Tuesday, November 27, 2018

2018 Vintage

So the wines are finished fermenting for the 2018 vintage and now its just waiting for them to settle out and age. "The waiting is the hardest part", not exactly as the late Tom Petty relayed, but once the wine is finished fermenting there is the wait till its ready....or not.

If you are into neaveau wines or early drinking styles you may already be into the 2018 vintage. We make a variety of styles and some may be ready shortly at the earliest but other, like Leon Millot and Marechal Foch are now in winter slumber waiting for spring or late winter bottling or potentially
even next fall.

As the year progresses I often take small samples along the way to see how the wine is comming along. So far this vintage, red or white, is turning out to be very good. Really impressed with the Triompe D'Alsace so far, the Evangeline is great again and the Ravat, despite the isssues with the cool weather and rain, is comming along nicely.
Interesting is that with the cool September we didn't get the ripening we usually do but most varieties continued ripening, just slower than usual. The exception was Petite Milo. It usually ripens to 22 brix but it only got to 20 and was quite high in acid. It is a bit less muscat-less fruity..more citrus moving towards green apple - like what you would get with white grapes that are a bit unde ripe.

Good to know how the year over year changes in weather affect this one...but it still makes a nice reisling-like wine.