{"id":279,"date":"2013-08-09T15:21:44","date_gmt":"2013-08-09T14:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/?p=279"},"modified":"2013-08-09T15:21:44","modified_gmt":"2013-08-09T14:21:44","slug":"an-email-about-the-weather-and-our-new-fridge-they-reckoned-it-couldnt-be-done-what-do-they-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/?p=279","title":{"rendered":"An email about the weather and our new fridge – they reckoned it couldn\u2019t be done, what do they know!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/span><\/p>\n

Occasionally, in amongst the thinly veiled sales pitches, the feeble attempts at humour and the inept news round-ups, we turn our attention to two of our favourite topics: wine and weather.\u00a0 As a result, this week\u2019s missive has pretty much written itself since the two W\u2019s have collided in a quite spectacular fashion of late, and not without a degree of collateral damage.\u00a0 Let\u2019s use France as our yardstick here:<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.english.rfi.fr\/france\/20130808-france-finally-feeling-relief-after-month-stormy-weather<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Please do read the article, but if you don\u2019t have time here are the key points:<\/span><\/p>\n

First the good news<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>a calmer weather system is expected in the second half of August<\/span><\/p>\n

Now the other news<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>From 1 to 31 July, lightning struck France 527,496 times \u2013 a rate five times higher than last year.\u00a0 On the 27th July a record 284,163 strikes of lightening were counted across the country<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>On Wednesday, 750 residents in the Loire region saw the roofs of their houses peeled off by heavy hail, while 23,000 homes were left without electricity in the Dordogne and Limousin departments<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Last Friday night, in the area of Entre-Deux-Mers which produces much of the early drinking claret that we all enjoy (Chateau Deville anyone?), there was a quick 10 minute hailstorm.\u00a0 The report from Bordeaux\u2019s agricultural association, the FDSEA, estimated that up to 5,000 hectares of vines in the region have been wiped out in the storm, equivalent to 5% of Bordeaux\u2019s annual production<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>The week before, gale force winds, heavy rain and hail stones the size of prunes wreaked havoc across vineyards in Bordeaux, Champagne and Cognac.\u00a0 The storm damaged grapes at Ch\u00e2teau Lafite and uprooted its willow trees, while the roof of neighbouring Pauillac estate, Pichon Lalande, was significantly damaged.\u00a0 Champagne also suffered, losing 300 hectares in the villages around Epernay and the C\u00f4tes de Blancs to the hail<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>And as we mentioned previously, a hail storm on Monday 17th<\/sup> June caused widespread damage across much of the Loire communes Vouvray and Reugny.\u00a0 Hail stones \u2018as big as eggs\u2019 were reported and around 1000ha across Vouvray were affected, just under half the 2,300ha appellation (thanks to The Drinks Business for this info)<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

So France is looking a bit buggered, pardon my French.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have weather reports for Spain and Italy, but after drought caused smaller production in 2012, they both need to avoid more bad luck.\u00a0 California is picking early this year (10 days according to our sources) but this apparently is a positive thing although I\u2019m sure we won\u2019t see it reflected in their prices.\u00a0 Australia\u2019s harvest was the largest in 5 years though.\u00a0 Guess what we\u2019re all drinking next year…<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, with the potential ruin of the 2013 vintage firmly in his sights, Wayne realised last week that it was time for us to diversify a bit.\u00a0 So he bought a new fridge.\u00a0 It is now happily ensconced at the front of the shop and has been unofficially named \u2018The Beer Fridge<\/b>\u2019.\u00a0 It has the same local beers as always, but now there are more of them cold.\u00a0 And more cold cider.\u00a0 And more chilled sweet wines\/sherry\/Madeira.\u00a0 Even a couple of bottles of decent Burgundy are lounging around on the bottom shelf.\u00a0 So more than a beer fridge really \u2013 come and have a look.<\/span><\/p>\n

AOB<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

The wine course is filling up nicely, as are the two Wine and Cheese evenings, see attached for info on all of these.<\/span><\/p>\n

#moutardroutard<\/span><\/b> hits the road to Spain next week so unless you want my wife to win this bottle of Champagne on 1st<\/sup> October, get snapping.\u00a0 @parkvintners <\/b>is our handle good buddy, what\u2019s your twenty?<\/span><\/p>\n

Weekend drinks will be served from 5pm today and all day tomorrow \u2013 as Moutard is travelling to Iberia we thought we would too \u2013 we\u2019ll be showing Campos de Celtas 2011 Albari\u00f1o (12.99)<\/b> from Rias Baixas, Galicia and then we\u2019ll hop over the border and taste a brand new red listing from the Douro \u2013 Doural Tinto (9.99) <\/b><\/span>made from the grapes that go into Port, but in a dry style.<\/span><\/p>\n

An email about the weather and our new fridge – they reckoned it couldn\u2019t be done, what do they know!<\/span><\/p>\n

All hail!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fellow Wine Lovers, Occasionally, in amongst the thinly veiled sales pitches, the feeble attempts at humour and the inept news round-ups, we turn our attention to two of our favourite topics: wine and weather.\u00a0 As a result, this week\u2019s missive has pretty much written itself since the two W\u2019s have collided in a quite spectacular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions\/281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}