AVINES OF FRANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 138, 7 December 1935, Page 10

AVINES OF FRANCE

A SMALLER YIELD

I learn that in all the fine wine regions the musts indicate that this year's vintages will be light but very agreeable wines. Predictions that this will prove to be a good year in some regions may be well founded, but it .is too soon to be sure of it, says a French correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph." Owing to the variable weather since August, no standard definition can be applied to all musts of any of the fine wine regions, notably Bordeaux, Burgundy, Alsace, and Champagne. In all, however, the quantity is smaller than last year.

The Bordeaux musts show sufficient strength with 131 to 14 degrees on the glucometer in the first Medoc growths harvested, and others 114 to 12 degrees. Here, as in St. Emilion and Pomerol, the White Graves and Sauternes, the quantity has suffered from1 storms which blackened many vineyards and left nothing to harvest but a few bunches here and there. Some estimates make the total Bordeaux losses at 50 pei; cent, as compared with last year. -

Much hindered by unfavourable weather, the Burgundy vendanges which began here and there continue fitfully. The musts vary between 11 and 13 degrees, with slightly more acid than last year. The red grapes were in some localities touched by rot. The white wine grape seems superior in quality to the red this year. The Champagne vineyards were in very good condition when the vendanges began and periods- of sunshine have made it possible to harvest favourably on that territory. The general impression of the musts is good and some "crus" of the Montagne de Reims are expected to be superior to last year*.