May Futures: Introduction

It’s always a pleasure to arrive in France for a tasting trip. We do so often enough now that we know which way to go for the luggage, where to grab a quick coffee, and whether we need to hustle for the TGV when the plane is late. (Making the TGV was a near thing this time thanks to a late flight out of Boston, and we were pretty relieved to see the bags spill onto the belt. The next three trains south were all booked up, and had we missed ours the whole schedule would have been thrown out of whack).

White Burgundy’s Best Kept Secret.

This week in France has been a reminder of the precarious livelihoods of winemakers. Overnight frosts devastated vineyards in several regions in France this week, and the vignerons aren’t out of the woods yet. As we drove through the Côte d’Or yesterday, winemakers were readying bales of hay in the vineyards, in preparation for the overnight bonfires to protect against the cold.

2015 Old-Vine Crozes-Hermitage: “a Model of Balance and Finesse.”

This morning we visited our Northern Rhône producers, tasting wines from Crozes-Hermitage, Saint-Joseph, and Côte Rôtie. Winemakers here are basking in the glow of the 2015 vintage, said to be the best in 55 years. We don’t have quite that long a memory, but from this morning’s tastings we can confirm that this is an extraordinary vintage.