2013 Harvest: First Comments
This year, our comments accompanying the harvest are arriving a little later, like the 2013 vintage who knew how to make himself wait and who will have severely tested the nerves of the winemakers the most experienced!
A spring that was conspicuously absent
Remember that spring spent behind your windows watching the torrential rain fall, until you decided to turn the heating back on...
Flowering in the vineyards has logically been significantly delayed. And despite a glorious summer, the entire vineyard could only anticipate... very late harvest.
And logically, the more the winemaker delays a harvest in order to gain maturity, the more he takes the risk of being the victim of capricious and potentially brutal autumn weather.
But for some, nature's mood swings had been strong enough this year. After the devastation caused by 'summer' hail in Bordeaux, Côte de Beaune and Vouvray, one can understand the eagerness of some to 'bring in' grapes in the autumn, grapes which, moreover, will have struggled to develop. We can therefore already indicate that almost everywhere, in the regions that interest us, it is a year of small harvest, which will result in a smaller volume of wine.
What will be the impact on prices?
Given this situation, the question is legitimate. In BurgundyThe latest harvest in 30 years is also small in quantity, and this is the third consecutive year. This could therefore translate into a sharp increase in prices for the most sought-after wines. In Côte de Beaune, (for the record Beaune, Pommard, Volnay, Puligny or Chassagne…) the winegrowers will have had a hard time recovering from the terrible hailstorm of July 23, with, for the grapes that survived, a quality that was at the very least heterogeneous. Miraculously, Chablis was spared, which gives hope for a classic vintage.
For the great wines of BordeauxThe year was challenging. Storms and heatwaves followed one another, punctuated by destructive hailstorms, before giving way to a warm and humid autumn. Daily work in the vineyards was therefore crucial in meeting the expected quality standards for the fine wines.
In the wines of the Rhône Valley On the other hand, it's a beautiful vintage that's currently underway. A brilliant privilege shared with the wines of Languedoc.
The importance of the selection process
As every year, our analytical work and information gathering will allow us to identify the winemakers and wineries that didn't succumb to panic and took the risk of waiting for their grapes to ripen a little more, or perhaps... those who were simply lucky! You will be kept informed of our findings, which will help you enhance your wine cellar and potentially make a wine investment.
In short, a year that is commonly called 'a winemaker's year!'