After posting this weeks news roundup, I got several very distressing news alerts that deserve special attention.

• Bordeaux loses 90% of crop due to rain and rot. They have had a lot of rain in May, June and July. Additional problems have been reported in Beaujolais, Rhone and Loire.
• Burgundy escaped from rot threat due to cold weather. But Cote Challonaise has a number of vineyards affected.
• I’ve already posted about the hail in Cote Rotie and Alsace.
• Bottle shortage in Europe. Yes, it’s hard to believe but there is a shortage of up to 1.5 billion wine bottles in Europe. There are a variety of reasons, including consolidation in the top five bottle manufactuers and strikes. This problem is hitting the co-ops and branded wine the most.

Grey rot is the bad form of noble rot, or Botrytis cinerea, which makes Sauternes, Tokay and a few other sweet wines. Grey rot forms when the weather does not warm up in the afternoon or the vine canopy is not open enough to allow the grapes dry out; instead the grapes are moist all day and night. Grey rot is bad is because it creates off flavors and aromas in grapes. This is a problem world-wide, the photo to the left is of me pulling off grey rot clusters on Zinfadel in Napa Valley last fall.

The real question is how much of this is caused by global warming, or is this vintage just going to be really bad? We’ll have a better idea on the vintage over the next few months.