Wine Traditions ltd
The 2020 vintage … here are some elements: – the weather was highly contrasted: a rather mild and very rainy winter then suddenly magnificent and dry weather all spring. Record heat on April 10 with 26 °, the buds grew very quickly. There were only two heavy rains between April and August = drought !!! The flowering is complete around May 24, the output of the grapes is magnificent and early: in this perspective a big harvest is scheduled for August 25. Very good weather in June / July / August! But on August 1st it is 40.5 ° … the grapes are burning in the sun and a large part of the harvest is lost (25%). The harvest begins on August 24 in Chablis: it’s a record! My earliest is the 28th. The vines have suffered from drought and there was a continued risk of the grapes becoming overripe and with little acidity. Chablis needs acidity.
In the end, the harvest is average in quantity (50HL/HA) and of very good quality. The degrees are between 12 and 13.5 … that’s a lot! – everything went well, it is certain that climate change is real … Like all the last vintages, the wine will be good. We should not go into the details too much because overall: it is GOOD! We wonder whether we will have years like 1984 again for example: the grapes were completely rotten (rotten/moist) with a natural degree of 7.5 ° !!!! Will it happen again ???????????????
2020 was a very dry and very hot year, therefore these will be wines of character for long aging. Small yeilds this year, but very high quality.
Speaking of the 2020 vintage in Burgundy:
This is an early vintage; we started the harvest on August 26th. A “solar” vintage, with a severe lack of water in July and August. The heat was such that the Pinot Noir bunches suffered from scorching. There was significant loss of production in the bunches, resulting in some dried out grapes at the harvest. These were of course eliminated on the sorting table before entry into the cellar. Yields were low in red but there is a nice concentration in the berries. There is lot of richness in the wines, it will be a “sunny” vintage, but gourmand with a lot of fruit (aromatic of black fruits such as blackcurrant, blackberries, black cherries) For the chardonnay; the vines suffered less from drought and we had a rain storm two and a half weeks before harvest. To our greatest satisfaction; the acid/alcohol balance is very desirable. The whites have a lovely freshness with a lot of purity and exotic fruit … A nice vintage in the cellar.
Harvests were successful in spite of the drought, we obtained our expected quantities.
Very beautiful grapes with excellent maturity.
The wine is already (early January) tasting very well, with good balance, a beautiful vintage awaits you.
After a rainy winter, spring arrived in early April, and temperatures quickly climbed. The start of vegetation was rapid and homogeneous, and the frost did not cause any damage. Growth was then rapid, with very little rainfall throughout the cycle. The marked drought during the ripening of the grapes even caused certain sectors to defoliate onto the stones (Château Gaillard, Champs Ronds), where the burning effect of the sun was the most intense. The first juices from this sunny vintage are very pleasant, the white wines from Maconnais are round and fruity.
The year 2019 = a hot and dry year
Alas, we had a bit of hail at the beginning of April and again in late April.
Then hail beginning of May at which time buds were between 1 and 12 cm. With this persistant cold the budding out of the vines was slow, through the end of May. The vines were in full flower around June 17th Which put the predicted harvest date at September 25th; Then the heatwave came! Very hot at the end of June: 38°C, beautiful all of the beginning of July and at the end of July, record hot temperatures in Chablis : 42.6°C on the 25th of July. End of August it was still very hot, and above all dry. So the harvests began in the region the beginning of September, around the 10th in Chabis, on the 17th at Domaine d’ELISE! The quality is excellent but its necessary to take note that there a lot of small berries that were slightly dried out, and some even burned by the sun. The yields are only 40HL/HA instead of the usual 60. The degrees vary between 12.5 and 13.5, which is very high for Chablis and Petit Chablis. However the acidities are correct, allowing for making characteristic Chablis. They will be for medium term keeping. The juice is already tasting very well : its round and fruited, very agreeable on the palate. Since the year 2000 we have experinced many good years with climatic warming. Sometimes with excessive ripeness comes a drop in acidity, which is not suitable for Chablis. Happily, le Domaine d’Elise always has good acidity because of the rocky, very calcareous soil.
The news in our dear Burgundy, the 2019 vintage will be magnificent but very small quantity, half the harvest at our Domaine.
Regarding the weather, we had a mild winter: a fine budding, but which for the Chardonnay happened under rain and cold. The summer was very hot and dry; lack of water and incredibly elevated temperatures. The harvests took place around September 9th. With a beautiful phenolic maturity, incredible concentration and high alocoholic degrees but a very good balance of acidity/alcohol.
Concerning the 2015 vintage, we had ann exceptional growing season, that’s to say a record of sunny days. And for us several passages of rain at the right time, which is not the case in the whole of Burgundy.
Concerning the white wines, we have very pure wines of beautiful matter, beautiful acidity, beautiful length in mouth, promising great wines in a relatively normal quantity, that is between 25 and 45 hl/ha
For the reds, which were harvested first, because the crop was small, between 25 and 35 hl/ha the wines are deeply colored with a lovely tannic structure, a lot of concentration as a result of the small quantities coming from a beautiful parcel, therefore very promising wines for the moment, it is still early to tell the temps de garde (how long to lay it down and when it will be ready to drink).
The 2015 vintage was marked by heat, and intense dryness.Harvest began August 28th, two weeks early, maturity was excellent, and the sanitary state of the grapes was exceptional.
For the reds, the 2015 vintage will be probably be among the best vintages that we have had here in recent decades.
The Morgon and Chiroubles 2015 have intense color, aromas of black fruits and spices, an imposing structure, and silken tannins.
The Chardonnays from St. Veran have an appealing fruitiness, freshness, a very structured mouth, with a lot of roundness, resulting in wines that are very agreeable to drink.
After a very rainy winter, we had a quite dry and warm spring, which caused a very rapid budbreak.
Beautiful weather during flowering, but end of june, we had a hailstorm in the villages of Beaune, Pommard, Volnay, Monthelie and Meursault, causing a 20% up to 95% loss of crop, depending on the vineyard.
The month of july and until the 15 th of august, the weather was average, after which, continuing through harvest the weather was beautiful, and quite hot reaching temperatures of 28 degrees..The result is wines with a lot of fruit, a lot of aromatics, and fullness. Lovely concentration, but not aggressive.
It’s still a bit early to tell but I think “un vin de plaisir”, easy to drink.
After a summer of mixed weather, the sun of September made the wine growers of RULLY smile once again.
We were already lucky having escaped the hailstorms and other inclemencies of summer.
The grapes are a beautiful , clean quality, both in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The grapes are healthy, sweet and aromatic, The Pinot Noir is sorted by hand on a large vibrating sorting table that is efficient and effective.
I tasted our RULLY Chardonnays in barrel, I find them to be already supple, well balanced, pleasing……
I think that this promising vintage could be a great year, notably for the whites…
The pinot noirs, now tranquil in their oak barrels, will be tasted next……
As for the 2014 vintage, we are very happy with the vintage, and for two reasons:
First of all, after several successive vintages of very small harvests, here finally is a bountiful harvest, with the correct meteorological conditions for maturation and good weather during harvest. This should allow us to replenish our stocks.
In addition, the quality of the vintage is really there, the wines are very perfumed and very gourmand.
The white vines have a beautiful balance, with an intense aromatic richness. These wines will certainly be very successful, with a very consistant quality.
The red wines from the north of Beaujolais are equally successful . They express typicity of style and are very structured. There will be a few lighter wines, but many very good ones.
To sum up, if I was offered 20 more years like 2014, I’d sign up immediately.