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Given the long hot summer of July-mid-August in Europe, some media were quick to conclude that "2003 will be a magnificent vintage". Thus, the beaujolais region started harvesting one month ahead, on 9 August, and some winegrowers were raving: "never before have we seen such beautiful ripe grapes - see for yourself!". On the same day, however, an oenologist issued a warning in a radio interivew: "in this type of weather, we get at least two problems: due to the dry heat, leaves are turning yellow-brown and hence, the photosynthesis process which creates sugars is hampered or even halted, and then, also, the plants are suffering under what we call water stress. That means that they cannot pump enough juices up to the plant and the grapes, grapes remain small in size, their peels harden and one gets raisins".

We linvite you to look at the vineyard Steinrossel in Sommerloch - Nahe (near Kreuznach in Germany): to the right upper side, you can see how leaves have turned brown already. What then does the farmer do? Look at the upper middle part of the picture, and you see a tractor with a tank behind, plus a man standing in the upper middle row. We climb up, and see what the man is doing:

"Only once did I see a similar situation: back in 1967!" Is he pessimistic? "Well it all depends: slopes are better off than plains, grapes like Riesling suffer less than others like Sylvaner, Müller-Thurgau or Dornfelder, and the younger the vines, the more they are threahened." And indeed: on the plain we see Müller-Thurgau vines, and that's quite another image:

The lower rim of the vines has partly turned into yellow-brown, the leaves have "hanging ears" and the grapes are wrinkled. "We can forget about these" says our farmer, or better: "we still will have to harvest, because otherwise the wood will not ripen, and next year, we get bad fruit".

We also visit the famous Moselle region near Koblence, and there something never seen before is happening: the fire brigade of Winningen is pumping up water from the river into the waiting tanks of the farmers. The Moselle wine commision has given permission to irrigate the vines for the first time after the war.

Yet, that is Germany, you may say, what about other regions? In B urgundy and in Bordeaux, there is great concern too. "We will not lack sugar, says a winegrower, but acidity will be the big problem". Indeed, when night temperatures don't fall below 15° - as they did for 4 consecutive weeks - you don not get enough acidity. One can try to solve the problem chemically, but that is a patch up.

Will 2003 be a great vintage in most parts of Europe? It will certainly not be superb. Depending on the combination soil-grape-age, the results will be very differentiated.

Walter Leirman