Loudoun Weather vs Bordeaux Weather

Jane's post about Bordeaux weather patterns got me curious about Loudoun County weather patterns and how they compare not only to Bordeaux, but previous years as well.

Before reading further, please note that I have not done any long term sort of study on weather patters in Loudoun County and I am no expert on how these patterns affect vine production, but we have to start somewhere, right :). The weather data below is all from IAD (Dulles Airport) which is about 15 miles from the closest vineyard, but it is the most reliable publicly available weather source I could locate.

Month	IAD Temp	IAD Avg Temp	IAD Rain	IAD Avg Rain
May	65 F	62.3 F	10.26 In	4.22 In
June	73.1 F	70.9 F	6.69 In	4.7 In
July	74.9 F	75.7 F	2.18 In	3.57 In
August	79.3 F	74.3 F	2.75 In	4.7 In

Now, compare those numbers to the converted Bordeaux numbers:

Month	IAD Temp	BOD Temp	IAD Rain	BOD Rain
May	65 F	63.14 F	10.26 In	3.07 In
June	73.1 F	68.53 F	6.69 In	2.95 In
July	74.9 F	70.7 F	2.18 In	1.81 In
August	79.3 F	72.68 F	2.75 In	0.787 In

It appears Loudoun is hotter and wetter than Bordeaux, but this still doesn't tell us much about Loudoun's 2009 vintage. To do that let's compare the numbers to 2007, which a lot of winemakers have told me was one of the best vintages in Loudoun history:

Month	07 IAD Temp	09 IAD Temp	07 IAD Rain	09 IAD Rain
May	65 F	66.1 F	0.34 In	3.07 In
June	73.1 F	74.4 F	6.69 In	2.92 In
July	74.9 F	77.3 F	2.18 In	1.75 In
August	79.3 F	74.3 F	2.75 In	1.67 In

In this comparison, we see that 2007 was hotter and much drier than 2009. This doesn't mean 2009 is going to be a bad vintage, not at all. But, now that we have a baseline it will be fun to see how these weather patterns affect the fruit and ultimately, the wine.

Bordeaux Weather

Some more information on the 2009 vintage. This is a continuation of my earlier post about the harvest.

Jane has an excellent article up about weather conditions for theBordeaux region during May, June, July and August. She demonstrates that the summer has been dryer, sunnier and warmer than average, which should translate to a very good vintage.

BottleWise

I was looking for a way to bring a couple of bottles of wine with me to Bordeaux next week, as gifts for my friends. Obviously, I am concerned about the bottles surviving the plane ride, so I wanted something to help protect them. Someone suggested I check out BottleWise. So far, I am impressed.

The BottleWise bag consists of two containers. Each container has a re-sealable airtight plastic bag. You put a bottle inside the plastic bag, seal it, lay the two containers on top of each other and wrap them in the bag.

So far, I am pretty impressed, I'll give you all the final yea or nay after the trip.

Review:2004 Mediterranean Cellars Romance

Wine: 2004 Mediterranean Cellars Romance



Review: A good summer red. It is a light blend (the winemaker wouldn't divulge the blend other than to say there is some Norton in there) with very floral aromas. This is a very fruit forward wine without a lot of depth, but a great wine to drink alone or pair with a cheese tray.

Price: $20

Grade: 85

Review: Twin Brook Consiglieri

Wine: NV Twin Brook Consiglieri



Review: This is a Chianti-style blend light red wine and it is the biggest seller at Twin Brook winery. The wine is very fruit forward with strong cherry and blackberry flavors. It is light on the palate with very few tannins, a very good food wine.

Price: $15

Grade: 80

The Post Remembers Virginia has Wineries

The Post ran their bi-annual 'Virginia has wineries' article this morning. Completely not ironically (I assume) they also ran an article about how Virginia wineries get no respect in their own backyard.

I will give the first article some credit in that they picked 4 interesting wineries from different parts of Loudoun to highlight: Bluemont, Chrysalis, Sunset Hills and Notaviva.

More on 2009 Bordeaux Harvest

According to Decanter, some producers are really excited about the 2009 vintage. This is in sharp contrast to what we were hearing in May after hail storms damaged many producers (including Brane Cantenac. If this turns out to be true it will be interesting to see if we get a really good, but rare, year.

The article quotes Emmanuel Cruise, from Chateau d'Issan, as saying the harvest may start as early as mid-September.

I'll be in Bordeaux next week, so it will be nice to get a first hand account of the quality of the fruit on the vines and the harvest.

Update: It looks like the white grape harvest is going to kick off even sooner.

2nd Update: More information on the harvest

Decanted

Meghan and Tim have started a wine blog called Decanted. I really like the way they lay out their reviews and they have an eclectic taste in wine, check them out.

Wine, Cheese and the Washington Mystics

The Washington Mystics are hosting a Wine and Cheese night (PDF) before their game against the Seattle Storm on September 3rd. The tasting is being held at the Verizon Center in the Dewar's Club.

What makes this especially nice is that the wines they are tasting are from Corcoran Vineyards and Sunset Hills two great Loudoun wineries. The $35 tasting fee also includes a ticket to the game, so it is a really good deal.

Slate Wine Tasting

I like this idea. Slate is holding an online wine tasting. Well, actually, it is a traditional wine tasting hosted by Slate's wine critic, Mike Steinberger, but it does have an online component.

This Wednesday, August 26th, Mike will be tasting the following wines:

• Domaine des Aubisieres Vouvray Silex 2007
• Les Heritiers du Comte Lafon Macon 2007
• Domaines Ott Cote de Provence Rose les Domaniers 2008
• Jean-Paul Brun/Domaine des Terres Dorees Beaujolais l'Ancien 2008
• Betts & Scholl Grenache O.G. 2006
• Ruinart NV Blanc de Blancs

If you are in New York you can e-mail Mike to see if he has any tickets left, otherwise you can follow the tasting on Twitter at @SlateWine. He is also encouraging those playing at home to post their thoughts on the wine as well.

That's the part I really like. While Mike is certainly an expert at what he does and, in my opinion, one of the better wine critics out there, it is always nice to hear a variety of opinions on a wine. So, if you have the time to locate some of these wines, feel free to participate, otherwise you can sit back and see what other people think.

Chateau Latour: Preview of the 2009 Vintage

Decanter posts a lot of great videos on their site. This one I think is particularly good (in a wine geek kind of way). It is a preview of the Chateau Latour 2009 vintage: