2012 Harvest in Languedoc-Roussillon:

The Hérault prefectural office has just published a communiqué about the next harvest. According to the first estimates, the wine production in Languedoc-Roussillon for the 2012 crop would amount to 12.9 million hectolitres (28% of a 46.7 million hectolitres national potential).

The 2012 harvest would record a decline of 12% in comparison to the one from the last campaign and would slightly be under the five-year average.

The regional production potential has not been significantly affected by the localized hail storms in the past few weeks. The intense winter cold weather has yet destroyed a significant number of stocks in the Gard wine areas from the Rhone.

The heavy spring rain has enabled from then on to make up for a particularly dry winter and the wine area does not suffer from water stress. However, the vineyard has a slight vegetative delay in comparison with previous years.

These estimates are still provisional at this early stage of vegetation as sanitary and climatic incidents can crop up until the end of the final harvest and lead to a change of this forecast. An updated forecast will be broadcasted sometime during the first week of august.

Source:http://www.Midilibre.fr