Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

Hi,

I spent two days in the Graves last week. Everyone had finished harvesting their white wine grapes by then and were pretty pleased with the results.

Depending on the region, the estate, and the grape variety, the red wine grapes are either ready to pick or need another week or two.

Let's face it: the weather this summer was pretty piss poor. However, that well-known phenomenon, the Indian summer, is currently well and truly saving the day.
We know that this explanation is often trotted out to try to save vintage reputation. Sometimes it's true and sometimes it's, um, er, kind of true.
Well, the weather in September 2014 has been unquestionably clement.
The weather report for the next few days shows light rain on Monday and Tuesday, but sunny skies most of the week.

Personally, I am a fan of what are called "Atlantic vintages" i.e. not your rich, concentrated wines, but your elegant wines with good acidity.
Let us hope the 2014 reds come into this category.

All the best,
Alex R.

A lot can happen in a week or two. Here's hoping for sunny skies.

We've had a spectacular weekend weather-wise in Maine.
In fact there was something on the internet that declared Lewiston, Maine, as having the best weather in the world on Friday afternoon.
Maine, the Pine Tree State, how we love you so....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN183PdfTYg

Maybe, Jim, but Maine wine sucks.

No, most beautiful weather would be in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, I enjoyed a lovely dip in the cleanest ocean in the USA and then opened a 2012 Melville pinot to try which was quite nice. All good here.

Last week has been really sunny and warm here too.

But tomorrow, back to normal as forecast is 52 F.

Hope Bordeaux will have a good, week. Producer will be ok to raise prices by minimum 30 %, If so .

Nic

We had a reasonably good summer. June and July was warm and sunny, August was temperate with a fair amount of precipitation, while September was one of the warmest and driest in recent years. So it should be a good year for English champagne.

I am pretty excited about the 2014 Bordeaux vintage too.

La Conseillante Harvest Report

THE 2014 HARVEST
A first taste ...
The last fruit was brought in at La Conseillante at 5.0 pm on Monday the 6th October. We started on 23rd September with three early plots of Merlot, then continued across the rest of the plateau on 29th and 30th September followed by the Saint-Emilion part on 1st and 2nd October. The Cabernet Franc grapes that grow on our gravelly plots were picked on 6th October.
Overall, harvesting took place over the period of a fortnight and consisted of five and a half days of actual picking.
Under perfect blue skies with temperatures ranging from 7°C (45°F) in the mornings to 27°C (81°F) in the afternoons, a team of 20 pickers, 5 carriers and 8 sorters managed to bring in 67 metric tons of grapes.
Now winemaking is fully underway. Our new vathouse with tanks for each vineyard plot has returned to effective use this year, now the yield of fruit has become normal again. We are now able to give individual attention to meet the precise needs of each tank.
The juice has good taste and colour from the nice acidity and naturally concentrated grapes, which resulted from the scarcity of rain in the second phase of ripening. This lack of water also clearly contributed to tannin development and ripening of the pips. This vintage is still however relatively uneven. Cold, wet conditions during the flowering period were the main culprit. This is typically visible with pink grapes in the middle of the bunches, which of course are eliminated on the sorting table. The fruit was however clean, disease-free and ripe overall, which made de-stemming and sorting quite easy.
This vintage was definitely saved by the late-summer weather, which set in from 27th August onwards. This last month we have enjoyed temperatures that are significantly above the ten-year average and wide differences between the warmest and coldest times in the day that stimulate good ripening.
La Conseillante wines this year should be of very good quality with an average alcohol content around 13.2% and a pH of 3.6. Volumes should be slightly shy of 39 hectolitres per hectare. A happy ending therefore for this vintage, which growers in Pomerol hope will resemble 2001 and 2006 in style!
Pomerol, France 9th October 2014

Interesting report Mark, and as it says a happy ending. Could be a best of all worlds vintage? E.g., not too much alcohol.