Burgundy 2006 vintage: 1.5 million hectolitres…
Sources and tags:
… is the volume of Burgundy’s 2006 harvest according forecasts made last July. This breaks down as 973,000 hl for whites and 546,200 hl for reds and means that the yield in 2006 falls within the range of recent harvests (2003 excepted).
However, drought conditions in July may mean that the total has to be revised downwards. A definitive figure will have to wait until the growers’ declarations of yield are available in the first quarter of 2007.
With the harvest only just in, it already appears that Burgundy, famous for its diversity and the richness of its Terroirs, is once again fully living up to its reputation.
After a year of very mixed weather in which a July heat wave gave way to a showery August, Burgundy had the good fortune to be among those French wine-growing regions which enjoyed the best conditions in September with little rainfall and mild temperatures. The new vintage, though still in the formative stage, already promises well. One good omen is that the harvest dates matched those of 2005, themselves on the early side. In the words of one Mâconnais grower: “In spite of the way things looked in late August, we were still able to bring forward the harvest by several days. With the return of the good weather, the grapes ripened quickly in the first days of September. The whites gave us 13° with some variation between plots, depending on exposure and yield.”
All districts registered excellent degrees of maturity with healthy grapes in bunches which gave them space to breathe. A Côte de Nuits négociant commented: “The grape skins were high in polyphenols and anthocynanins, and yields, as it turned out, were quite moderate.” Overall the harvest was in satisfactory physical condition. Outbreaks of botrytis (grey rot) detected at the end of August were largely contained thanks to
the fine September weather, and strict sorting – now widely practised – did the rest.
First tastings show the whites to be of remarkable purity with the fruit already coming through and with promising persistence in the mouth. The reds have barely emerged from the press but their colour is good and their aromas are of ripe red fruits and spices. Good tannin concentrations will help to bring out their quality during the ageing process, but already they are showing fine complexity and meaty structure.
Related posts:
Leave your response!