| Popis: |
Grape Harvests from the Fifteenth through the Nineteenth Centuries Several research results have already been published on the subject of meteorological fluctuations during the sixteenth century.1 In order to interpret the impact of these changes, research based on phenology and in particular on harvest dating continues to be of crucial interest. All other factors being equal, late harvest dates are indicative of a vine-growth period (March-April to September-October) during which average temperatures were mostly cold. Early harvests, on the contrary, indicate relatively high average temperatures during the same seasonal intervals. Temperature fluctuation readings are thus approximations. This article synthesizes all of the currently known harvest date series (published, or uncovered by us in the French archives) for the vineyards of northern and central France (Paris, Burgundy, and Franche-Comte), Switzerland, Alsace, and the Rhineland. We have omitted the wine regions of southern France to the south of the Geneva parallel and those of western France, west of the Chateau-du-Loire (Sarthe) meridian, because they fall into another climatic zone. |
