Historic and great do not go together

As the Hutton inquiry went into overdrive and thermometers soared, it was still silly season business as usual in August. Relying on reports of record temperatures across Europe for their predictions, most newspapers put two and two together and came up with 10 out of 10 for the 2003 harvest. True, most wine regions did start the harvest historically early, and early picking helps if it pre-empts rain. But historic and great are not necessarily synonymous.

As the Hutton inquiry went into overdrive and thermometers soared, it was still silly season business as usual in August. Relying on reports of record temperatures across Europe for their predictions, most newspapers put two and two together and came up with 10 out of 10 for the 2003 harvest. True, most wine regions did start the harvest historically early, and early picking helps if it pre-empts rain. But historic and great are not necessarily synonymous.

As it turns out, the glorious summer's early optimism may yet lead to a winter of discontent. One grower calls 2003 the year of the premature child. Like half of Europe, France shut down in August, and many winemakers were still working on their tans rather than their grapes when the harvest began. Co-operatives in the south were caught on the hop too, and consultant winemakers jetting in from Australia and New Zealand were forced at short notice to swap an antipodean winter - no great hardship, mind - for an early Mediterranean summer.

The de-hydration that's accounted for so many deaths across Europe has taken its toll on the vineyards. Along with freakish weather, including hail and storms, the heatwave did its damage by holding up the ripening process. Grapes need not only sunshine for sugar, which converts to alcohol, but fresh acidity and long enough for the grapeskins to ripen to full flavour maturity. So while alcohol is not a problem, refreshing acidity and ripe fruit flavours are.

With record temperatures, Bordeaux boasted that 2003 was going to be a historically early vintage. Even now though, it's still wait-and-see as growers who can afford to take the risk have delayed picking the late-ripening cabernet sauvignon in an attempt to get them sufficiently ripe. It may still turn out to be a good Bordeaux vintage. Low acidity and high alcohols have given the 2003 a distinctly Australian feel, and uneven ripening could seriously affect the consistency of the vintage overall.

In Burgundy, temperatures soared, a misfortune for Chablis, which started picking four weeks early on 27 August, the earliest harvest since 1894. With drought blocking the ripening process, low acidity and high sugars will not only make for an atypical year, but may also make the vinification of the wine itself harder. The Loire has been described by one wine merchant as having suffered from the 3Gs: gel, grêle and grillé (frost, hail and sunburn). Crops are so small that some producers are rumoured to have looked south to make up the sauvignon deficit, only to find their ill-gotten booty nearly doubling in price.

The pattern outside France is similar. Spain's main red wine-producing regions of Rioja and Ribera del Duero have suffered from the heat and drought, and a hot, dry summer in Italy has brought on the harvest by up to four weeks in places. Older vineyards have generally suffered least, but with small berries abounding, reduced crops in many areas raises the question of higher prices.

The one place in Europe that may genuinely have benefited from the heat is England, whose wines in a normal year can be raspingly acidic. But don't give up on the cabernet and chardonnay just yet. Jacob's Creek Chardonnay still outsells the production of the entire English wine industry by eight to one.