What's Going On in the World of French Wines

I came across several important pieces of news yesterday that I wanted to share with all of you.

The first is that the Champagne harvest began in France yesterday. So far the 2010 harvest is looking very good, and producers are pretty pleased with the quality of the grapes. Although there was some concern about the heat in June, good weather in July throughout France has meant that on the whole producers feel very good about the potential of the vintage. All of which means very good things for wine drinkers around the world!

The second piece of information that I wanted to mention is that according to a report in Harpers (a British wine trade magazine), the amount of land in France being farmed organically increased by almost 40% last year with the number of organic vineyards up over 31%. Furthermore, the number of vineyards that are in the process of converting to organic viticulture increased by 72%.

While organic vineyards only account for 4.6% of all vineyards in France, indicating that certified organic vineyards are still a small piece of the overall pie, these large increases over last year point to a growing shift in viticultural practices and philosophies. While no system is perfect and there are some issues that growers have with the certification process or with some of the treatments (such as the use of copper) used in organic viticulture, in my mind the growing awareness of farming without massive use of chemicals is a welcome change. In this day and age we all need to be more mindful of how we are caring for our environment.

Finally, in Decanter it was announced that the Grape Conservatory in Saint Mont (in southwest France) would be holding its first tasting of “lost grapes” this week. According to Jane Anson’s article, the Conservatory has been attempting to revive rare grape varieties that used to be grown in the southwest but have since become rather obscure. The hope is that through this research viticulturalists will be able to increase grape diversity and also will be able to learn more about the history and origins of other more well-known grapes. I don’t know about you, but that is one tasting I would absolutely love to attend!