Rhone Valley wines : www.vins-rhone.com
Published : 2016-02-04