2007
Year of Refinement.
What makes our temperate regions so charming is that every vintage
is different, sometimes drastically so; some years are definitely
superior, others a little disappointing. But they all have a personality,
one that is sometimes strongly asserted. Each time, it is a new discovery.
Here
are a few recent examples of this fabulous diversity:
•
1998: a year of smoothness, a subtle mixture between a wine to be
lain down, and immediate pleasure.
•
2000: a voluptuous year, an immediate charm which inspired an irrepressible
desire to drink the wine straight away, and yet they had so much
life left in them.
•
2001: an almost perfect year, an excellent laying down wine, ultimate
pleasure.
•
2003: year of opulence, with a richness and generosity never before
seen and which perhaps we will never see again.
•
2005: a vintage built for the future , for laying down, an amazing
balance with a little hint of austerity in its youth but the best
cellaring potential of these last 20 years.
•
2006: the year of balance, the brother of 2005, but with fewer tannins
and therefore less austerity and greater immediate aromatic expression.
A fabulous vintage which confirms all of the potential we saw the
previous year.
•
2007: year of refinement. Wonderfully elegant, and a lovely tannin
framework, but with delicate, already rounded tannins and what aromas!
An irresistible vintage.
So
let us go back over 2007. A miraculous year in the Rhône, when
so many other regions had a disastrous climate.
And yet the spring began very badly: lots of rain (good for nature
as a whole!) and therefore lots of problems, grass growing everywhere
and diseases which caused us concern.
The end of June was very difficult, and we said to ourselves that
the summer would be no laughing matter! And then the Mistral began
to blow and took the problems with it. July and August were exceptionally
dry, but thanks to the spring rain, the vines did not suffer any shortage.
The
grapes matured very quickly and we began the harvest on 20 August
for the whites.
The weather remained incredibly fine throughout the harvest: it didn't
rain once! Unprecedented! We were therefore able to harvest each plot
at its optimum maturity, without hurrying and without taking any risks.
But
this dry weather did have one disadvantage: some mourvèdres,
which are very sensitive, reacted badly to the absence of rain and
therefore had to be partly eliminated. As a result, this year there
will be less mourvèdre in the blends, but this will not prevent
the wines from being quite remarkable and the vintage from being one
of the very best of the whole estate.
We
were really very lucky in 2007 and were able to break with the curse
of the years ending in 7; 1987-1997 (those that we experienced ourselves)
were bad or poor. 2007 will be excellent all round the Mediterranean.
But the year was so difficult for the other regions that we will have
to shout our difference from the rooftops, hoping that for once the
press do their job.
One
of our greatest satisfactions in 2007 was to observe, once again,
that the natural cultivation methods that have been in place for over
two decades now in order to preserve the biological condition of the
soils, increase the intensity and aromatic complexity of the wines.
Year
after year, vintage after vintage, we never cease to be amazed and
delighted by this.
Christophe
Delorme
