2009

Winter 2008-2009 will be remembered as the snowiest and coldest in the last 50 years in Piedmont. Because of low temperatures and rain at the end of winter, budding started about a week late.

The rain that came with the first and the last snowfalls of the winter contributed to the creation of hydro-geological instability, which was then exacerbated by intense precipitations at the end of April, causing landslides throughout the Langhe and the Roero. April, in fact, registered over 300 mm of rain, with 110mm alone falling in just two days, on the 26th and 27th.

Obviously, this precipitation added to the snow accumulated earlier in the ground reserves and with the arrival of warmer weather in May, the vines responded with rapid vegetative development, resulting in early flowering (around 15th May) as well as the following phases of bud-set (25th May) and pre-closure of the bunches (towards the 18th of June).

June and July were very hot, as has been the norm these last few years, with very high maximum temperatures for extended periods, interrupted by occasional precipitations, but without any damaging hail for once.

August continued to be hot and was characterized by maximum temperatures even higher than July’s, to the point that, after 2003, it’s been recorded as the hottest August of the last decade.

Naturally, such a hot month accelerated the ripening of early varieties (for example Chardonnay and Dolcetto), and harvesting started at the beginning of September. High temperatures continued through to the end of the month. Mid-month heavy rainfalls did not have a negative effect on the grapes and actually stimulated even better phenolic ripening for later varieties like Barbera and Nebbiolo.

Summer’s excessive heat encouraged a rapid accumulation of sugar without the usual gradual evolution of phenolic ripening. Instead, this was reached at the end of the first 10 days of October, after benefiting from the abrupt shifts between night and day temperatures typical of this month.