It’s a little bit too soon to generalize, but several French regions are announcing 2014 as being a good vintage.
According to the Inter-professional Wine and Champagne Committee (CIVC), the grape harvest could start on Monday the 8th of September for all the vineyard lots where the grapes are ripe, the others will follow on the second half of September.
After a spring season conducive to an early development of the grapes, summer slowed down the normal development due to exceptionally low temperatures and abundant rain in the champagne area.
The cold has preserved the grapes from disease. The health situation being excellent,the harvest quiet abundant and of good quality. 2014 has all the potential for being a good vintage.
The same goes for the Rhone valley and Côtes du Rhone vineyards. According to Inter Rhône, a fresh summer has slowed down the grape’s maturation, in spite of the fact that it started rather prematurely due to a mild and sunny spring. Saved from hail the grapes offer a first-rate quality material, and as mentioned before, an excellent sanitary situation.
Harvesting has already started for certain white wine grape varieties, and should start around the tenth of September for the more mature red wine varieties.
What about the other wine regions, Burgundy, Bourgogne and the Loire valley? We will need to wait.
Could the 2014 vintage be another “2005”?
