2005

The year started off with good weather thanks to a prolonged high-pressure system that brought above-average minimum and maximum temperatures.

After a light snowfall in mid-January, the last 10 days of the month saw considerably lower temperatures. No precipitation fell until the end of February. When it finally began snowing in the Langhe, over 60 cm were accumulated on the ground, thanks to the arrival of frigid winds that caused minimum temperatures to hit exceptional lows of -12 to -15°C.

After the middle of March, the temperature rose pretty quickly until maximum temperatures reached highs of over 27°C on the 18th and 19th, a rare thing at this time of year. This was followed by rainfalls that lasted until the end of the month and well into April. April was a wet month as usual, with a total of about 150 mm of accumulated rain and generally quite variable weather overall.

Starting at the end of the month and for a good part of May, the high-pressure brought fine weather with particularly high maximum temperatures. This was a change from every other vintage of the last decade which have been marked by heavy rains between April and May, almost always resulting in the onset of downy mildew.

After the first 10 days of the month, a series of cold north-Atlantic fronts set in, which not only caused a decrease in temperatures but also brought heavy precipitations that reached their peak on the 17th and18th with a total of about 60 mm of rainfall. The last week of May ushered in the first heat wave from north-Africa, with temperatures hitting over 33°C. This situation, together with a lack of precipitation, continued well into June, recalling, in part, the 2003 vintage. Towards the middle of the month, the heat wave was intercepted by cooler weather accompanied by intense storms. This was followed by a return of high temperatures which culminated in record highs of around 35°C on the 26th and 28th.

July presented greatly varying temperatures and very little rain, limited to only 3 days in the entire month. Another climatic anomaly, similar to what happened in 2000 and 2002, was registered in the period between the 4th and 10th when temperatures were 3-5 °C below average.

The second heat wave started on the 14th and lasted, with alternating highs and lows, until the end of the month.

August opened with storms that also brought widespread hail and were followed by a period of pleasant temperatures, high humidity, scarce solar radiation, and more frequent precipitations. The month was rainier and cooler than normal (the average temperature was about 21°C).

Not much changed during the month of September: consistent precipitations occurred on the 7th and the 9th, with significantly low temperatures; this was followed by a few mild and sunny days; harsh weather was back on the 17th and 18th with intense precipitations and again, a noticeable drop in temperatures. The rain then stopped and gave way to fairly stable conditions which lasted, apart from a few brief interruptions, until the end of the harvest (beginning of October).

September, as a whole, was characterized by average temperatures but with particularly high levels of humidity, which kept the plants’ vegetative organs damp for an extended period, creating problems for the health of grapes in vineyards situated in less optimal areas. Overall, the vegetative season was characterized by above-average temperatures with high bio-climatic indexes, similar to 2000 and 2001 levels, which helps to explain how the grapes ripened so well in spite of such bad weather during the final phase. Precipitation was below average and concentrated at the end of the season.