We are approaching crunch time for the 2005 harvest in many parts of France.
Progress in the Languedoc, which as I have reported had seemed so promising with its modest crop levels of unusually healthy grapes, has been seriously afflicted by heavy rain over the last couple of days. Below is an account from Charles and Ruth Simpson of Domaine Sainte Rose near Servian in the Hérault department, the one of which Montpellier (rumoured to have received 300mm of rainin the downpour) is the capital, just east of the Aude whose capital is Carcassonne. The swollen grapes are likely...