In Saint Emilion, at Chateau Corbin, winemaker Anabelle Cruse-Bardinet is exuberant about this year’s harvest. Spring frosts devastated her vineyard last year, as they did to many other chateaux in Bordeaux, and she made no wine at all. “We are going to make an incredible vintage in 2018,” she emailed. “We had a dry and sunny summer, giving grapes good concentration and very ripe tannins.” It was the hottest July since the great vintage of 1947.
Fall is wine harvest season in the northern hemisphere. Most vignerons in France are smiling, thrilled that 2018 isn’t a repeat of miserable 2017, when they harvested the smallest crop since World War II, no thanks to massive frosts, violent hailstorms, and scorching heat waves. (Surprisingly, the quality of the grapes that survived was outstanding in many places, including Bordeaux.)
This year, besides winning the World Cup, France is also one of the big winners in the global harvest sweepstakes. Over the past 10 days, I’ve emailed winemakers and trade organizations in France’s major regions to get the latest updates. The farther north you go, the better the grapes look.
Since harvest won’t finish until next month, everyone is keeping eyes on the sky—and smartphone weather apps. Here’s the outlook from various regions in France:
Alsace
This cool, northeastern region had one of its earliest harvests in history, and is on track to make great wines. “Vintages like this one can be counted on one hand,” says Jean-Frederic Hugel of well-known Famille Hugel winery, where harvest began on Sept. 5. “The wines will be rich, with a lot of concentration, and spells of cooler weather maintained bright acidity. And it will be a generous vintage with good production.”
The sole worry was the very dry conditions during the summer’s heat, but just enough rain fell to keep the vines going.
In the past few years, Alsace pinot noir has become “a thing,” and examples from 2018 should be stunning.
Bordeaux
Twice a day, Château Mouton-Rothschild’s managing director, Philippe Dhalluin, checks in with Meteo-France, the national meteorological service, for details on the local weather forecast in Pauillac. On Sept. 10, his pickers began harvesting merlot; for cabernet, Dhalluin estimates a start around the end of the month or the first week of October. “Everything looks perfect so far,” he says.
Not all parts of Bordeaux were equally lucky this year. Gavin Quinney of Château Bauduc points out that one of the worst hailstorms in recent memory battered vineyards at the end of May and struck in Sauternes and parts of Graves on the day France won the World Cup. For others, a soggy, warm June encouraged the spread of mildew, which can result in serious grape loss.
Still, the overall crop in France is rebounding 25 percent over 2017, according to the French agricultural ministry. For wine consumers, this is very good news.