At the time of the red moon

« Lune rousse, vide bourse, récolte point n’est arrivée, que lune rousse ne soit passée… ».

Years follow each other but do not look alike… After a beautiful season of 2015 and magnificent harvest, the winter was relatively soft. The only minus temperature were felt in March and more especially in April. In a rather exceptional way, the mercury dived until -4C entailing snowfalls on April 26th.

Whom the fault is that?  Well, it is because of the red moon…

What is red moon ?

We call it Red Moon not because of its colour, but because it turns the new shoots brown. Present during the cycle of the moon which follows the Easter week-end, it exercises a strong influence on the weather change. As it is said:

« Gelée de lune rousse, de la plante brûle la pousse »

The effects of frost were devastating for certain plots of land. Dependant of the nature, we can only note the consequences. Today, 2 weeks after, nearly 50% of our vineyard is deeply affected.

Chardonnay, being the first grape variety to bud, were the most affected by the weather.

Frost and vineyard : What is important to know …

All the grapes varieties are not equal. All the main buds are accompanied of secondary buds that appear later. However, these buds will only give new grapes for the pinot noir (with less quantity), those of Chardonnay are not able to give grapes.

The cold weather also affected the bud burst of the no frozen buds, leading to a delay of 2 weeks of the vegetation. Yes, growing is a hard work sometimes!

With a Rock’N’Roll beginning of the season, we hope the better conditions for the future!

« Quand elle commence comme un lion, elle finit comme un mouton, quand elle commence comme un mouton, elle finit comme un dragon. »