The weather in the mountains is always changeable, sometimes dangerously so. In two weeks in the Haute Savoie this summer we saw the extremes of 32.5C – the hottest we’ve known it – and well under 20C, as well as storms and torrential rain. On June 1st, more snow fell in 24 hours than on any single day last winter (it wasn’t a great season for snow here, and our local resort closed early, with April temperatures up to 28C).

Nevertheless, this was a local first, with children rejoicing in being able to make snowmen with the help of parents much freer than they are in the ski season. Then when the ‘bonhommes de neige’ melted, the Alpine flowers were revealed once again. But the tragic consequence of such a heavy, late snowfall was that thousands of trees, already in leaf, were lost, unable to bear the weight. Under their unseasonal blanket of snow, trees broke and the forest resonated with the cracking of trunks and branches. Many survived but remain bowed, in deference to the extremes of nature.

In the foothills, local vineyards fared far better, as this was not frost but far more benign snow, in a period of cooler weather which helped to slow down development which had been racing ahead following the unusually warm spring.

On a visit to the Loire in June, the normally majestic River was carrying only a third of its normal volume of water. Vignerons here were predicting harvest up to three weeks earlier than a normal year – though none could immediately remember when they last saw one of those!

Richard Mayson has not seen the prolonged heatwaves that persisted in his ‘cooler’ part of Portugal’s Alentejo last summer, and is expecting to pick around ten days earlier. On our Primeurs tasting trips to Bordeaux in April and May we had never seen such verdant vines, and the early fine weather had meant naturally healthier vineyards, with far fewer vineyard treatments necessary. Personnel were being asked to take their summer holidays earlier than usual, in expectation of an early harvest.

Since then in the Loire and Bordeaux, some welcome rain and cooler weather had slowed things up a bit. Then, on 2nd August, Bordeaux was apparently hit by ‘biblical rainstorms’, according to one of our suppliers, presumably alleviating the reported water stress in the vineyards. We are yet to hear of any negative impact, other than to those early holidaymakers.

It’s been a strange year so far, and, as always, the next few weeks will be critical. I’m off to the Loire again at the end of the month to get first impressions of the 2011 harvest, and to Bordeaux mid September. Fingers crossed for the all-important Indian summer.

And if the Mondeuse in the Savoie turns out as well as the 2010 we enjoyed this year, we may need to squeeze in fewer Wine Society cases on our next trip to the mountains.

Joanna Locke MW
Buyer for Bordeaux, Loire & Portugal

Edit: 25th August
I wanted to share a phrase from recent correspondence with one of our producers in the Loire updating us on the situation: All fun and games here as vineyards duck and weave to avoid the storms.
I shall be visiting Muscadet and Touraine next week so I will soon see for myself!