Harvest Reports

2016 was an atypical, but ultimately superb quality, vintage & growing season.A rain-soaked winter gave way to a cool but dry late spring. Late frosts were a menace that we managed to dodge. Many producers were forced to race around their vineyards at night lighting bougies & using tractor hauled hot air machines to protect their vines. Fruit set was mixed, due to wet weather, particularly challenging in the Pinot Noir, but much more even in the Chardonnay & the Pinot Gris. Then the warm & sunny weather came, which was a mercy. It was a glorious summer.Vineyards across the...

Bud burst came slightly early in the middle of April. A slightly cooler May slowed things back to about average. The fruit load looked promising. A relatively dry period ensued, with the formation of good bunches & the additional warmth spurred growth. However, fruit set although optically even occurred over a longer period than usual, with marked differences between & within our 5 main vineyard parcels. A function of wetter conditions.The grass growth, that had us mowing in the tractor every weekend, slowly eased with the very limited rainfall through the end of July into early August, but the the...

The growing season commenced after the wettest winters for over a century, with rainfall at +265% of the long-term average; it’s an understatement to say it rained. Fields were super-saturated, but the soils stayed warm. No snow fell, there were few frosts. Just wet, wet, wet.March and April were warmer than average, drier and sunnier; a much needed respite from the wettest winter since records began. Bud burst came around mid April. May was simply spring like, a little cooler, showery, one or two days of proper rain. June started well. Flowering and fruit set followed in rapid succession, with...

We started the year shivering and coated in mud as chilly winds and heavy rains blew over us. The season got off to a miserable start: cold, wet and disheartening with vine growth lagging by a month as we reached May. But, mercifully, May was magical: warm and dry with stable high pressure and that’s the way the weather stayed until September.Véraison came only slightly late as the grapes caught up. But hopes of an Indian summer were dashed by cooler temperatures and, by mid October, worrying storms were forecast for the month end (the St Judes’ Day storm). That...