Europe's 2004 growing season – (an updated) preview

In the old days we would have had to wait for weeks for this sort of information but nowadays we wine writers can receive and disseminate information almost as it happens, and some wine producers (see below) even let you practically watch as it happens.

General Flowering in many regions was super-efficient and super-generous and then summer was relatively cool and damp, both of which factors combined to retard development and encourage fungal diseases. Harvest dates will be very much later than last year. A testing year in the vineyard with...