the ban des vendanges organized this Saturday, six days after the start of the harvest
Due to the drought and the heat, the Côtes-du-Rhône harvest took place six days before the start of the festival, symbolically marking the start of the harvest.
The Interceltic Festival of Lorient 2022
There was a time when the ban des vendanges, the 26th edition of which takes place this Saturday in Avignon, was organized around September 10.
This year, the Côtes-du-Rhône celebrates the start of the harvest on August 27.
But the winegrowers of the Rhône Valley did not wait for the start of the festivities to harvest: it is so hot and so dry that they have been harvesting since the beginning of the week, eight days earlier than last year!
“In certain very early sectors, particularly in the Gard, the harvest of whites and rosés was able to begin on August 11”specifies Inter Rhône, the interprofessional organization of the Rhône valley wine-growing.
From Alsace to Bordeaux, to the rosés of Provence, all the harvests were exceptionally early this year.
Winegrower in Puget-Ville in the Var, André Camous began his harvest on August 11th. Thirty years ago, he harvested at the end of September.
“A sign of water stress, our berries are 10% smaller than last year”he notes, reassured that the quality of the grapes is there this year.
“The harvest is good, we have a good concentration, there have even been some interesting rains in the last few weeks”confirms David Bérard, president of the Compagnons des Côtes-du-Rhône, organizer of the harvest ban.
It is therefore with a festive heart that the winegrowers will gather from 5 p.m. in Avignon, capital of the Côtes-du-Rhône, around the vine-clos of the Palais des Papes.
Especially since the work in the vineyards will already be well advanced: the comfort after the effort!
This year again, between 8 and 10,000 people are expected to attend many free activities: parade of the brotherhoods, winegrower’s mass, traditional pressing…
“It is a great symbolic celebration during which we shout to all the winegrowers of the Côtes-du-Rhône that the grapes have reached maturity and that the harvest is beautiful”enthuses David Bérard, very confident for the 2022 vintage.
If the drought disrupted the wine-growing calendar, it spared the vines: “the sanitary state of the vineyard is excellent, with the absence of disease in the vines”finished yet Inter Rhone.