Rhône Valley sees 2019 yields rise

Yields across the Rhône Valley look to have remained relatively stable in 2019, in a year that has seen an estimated drop in harvests of 14% across France.

The Rhône’s harvest in 2019 will be 2.6 to 2.8 million hectolitres, higher than 2017 and close to the 2.7m hl collected in 2018.

The crop is generally healthy and quality is good across the north and south of the region.

The initial forecasts for Côtes du Rhône and Côtes du Rhône Villages even suggest a 5% rise in yields on 2018 to an overall 1.6m hl.

The Northern appellations of Saint Joseph, Cornas and Hermitage and Southern crus all seem to have similar yields to last year, Crozes-Hermitage is a little down following a freak hailstorm in June.

Also lower than last year are Costières de Nîmes, Grignan-les-Adhémar, Ventoux and Duché d’Uzès but Luberon will be up by around 2%.