Insight 2015 – And then the rain came

The optimal harvest dates in 2015 is being eagerly discussed … and while its true that a late harvest was a quite bad idea in 2015 – especially for the whites – the picture is however much more complex for the reds, as the maturity varies tremedously from terroir to terroir and from producer to producer – depending of viticulture, clone and climat.

At least for some it was not ideal to harvest early as the phenolic ripeness was not optimal before the 12th of September, and hence some producers decided to wait.

And then the rain came!

On september 12th rain fell and some producers have havested after this rain and inbetween the showers the next days, as they had been waiting for optimal ripeness. 

These producers or should I say some of these producers seem to have found another balance and lightness in the 2015s, as the rain added some liquids to the very concentrated flavours in the grapes.

Normally rain during the harvest is not a good thing, but in 2015 and other hot years, it can actually ad another level of freshness and lightness to the wines .. and so it did for some producers in 2015.

Is that a good thing … yes in some cases in my view, as the density of some 2015 is very high, and the rain has produced some very refined and delicate 2015s – still with plenty of power and concentration. 

This also means that the late havested wines are not nessesarily the overripe and dense wines .. and that the discussion about the harvest dates in 2015 is very complex indeed. 

So should others have waited for the rain – probably and surely not – firstly rain is a unpredictable thing, secondly if the maturity of the grapes for the ones that picked earlier could have been to advanced to wait with the harvest.

In Burgundy nature rules – and both before and after the rain fresh and vibrant wines were made.