It would be hard for anyone having spent the last winter in Scotland - or even England - to believe that global warming is really kicking in, but even here in Collioure we have our doubts. The above photo is from 11th March 2010, when over a metre of snow fell in the town of Banyuls, and the coast was cut off and without power for days. I returned from a trip to Scotland (where the weather was pretty good!) to find the motorway blocked, the vines completely hidden, and general chaos.
How will this affect our wines? Melting snow is actually a wonderful way to get field capacity in soils in winter, since it melts slowly and is absorbed into the ground - as opposed to storm rains, which generally run off into the sea.
This all seems a lifetime away barely 3 weeks later, with temperatures in the 20C+ and budbreak occuring in many of our vineyards. We planted 800 new Grenache Gris vines yesterday, so in 4 years we will have a little more Folio on offer!
Happy Easter...
