From what can be remembered by ancient people, it has not been seen in the past 2 or 3 decades: last grapes in Provence were picked around October 20, one of the latest harvests.
2013 started with a long and cold winter followed by a wet spring. Flowering has been a bit tricky, much less than in the other regions, still we had a lot of “coulure” on Grenache which lowered the production of this grape and affected the final blend. Hot and dry weather finally arrived late June up until mid/end August but the delay on ripening was there. Quite low level of sugar was measured early September but great sanitary conditions in the vineyard.
South of France and Provence in particular has been very lucky as the weeks from september 10 to mid-October truly made the vintage: we could enjoy a fantastic Indian summer which enabled slowly but surely to catch up with the ripeness and to finally get high quality harvest. Small crop but great fruits.
As in the Southern Rhone Valley, part of Grenache suffered from coulure which greatly affected the production volume, particularly rosés wines. The other striking fact of the vintage is a high level of acidity which we always look for to preserve freshness in our rosé and white wines.
