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Sunday, October 23, 2005
Every Year’s a ‘Vintage of the Century,’ and ‘05 is No Exception
Throughout the world — well, the northern Hemisphere, anyway — vineyard owners are picking the magical little berries that will become the 2005 vintage. And each year, the superlatives pour forth.
You know the drill: It’s either “We harvested early this year, which means it was a warm, dry growing season and the fruit ripened early, heralding a vintage of stupendous quality.”
Or:
“We harvested late this year, the harvest rains dumped torrents on our neighbors but missed our vineyards, and the grapes benefitted greatly from the ‘extended hang time,’ heralding a vintage of stupendous quality.”
But really, sometimes the early optimism actually DOES bear fruit (sorry…) Here’s what the Sacramento Bee wrote last week: “California’s 2005 wine harvest is shaping up as a
home run for both consumers’ pocketbooks and palates, as wine experts say the unexpectedly large crop will also prove a winner for quality.”
Let’s drop in on how the harvest is faring from some folks who don’t mind telling the world just how fine things are going in their vineyards and their crushing-and-fermenting facilities while we tend to our days jobs:
From Hugel & Fils, the Alsatian producer: “The quality of this vintage progressively emerged as the harvest unfolded. Throughout the season the vines have been in superb condition. Picking began in Alsace on Thursday 22 September for the still wines. Rainfall during the night of 3 to 4 October caused some worry, but arrival of the “Indian Summer” enabled us to pick our best vineyards under optimum conditions. Everything indicates that 2005 will be a great vintage. Grapes were healthy and ripe, balanced by excellent acidity. Initial tastings of newly-fermented wines confirm our optimism, showing great aromatic purity and class on a par with the finest vintages.”
From the Perrin Family of Chateau Beaucastel fame — remember the vertical tasting notes we posted for this prestigious Chateauneuf-du-Pape producer? Here’s what they had to say in early October about their 2005 harvest:
“This is under a very beautiful weather that we harvest the mourvèdre in Beaucastel today. Maturity is excellent, and it was the right decision to wait before picking. We should be finished tonight, and this will put the end to the harvests in Beaucastel.
We are lucky!”
From the Rodney Strong Vineyards, also from early October:
“Midway through the harvest, things are looking great. In fact, we are already finished bringing in Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc, and most of the Zinfandel. We are currently swimming in Chardonnay, and Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon is starting to arrive. As was the case early on in the harvesy, grapes are tasting ripe and are ready for picking at a lower sugar than is typical, which is resulting in generally lower alcohols and fine balance.
Much of September was rather cool, and the big warmup we always anticipate came late in the month, with 6 days over 80 degrees and 3 over 90. Not too little too late, but another couple of nice weeks would be perfect for ripening all of our cabernet sauvignon still hanging out there. So far, any precipitation threats have been far to our north and south. From a rather early bud break, to this extended autumn harvest, this will go down as one of the longest period of “hang time� anyone can remember, and everyone is excited about the above-average size of the crop and the high quality of the young wines so far.
This will be a year to remember!”
And this from Rupert Symington of the Symington Family Estates in Douro, Portugal:
“2005 has once again proved the vine’s amazing ability to overcome very tough conditions. It was astonishing to see the small green berries fill out, turn dark red and ripen with such limited moisture in the soil… We are confident that some very interesting and very good Ports and DOC wines will have been made in the Douro this year.â€?
Mmmm. Can’t you just smell the grapes fermenting?
Cheers!
Mark Fisher
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