The Harvest 2005 – a magnificent vintage

All reports from around France, and what we have seen ourselves, point to 2005 becoming an excellent vintage. In every district we have visited this autumn - Bourgogne, Bordeaux, Alsace, Champagne, Rhône-dalen and Languedoc – wine makers are happy and positive. The autumn has been unusually warm, sunny and dry in the whole country. If there has been any negative comments it has rather been the lack of rain during the whole growing season. The grapes have been nicely ripe and very healthy at harvest. The one issue was a short period of heavy rain in the Languedoc but most growers had already (at least almost) finished the harvest. It is never easy to taste a wine that has just finished fermenting, but the Grenache 2005 that we tasted at Domaine Haut-Lirou in Pic-St-Loup, with 15% alcohol and just barely finished the malolactic fermentation, was actually very nice to drink. It all bodes well for the future for this vintage.

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