1998

After many years of unrest in Northern Ireland, both sides agree to the Good Friday Peace Agreement. US President Bill Clinton denies having "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, but later admits it. The Soviet Union's banking system suffered a collapse when the ruble lost 70% of its value against the US dollar in 6 months, with several of Russia's largest banks collapsing. The U.N.I.C.E.F. reports that there are approximately 250 million child workers worldwide.

1998 VINTAGE in Burgundy

The 1998 vintage was born under good auspices and has real potential. In spite of the occasional capricious weather conditions, the harvest has given us wines full of promise ? some fruity and seductive, others meaty and more structured.

After brief cold spells in January and February, the vines enjoyed temperatures above the seasonal average in March. This mild weather was interrupted by cold and rainy conditions in early spring. More clement weather returned in May and got growth off to a good start though, later, a slight drop in temperature slowed down the end of the flowering period. Odium broke out but did only local damage and overall the health of the vines remained satisfactory. The summer was on the whole hot and dry. Some limited hail damage occurred. Whilst scorching temperatures in August led to rapid colouring-up (vérasion) and a promising start to maturation. Rain in September was fortunately concentrated at the beginning and end of the month. By and large, harvesting took place in excellent conditions under sunny skies.

As always, the quest for optimum maturity was the key factor in deciding when harvesting should begin. The composition of the grapes was good nut the presence of botrytis gave rise in many cases to a need for sorting ? more or less rigorously according to situation. On the whole, average sugar content and acidity levels were both satisfactory. The ?ban de vendanges? was lifted the 10th of September confirming a somewhat precocious year.

At Domaine Latour, we began the harvest on Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd and selected only those vineyards with more than 12° of natural sugar content.  The grapes maturity appeared to depend on the age of the vines, the older vines with stronger roots were the most resistant to the drought and therefore in the best condition.

During the period of good weather, the grape juice was re-concentrated. Over 80 percent of our crop was brought in between Monday 21st and Saturday 26th in perfect harvesting conditions. Such was the urgency to harvest before the rains returned, that all available personnel at Maison Latour were mobilised in addition to the harvesters, for the first time in twenty years. 

We were able to finish harvesting on Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd October, just before the weather pattern changed again. The careful selection of fruit in the vineyards and on selection tables at our winery ensured that only the very best fruit in the best possible condition went into the vat.

The red grapes that were harvested before the rains came, have good concentration and especially good colour. They have a firm tannic structure that will enable the wines to age gracefully, and the acidity is balanced, but not as high as in 1996. All of the fermentation?s this year were rapid which has helped to soften the wines, and retain that brilliant Pinot Noir colour.

 The white 1998s from Domaine Latour are great. Our Corton Charlemagne was picked before the rains came, under fantastic conditions, with sugar levels of between 12.5° and 12.8°. It will surely be a great wine that will benefit from some cellaring. A small crop was harvested from Chevaliers Montrachet Les Demoiselles due to damage caused by the late April frosts, these grapes were of great quality and in a perfect state of physiological maturity.

To sum up the 1998 vintage; the white wines are expressive and pleasing, notable for their elegance and agreeable acidity. For the  reds the colour is good and they have a balanced structure and well developed fruit underpinned by harmonious tannins, which bode well for their future.

This year's harvest is the largest the region has ever seen. Every corner of the appellation has managed to achieve the maximum authorized harvest yield of 10,400 kilos of grapes per hectare. Producers were also allowed to harvest an additional 2,600 kg which was allocated to the Champagne reserve, called blocking. This led to 330 million bottles of champagne being made in total. The lock-in system (which allows more production than necessary to meet demand) was the main tool for maintaining a stable price level in the 1990s.

An abnormally wet El Niño spring and late summer caused a poor set for the 1998 vintage crop. During the growing season, clusters also were subjected to uneven ripening and threatened with sunburn, sending growers into the vineyard, performing more hand manipulation of the vines and reducing crops. With a later than usual harvest, growers faced the possibility of rains, but nature cooperated with a warm and sunny early autumn. Picking started in late September, went into full swing in October and reached completion in early November. The clusters, while small and low in weight, produced elegant fruit with definite personality and complexity. The juice to skin ratio was very low, which translates into extracted wines with concentrated fruit flavors.

Italy/Barolo/Barbaresco/Excellent to Exceptional – A vastly underrated vintage, 1998 had the misfortune of being sandwiched between 1997 (a vintage that was overrated) and the stellar 1999. 1998 offers everything you want in a manual Barolo or Barbaresco – nice concentration, firm tannins and precise acidity. In fact, it is the acidity of these wines that, in my opinion, carries these wines, keeping a wonderful freshness and elegance to these wines. This is not the most concentrated vintage of the last decade (1999, 2001 and 2004 produced much more powerful wines), but there is admirable depth of fruit and great balance and finesse. Most of the best Barbaresco bottlings as well as many 1998 Barolos drink beautifully now, while some of the best Barolos will provide another 10-12 years of enjoyment.

Burgundy vintage report from the DRC: For most of the year, while climates all over the world were shaken by exceptional climatic disturbances, Burgundy had its share of misfortune with some spring frosts and hail sometimes striking in succession the same places. The Côte de Nuits and our Domaine in particular were fortunately spared from these catastrophic conditions, but throughout the period, we experienced cold and hot periods in turn.

After a mild winter, bud break began early in early April, but a cold snap arrived around April 15 causing severe spring frosts in certain places. There was no damage to the Domaine, but these low temperatures nevertheless caused some runs which would later take the form of “Millerandage” and reduce production accordingly.

The month of May was beautiful and warm. Growth was so rapid that work on the vines, particularly disbudding, had to be done very quickly.

The first flowers appeared in early June. But a cold period sets in and flowering finally spreads over several weeks. We could still observe a few “runs”, therefore “millerandage” and we already knew that we would have to be content with small quantities.

The heat returned at the end of June and the vegetation began to grow very quickly. Here again, the work, particularly the joining, had to be done so quickly that our teams had difficulty keeping up. For as long as I can remember, we have never experienced such stressful and labor-intensive conditions.

In August, however, one of the factors that would characterize the 1998 vintage appeared: an exceptional heatwave (temperatures reaching 43°C) which was both beneficial in accelerating the ripening of the grapes and bad in that it created significant “stress” in certain vines, particularly the youngest, and caused “burning” everywhere on the parts of the grapes exposed to the sun. This is the first time we have seen this phenomenon develop to this extent. These grapes would of course be disposed of at harvest.

At the end of August, the heat eased slightly and we were hoping for some rain. Fortunately, this happened and the maturation accelerated. This rain continued, however, and by September 15 we were really worried, because rot started to appear and ripening stopped.

Then, at the very last moment, thanks to one of those miracles with which the Burgundian climate is so familiar, the good weather returned, more than the good weather, where the conditions were completely ideal: north wind, clear weather, no too hot, all that was needed to stop rotting and help ripening.

We started the harvest on September 19, under the sun, with the young vines already very ripe:

- September 19 & 20: young vines
- September 20, 21 & 22: Romanée-St-Vivant, Richebourg
- September 22, 23 & 25: The Task
- September 24: Romanée-Conti
- September 25: Montrachet; Grands-Echezeaux- September 26 & 27: Echezeaux

The entire harvest took place in good weather. It only rained on the penultimate day. The harvest ended on Sunday 27, on a cool and sunny day.

Our teams of harvesters have never worked better: “haute couture” once again, first in the vines where the selection is most important, and also on the sorting table which “refines” the work of the vines and eliminates grapes that have “burns”, those that are not quite ripe, and rot that is ultimately much more severe than it first appeared.

The degrees are satisfactory, between 12°1 and 12°7, and the acidities are much better than expected.

Yields vary depending on the wine between 20 hl/ha and 27 hl/ha.

In summary, we went through both a difficult year and harvest, but the Domaine was able to seize the "rare" opportunities offered by exceptional climatic conditions and, even if it is too early to give a definitive description of the vintage, we are rather optimistic. The disavatting is only just beginning: the colors are beautiful, the scents enchanting, and there seems to be a lot of “fruit”.

With 1998, the production of great wines would depend on the control of yields, the choice of the precise harvest date and finally the quality of the selection.

BURGUNDY: Overall Report: 

A difficult growing season which started with a light frost early in spring. Later in May the white-wine vineyards of the Côte de Beaune were caught by hail, further reducing the size of the crop. June was cool but dry, enhancing an even and rapid flowering which was finished in a little over two weeks. A warm July was followed a scorching August, with temperatures peaking at 40°C and some vines showing signs of sunburn. Hopes were high until September brought cold and wet weather. Fortunately almost two weeks of dry sunny weather brought the grapes back into full maturation.

The best wines are from the vineyards that were harvested late but also before the rains came on September 27. The reds are firm and tightly structured, needing time to show their true potential, not unlike their Bordeaux counterparts. Occasionally some green tannins are present and therefore selection is vital. The whites are fragrant and opulently styled.

Report from Vintage 1998 Bordeaux by Château Palmer :The summer was exceptionally beautiful, with hot and very dry weather in August. The vines were not overloaded with fruit, which meant that by mid-September they had reached optimal levels of ripeness in terms of sugar and phenolic compounds. Although there was some reduction in sugar levels during the period of persistent rain that followed, the rain had little effect on the polyphenols or overall quality of the grapes.

Rapid extraction made winemaking much easier. The wines obtained from each of the three grape varieties present balanced fruit with excellent tannin structure, while retaining the elegant Palmer style.
Harvest dates: from 09/24/1998 to 10/09/1998

Champagne by Richard Juhlin 

1998 may not have been a remarkable year, but we still have plenty of exciting experiences to look forward to in the future. Most houses felt that the year was good enough to make vintage champagnes. I had the great pleasure of trying the 1998 Veuve Clicquot base still wines with winemaker Jacques Peters, who asked me if I thought the raw material was good enough to warrant a Grande Dame. With its incredible range of choices, it did just that. Otherwise, the year is generally good but not exceptional, which should be a criterion for the release of prestige champagnes. Jacques Selosse and Billecart-Salmon Le Clos Saint-Hilaire are the best.

Vintage Report by Angelo Gaja: 1998 is one of my favorite vintages. It is a vintage of balance, of beautiful balance. But after 1996 and 1997, 1998 was forgotten. But it is one of the most drinkable wines of the last thirty years. Excellent balance. Perfect to match with food. Because Piedmont produces food wines.

Australia 1998 Vintage Report

New plantings and excellent conditions during harvest have helped to establish a record vintage in 1998 of 954,500 tonnes. The 1998 grape intake was more than 150,000 tonnes above the low yielding 1997 vintage (798,000 tonnes) and 72,000 tonnes, or 8%, greater than the previous record set in 1996.

Of the total intake 646,000 tonnes were premium winegrapes, easily surpassing the 500,000 in 1996/97. This premium component represents around 68% of the total crush, compared with 35% in 1990. While yields were up an estimated 5%, the surge in premium grape production has resulted from a major vineyard planting program of 25,500 ha in the five years from 1992 to 1996, an increase of 50% in the total area planted of winegrapes since 1992. This represents a vineyard investment program approaching $1 billion and is further evidence of the industry's shift to the production of quality wine.

Premium red grape intake was up by 42% to 299,000 tonnes and premium red plantings have outpaced premium white this decade as the industry strives to meet increasing domestic and export demand.

Shiraz has increased by 50,000 tonnes to 147,300 tonnes and is second in production only to Chardonnay, whilst Cabernet Sauvignon intake was up 46% to 97,800 tonnes. Merlot increased by 48% to 12,700 tonnes and all other premium red varietals saw double digit growth.

Premium white grape intake increased by 20% to 346,900 tonnes, of which Chardonnay production was 173,000 tonnes—up 30%. Semillon intake increased by over 6,000 tonnes to 57,500 tonnes, while Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Verdelho also increased substantially—up 41%, 21% and 19% respectively.

Non premium varietals showed an increase of 10,000 tonnes against 1997, with Sultana up 18% to 136,100 tonnes, reinforcing its continued versatile role as a neutral white variety in cask, low priced bottled and sparkling wines.

The 1998 record vintage coincides with unprecedented export growth by volume (189.1 million litres, up 21%) and value ($790.8 million, up 33%) for the 12-month period ended May 1998.

Port Vintage Report by Taylor: The 1998 growing season started extremely wet. The water table was replenished but this in turn caused extensive erosion problems, particularly in old terraced vineyards. A wet winter was followed by a cold spring falling to just above freezing mid April. With May came a burst of warmth records showing a 40cm shoot growth over the weekend of 8-11 May. A dry, hot summer, with temperatures exceeding 40 º C during the first two weeks of August, was followed by daily showers during the harvest which began on 20n September.

The almost perfect growing season caused great excitement in the Douro until picking began. The rain during the harvest caused dilution o f the fermenting musts and a corresponding reduction in the power of the final wines. Hopes were dampened and the overall yield turned out to be the lowest of the decade.