Uutiset
Burgundy: The winter of 2006-7 was generally mild, with temperatures rarely below freezing. The vegetation began to stir earlier than usual, with budding beginning on March 15. Growth was not entirely regular, but April was very warm, and May continued to be both hot and dry, allowing the earliest patches to start flowering from May 20. However, from this point on, cooler temperatures meant that the less precocious vines experienced long and difficult flowering (millerandage).
June brought enough rain to plump the grapes perfectly. The Véraison began in mid-July, but the weather forecasts were poor and many storms were predicted at the start of the summer season.
At this stage of the year, 2007 presented itself as an early vintage. Magnificent, warm and bright weather set in around August 15 and remained in the region until the end of September.
Pinot Noir in Côte de Beaune
The grapes were smaller in 2007, but there were more of them than in 2006. Ripeness was not consistent and it was essential to carefully sort the grapes to ensure that only those that were fully ripe were kept. Following fermentation, the wines are well colored, the fruit is impeccable, the tannins are fine but they are not particularly concentrated. They are delicious to taste; It is perhaps possible to compare them with some 1997s.
Chardonnay in Côte de Beaune and Côte Chalonnaise
The good weather allowed us to wait for the optimal moment to harvest, when the grapes had reached perfect maturity. As in 2004, the volume of grapes is quite good, and in addition the sugar level is ideal, the health of the grapes being perfect. Only the acidity is a little excessive (especially malic). Following malolactic, the wines are quite classic and elegant, although a little tense. They will benefit from additional feeding on their lees during next spring.
Vintage 2007 by Romanée -Conti / The 2007 harvest is finished. The weather is fine with a wind blowing from the North, which both delights the winegrower and makes him regret that these ideal conditions had not arrived a little sooner! But we must adapt to the will of the climate and we know perfectly well that it is in this difficult context of Burgundy with its tortuous climate, softened by exceptionally micro-climatic conditions, especially at the end of the season, that the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay can reach the beautiful maturity which will lead them to their best expression. Even for us winegrowers, this incredible “gift” sometimes seems almost miraculous. We were able to see this once again with this vintage which will remain one of the most remarkable in recent years.
The start of the growing season has been exceptional.
The bud burst and the clustering was extremely early thanks to a summery month of April which led to a significant advance in the vegetation. In addition, the famous Palm Sunday wind, which blows on Palm Sunday and announces the dominant wind of the year, blew from the North, presaging a dry year.
We then have the feeling that the same type of vintage as 2003 was taking shape with the harvest beginning in mid-August. At the time of flowering, also very early (around May 20), the winegrower was rather happy and had every reason to hope for a great vintage with an average harvest reduced by the millerandage. Unfortunately, flowering lasts three weeks and has had the effect of creating differences in maturity between the vines, between the vines and often between the berries of the same cluster. As a result, we already knew that we would have to sort very selectively at harvest.
These differences in maturity could also be observed in the vines. The Chardonnay was ten days later than the Pinot Noir, which is totally unusual. At the time of veraison and of course at the harvest, there was a difference of more than a week. After harvesting the Pinot Noir, we had to wait just as long to harvest the Chardonnay.
For once, the palm wind, as mentioned above, lied and the opposite of what was expected happened: from May, the prevailing winds blew from the West and the South and the season was often humid with a succession of heat, storms, cold, humidity, all these factors being the friends of our worst enemies: mildew, powdery mildew and botrytis. Fortunately, thanks to the uninterrupted attention of Nicolas Jacob, our vineyard manager, and his team, we managed to combat them while respecting exclusively our organic methods.