I have just got back from a few days in the South of France where I was lucky enough to get the inside information on the 2009 vintage from a few producers in the eastern part of the Herault departement.

The weather through the months of June, July and August was particularly dry, with only a few milimetres of rain in each month - the Pic Saint Loup had only 20 mm in July and less in August. Temepratures have been higher than normal, as had the total hours of sunshine. All this lead to the start of the harvest teo to three weeks early, the fruit was generally in very good to excellent condition, though many vines were suffering from hydric stress, leaving the grapes small and with thick skins. In some ways it is a bit reminiscent of 2003, but the producers were ready for it, and picking began very early.

At L'Ermitage du Pic Saint Loup, the white grapes were harvested very quickly over 3 days from the 18th of August. The bunches were in great condition, with uniform ripeness of the berries, and with ripe stalks. The black grapes were harvested immediately after the white grapes, with all harvested by 3-4th September, except the Mourvedre which is always late and which will be picked on the 11th September. The black grapes were also very healthy, if a little small, with lovely ripe stalks.

Overall yields are fairly low, with Pierre Ravaille calculating that the whites will produce around 25 hectolitres per hectare and the reds around 20 hl/ha.

The vinification of the white wines at L'Ermitage has begun with the sole barrique of Viognier already finished, the rest still have a fair way to go. With the warm ambient temperatures, the cooling system is working hard with the remaining barriques, demi-muids and foudres of white wine maintained at around 20 degrees. Tasting barrel samples of fermenting wines is never easy, but it is my impression that this is going t be a lovely white vintage in Eastern Languedoc, comparable to though different from the fantastic 2007. There is a great purity of fruit in the Viognier, Roussanne and Marsanne, with the Clairette also very pure. The Grenache Gris/Blanc is showing well, with a great attack at the start, and a good array of spice and herb (fenel) on the mid palate.

The Vinification of the red wines at L'Ermitage is also going well. Because the skins were thick it was decided to not destem all of the fruit, this helped the free run wine to flow more easily and for piegage to be performed, even so Pierre Ravaille believes that he has never had a cuve with a cap as difficult to to punch down as one of the cuves of Grenache this year - it easily supported the weight of a person!

Exemplary tannin management is going to be the key to the quality of the red wine produced 2009. Those who take care and don't try to work on the extraction of flavour and tannin as much as they do most years potentially will make great wine, as long as they are prepared to only press lightly.

Overall, yields are likely to be down on normal, with potentially fantastic dry white wines, and potentially great red wines where vinification has been managed particularly carefully. All we need to do now is wait until mid-2010 for the white wines and mid-2011 for the reds to be bottled!

Ian