So will this be the 5th, 6th or 7th vintage of the century since 2000? At least 2005, 2009, 2010, 2015 qualify…maybe 2000 and 2016 too.
Like most people, I prefer good things over bad. A good vintage, especially one top to bottom, sounds like a winner for all price points.
My thoughts exactly.
Elin’s comments about the Côte de Nuits are a bit off beam, as the hail storms to which she refers were pretty much confined to Nuits-Saint-Georges / Premeaux / Comblanchien rather than the Côte de Nuits as a whole. Vosne, Vougeot, Chambolle, Morey, Gevrey, Fixin and Marsannay all did just fine. Whether the whites will surpass the reds is also an open question. The reds are looking quite extreme, with high sugars and often amazing color which came after just a couple of days of cuvaison. pHs are correct but total acidity a bit low, with very little malic acids. Some of the wines seem very promising at this early stage, though it’s really too early to comment. But in some places, hydric stress blocked phenolic maturation. Ironically, those places tended to be the higher appellations, whereas the village lieux-dits sometimes did better. There will certainly be some village wines that surpass premiers crus this year!
That can happen. The run of 1945, 1947 and 1949 was a pretty epic series too. Similarly, 1928, 1929, 1934, 1937…
Agree, Burgundy and Northern Rhône looked happy 10 days ago.
However, after a quick overview of the article something is missing:
in the Southern Rhone, especially in CdP, mildew was a huge problem, and some estates might have lost between 50, 60, 70, even 95% of the 2018 harvest!
But there are some producers who reacted well in time … and their grapes look perfect in early September (just for instance Domaine Baroche).
If you’ve studied statistics, you’ll know that clusters are common and nice, evenly spread data is unusual.
Still, vintage is in the singular!
This sort of massive generalization, before many of the grapes are in, is always to be taken with a large pound of salt, even if things are looking mostly good. The summer has been the hottest since 2003 with not much rain anywhere. The only region I visited was the Médoc, in early August, where I noticed that vines in the north looked very good indeed, whereas those in Margaux and the surrounding area looked a bit brown and parched. So we’ll see. It was just an impression, but especially in St.Julien and Pauillac, it looked as if the green harvesting fad had lost favour and the vines seemed to have better leaf coverage than in the past, probably part of the learning curve.
I certainly hope it will be a great vintage everywhere in France.
More recently, 1982, 1986, 1989 and 1999, and then consider 1988, 1985 and even 1983 delivered some really excellent wines. Arguably the best decade of the modern era.
That’s an interesting question. I’m not sure it’s 100% accurate. I’ve seen thoughts expressed every so often that extreme conditions in one vintage can influence the next, i.e., from a statistics standpoint vintages are not independent / there is memory.
William I just want to thank you for sticking with us since your elevation. I really do appreciate your posts.
Robert, I think you probably meant 1990 not 1999 (although 99 was an underrated vintage in my view).
Robert, was 1999 a typo? I assume you meant 1990?
I assume it is too early to tell but this sounds to me somewhat like 2009?
Hmm, isn’t that just before your mentor Michel Rolland began his empire?
Sorry yes, 1990.
Sounds like a cross between 2009 and 2003. Could be tricky.
A “9” instead of zero? Must be doing client bills. ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
If you are talking about exclusively red Bordeaux. But let’s say I am not, for example, aggressively purchasing 1982, 1983 or 1986 red Burgundy. I went back in time as far as I did in search of series of vintages where pretty much every wine region in France excelled. But it’s a secondary point in any case.
2018 hasn’t been as dry as 2003, nor was the weather (though warm) as hot at the moment of harvest time. While some wines will likely resemble the unsuccessful 2003s, I’m expecting it to be a lot better / its potential to be a lot more completely realized.