Bancroft Rhône Vintage Report 2013: "Syrah steals the show"

2013 was an excellent year for Syrah in the Rhône Valley and a vintage of generally very low yields for the older Grenache vines. The quality is overall showing itself as high particularly in the Northern Rhône, and the yields are very low both in the North and South, yet the prices look mainly unchanged since the last year. We maintain that the Rhône valley is still one of the few wine regions offering continued, superb value for money.  The 2013 Rhône wines offer a perfect hunting ground for everyday drinking wines as well as some serious regional superstars. Most of the wines featured in this offer will be on show at the Bancroft Fine Wine December tasting on the 3^rd of December. We strongly encourage you to come and taste them with us then.

Vintage report: Bordeaux 2013

Chateau Mouton Gardens

2013 was an excellent year for Bordeaux’s desert and white wines yet it was one of the most difficult vintages in recent history for the production of Bordeaux reds. Weather conditions were challenging from winter months right up until the harvest and vine growers could only thank warm and stable conditions in the months of July and August for saving the crop. Bordeaux veterans believe that twenty years ago these kinds of poor weather conditions would completely destroy the production and that vintage would end up with little or no crop. Yet in 2013 the chateaux with sufficient financial muscle, access to knowledge and modern technology have managed to produce a number of good wines in what has been very difficult circumstances.

The 2013 red wines are extremely varied in quality and so it was more important than ever for our team to make the trip to taste wines across the appellations. The wines we have identified as the best of the vintage lack generalisation. They all come from variety of soils, from different appellations and some are predominantly Cabernet blends and some, Merlot. It appears that the best wines are result of technological advance, terroir, hard work in the vineyards and rigorous selection of, in many cases, a very small harvest. Importantly the small selection of wines that we can recommend are those that are reasonably priced and these are the chateaux who took the overall nature of the vintage and market into full consideration when deciding on price.

Rhône 2012 Vintage Report: "disarmingly charming" a very good vintage

2012 was a very good vintage in the Rhône Valley. Whilst 2012 itself was a very challenging year for many of the other French regions, the most of the Rhône appellations enjoyed stabile and dry weather particularly during the summer months, with just enough rain in crucial periods to avoid water stress and encourage growth. The majority of the outstanding winemakers featured in this offer rated their 2012 red wines higher than the also very good 2011.

Day One in the Northern Rhone, By Jason Busby

A good but very long first day as we all started by 5am to get to Gatwick for the red eye to Lyon. A full flight and squashed between the Scot and the former Yugoslav for a few hours waiting the choice moment to get up for a loo break to annoy my learned colleagues.

A cold Lyon awaited us, but swiftly into the car to circumnavigate the airport three times before the United Nations got involved to tell the international community in the front seats THAT way. Safely cuddled into one of the five back seats I watched the dreary landscape scoot by until we finally saw the murky river with so many wonderful vines on its banks, yes Le Rhone. 

The 2013 Harvest at Champagne Medot

Another curious year for Champagne. After a cold, damp winter and a gloomy spring, very chilly and particularly wet, the vines began to grow two weeks later than average over the last decade, remaining two weeks behind throughout their development. 

Harvest Begins at Hay Shed Hill, Margaret River

Hay Shed Hill have began harvesting their white grapes. Wine maker, Michael Kerrigan, gave us a realtime update on February 14th, emailing us 40 minutes before he was due to start picking the Chardonnays from Blocks 8 and 6. In the email he described, "It is an early start, it has been hot and very dry.  Yields are heartbreakingly low so the vines didn’t have much work to do to get them ripe.  We had a storm in November that belted the whites just when they were in flower.  Such is life."

De Stefani 2012 Veneto Vintage Report

De Stefani have released their vintage report for their 2012s: Lower yields and great quality!

Wines of Spain 2012 Vintage Report

Patricia Langton has just released her very comprehensive 2012 vintage report for all the regions in Spain. Wines of Spain have kindly released the report.

Schild Estate 2012 Vintage Report

Schild Estate reports on the 2012 harvest in the Barossa Valley, Australia:

Hay Shed Hill 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon harvest update, Margaret River

Michael Kerrigan gives us an update on the 2012 harvest for Cabernet Sauvignon in Margaret River.

Schild Estate Harvest 2012

Jason Busby is helping out this week at Schild Estate, Barossa Valley with the 2012 harvest. He is having a great time although admits the 12-hour days are "killing" him. The vintage is going really well and all the grapes are almost in, with the Shiraz coming into the winery today.

Hartenberg 2012 Harvest Update, by Carl Schultz

We are still in the early days of the 2012 vintage, but already 3 things are standing out:

Hay Shed Hill night harvest 2012 - Sauvignon and Semillon grapes

Domaine Grand Veneur on why the 2010 vintage in Châteauneuf was so good

Yesterday we had the pleasure of welcoming Christophe Jaume from Domaine Grand Veneur, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, to our offfice.

2011 Harvest - Ribera del Duero

DO Ribera del Duero   

"In contrast to 2010, when some parts of the region experienced severe frost damage, there were fewer incidences of adverse weather for Ribera del Duero this year. However, there was some concern when hail and heavy rain struck the region during three separate incidences in May. The most serious of these hit the central Burgos area on May 11^th.

2011 Vintage report from De Stefani, Veneto

Decrease in the quantity produced, but extraordinary quality of the grapes, these are the features of the 2011 vintage.

The mild winter and the early start of the spring stimulated an early budding and all the subsequent phenological stages of the vines. In the Le Ronche and Pra’ Longo estates from April till June quite high temperatures and an extremely low quantity of rain have been recorded. The cooler temperature and the rainy period of July have brought back to a good natural balance to the vines.

2011 Margaret River vintage report by Michael Kerrigan

The 2011 vintage in Margaret River, and across Western Australia in general, was remarkable if only for how completely different it was to the rest of Australia’s grape growing regions.  It has always been of some consternation to us in the West that the quality of Australian vintages is assessed on what happens in the middle and east of the country, with Western Australia so far away and influenced by completely independent weather systems we often experience vastly different conditions that shape the quality of our vintages and wines.

Burgundy 2010 vintage

Following the more powerful 2009 vintage, the 2010 vintage in Burgundy created wines of superb balance, concentration, structure and freshness across the region. We believe that they are impressive wines and many have great potential for long cellaring, even more so than the 2009s.