Wednesday 20 May 2009

Springtime in the Languedoc - at last!

This picture was taken last Sunday just north of Beziers. You can just about see some young vines peeking through the sea of poppies.

Spring is a beautiful time in the Languedoc as it is still so green and there is a huge variety of wild flowers. It is particularly green this year as it has been an exceptionally wet spring. It was the wettest April for years and May has had its fair share of rain too. After 2 very dry winters the vines were in desperate need of rain to stock up reserves for the summer. But the dry weather over the last few days has been welcome, and not just so we can finally get out the Tshirts and shorts! Producers have been desperate to get into the vineyards to treat the vines against oidium and they needed dry, still weather to do so.  The dry weather is here .... but not necessarily to stay.