It is now October and most or all of the grapes have been picked in regions like Bordeaux, Burgundy, California, etc., etc., etc.
Usually, I start reading by now proclamations of how the year was in most regions. Bordeaux lovers generally proclaim a new vintage of the century every 2-3 years; California producers, more like every year. But, this year I have not read anything that I can remember about the 2021 vintage. What do we know so far?
Thanks.
the best since 2020?
I was in Bordeaux a few days ago. The harvest in many areas had not started, but was close. No one was talking positively about the vintage and few came out and said it wouldn’t be good.
From the few domestic producers I’ve talked to, most have been very happy with 2021. No proclamations of vintage of the century (at least that I’ve heard), but definitely commentary around the sheer number of good (or great) vintages over the last 10 years, and how surprising it has been. Great luck for domestic producers that, despite the fires, hopes to continue going forward.
Bit too early.
Based on a couple conversation/texts with some winemakers up in Napa, while it is indeed too early, the general thought is it could be similar to 2015. Drought year, lower yields. At least there weren’t any massive wildfires and smoke taint to deal with this year (so far, fingers crossed)
Happy with 2021, was a welcome sight to view harvest since we dropped all our Cabernet last year. Yield was actually slight larger than expected on our block on Howell Mountain, not by much, but more than 2019. With the heat spikes throughout we harvested earlier, but all the lab results came back very good and excited about watching the wine progress. In Carneros with the drought, our Syrah did not fare as well with yield. We harvested only 0.89/tons normally 2/tons from previous vintages on average, wine is in puncheon fermenting now but labs came back promising, its going to be a concentrated cool climate Syrah for sure.
But overall I am happy with 2021, just being at harvest and have that energy and teamworks vs 2020 was the real joy.
Definitely lower yields for us. Two of our vineyards in Paso delivered 25-30% less fruit than expected. Napa is picking on Monday and that looks pretty light too.
Scott, why did they say that was the case? Too hot? Too much rain?
ive been seeing a lot of videos of Cali fermenters with a lot of fruit and very little juice.
so far all the producers ive seen reports from in oregon are pretty pleased with what theyve brought in. early harvest for them but good looking fruit for the most part
In France my bet is this will turn out as worst vintage since 2013. Started off with widespread late frost in April across most of the country, so yields were drastically marked down. Then we have basically not had a summer, lots of rain and mildew, and any thoughts of an Indian summer in September have been dashed by alternating days of rain and sun. Harvests have been ongoing in some regions under this mixed weather of rain and sun…
So, not much wine, and what there is may be middling in quality, depending obviously on the skill of individual vignerons and quality of individual terroirs.
That’s my interpretation, and i’m sticking to it!
They’ll make good restaurant wines for those places where the food is terrible and the portions are too small.
Red harvests are only just getting going. The same for much of Germany. Much later than normal. 2-3 weeks in many cases.
It’s not looking great. But good growers will make good wines.
Just seems like there will be very little wine from some of my favorite areas 
.
No idea about quality, but probably also not the best.
There is an article on The Drinks Business about 2021 Bordeaux, challenging seems to be a one word summary.
Any word about burg?
Cool for Napa, but other areas haven’t been quite as lucky. Steve Edmunds lost some 2021 fruit sources to smoke.
Also worth a watch is William Kelley’s recent video with Charles Lachaux
Lower yields tends to produce nice and concentrated flavors, which goes hand in hand with a slightly riper year. If I were to generalize grossly, you’ll see great flavor, “bigger” wines, with less acid.
As an interesting metric, I had one of the sites I take from increase 3 brix two weeks in a row. That’s 6 brix in two weeks! Normally it’s about 1 brix/week and about 0.1pH/week. The heat was unreal.