France in general did a good harvest in 2018, both in volume and in quality. The Ministry of Agriculture has just published figures for the different regions. Total production was 46.6 million hectolitres, which is 26% higher than 2017, a year affected by both frost and drought that dramatically reduced the size of the harvest. […]
When some people think about machine harvesting, they often imagine big monsters that brutalize the vineyard. It is true that harvesting machines are often big machines, but they can be quite gentle to both grapes and vines. And soon there will be on the market a tiny harvesting machine, suitable for the small producer and […]
It has been a hot summer in France, but the growing conditions have not been easy everywhere. Alban Rabasa, assistant winemaker at Château Vaudieu in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, says that 2018 is une année du vigneron, which means that the wine maker’s skill may determine the quality of the wine. “With a lot of rain in the […]
During our visit to South Africa at the beginning of March, the harvest was in full swing. The very difficult, and prolonged, drought in the wine regions of the Western Cape affects the grapes of course. But most of the producers we met told us that although the volume in most places will be small […]
There is a severe water shortage at the moment in South Africa’s wine regions. The harvest 2018 will probably be the smallest in ten years. The South Africans begin picking their grapes in February. The irrigation dams in Western Cape, where most of the wine regions are located, are just 30 % full compared to […]
“2017 will go down in history as a very complicated vintage for more or less all French wine regions,” says Graham Nutter in Minervois. He contacted us to tell us a little bit about what happened at his Domaine St. Jacques d’Albas during the year. It all started well, which he was happy about because […]
We have received a harvest report from California that says that 2017 will be a very good vintage. The fires in October have not affected the quality of the wines. Napa Valley, Sonoma and Mendocino were worst affected by the fires. These three regions grow only 12% of California grapes and 85-90% of the grapes […]
Where do all the harvest workers come from? This is a question we are often asked on our wine tours. Even though harvesting machines are being used more and more, still perhaps 40% of all grapes are still harvested by hand (the exact number is hard to know). And in Champagne it’s 100%. It is […]
It is much debated (albeit less and less) whether global warming is a real phenomenon or not. I saw an interesting illustration of how the harvest dates have evolved in different wine regions in France since 1950. The figure came from Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE) and is taken from a report entitled Key Figures […]
There is a lot of talk about the very small harvest volume that we will get this year, even here at BKWine Magazine, Record-breaking small wine harvest in France. But in Burgundy they expect to bring in an unusually big harvest! It shows clearly how different weather conditions can be very local and hit very […]
It is perhaps excessive to call it disaster, but also the Italian harvest (like the French harvest) is expected to be extremely small this year. The Italian oenologist association predicts that Italy will harvest 41 million hectolitres. This is a decline with 24% (!) compared to 2016 (54 M hl). Last year, however, gave a […]
Already today it is quite clear how big the wine harvest will be this year, with quite a lot of certainty. It will be small. The harvest is also very early. In some places it has already begun, the earliest picker started on August 10, but in most wine regions it will be a bit […]
The harvest is in full swing, at the time of writing, in the southern Rhone Valley – it will be over by the time you read this – and the growers are very happy. “I have rarely seen so fine and healthy grapes,” says Bernard Duseigneur at Domaine Duseigneur, a domain with vineyards on both […]
Facts and myths about hand and machine picking Let’s start with clearing up one of the basic misconceptions. It is not true that manual harvest is better than mechanical harvest. However, manual harvest can sometimes be better than mechanical harvest. But the opposite is also true: Mechanical harvest can be better than manual harvest. Sometimes. […]
Overall it has been a very good year in France. We have seen many happy faces in the vineyards. But nothing is perfect and some regions have had problems. Burgundy: Very high quality. Early flowering, very hot and dry summer and the rain that came in August were much needed. No diseases and the producers […]
2015 has so far been a good year for the Chilean wines. The harvest was a record-high 12.86 million hectolitres. It’s a good recovery from last year’s very low figure. It is even a bit higher than the previous record year, 2012. Chilean export of wines in bottle is also doing well, with growth both […]
The summer has been nice and warm in France, not least in the wine regions. So the harvest is early this year. In Languedoc they picked the first grapes already on the 7th of August. In Champagne, the harvest will probably start on September 7. The French Ministry of Agriculture estimates that the grape harvest […]
The harvest in South Africa began early this year. The growing season was dry and the producers had very little problems with diseases and rot. They could harvest beautiful and healthy grapes. Most of them are pleased with both the quality and the quantity. There are even voices saying that this will be an exceptional […]
While spring is at its finest in France, the well-known producer Catena Zapata on the other side of the globe, in Mendoza in Argentina, has compiled a harvest report for 2015. In Mendoza they call 2015 a Bordeaux-year. The summer was cool, autumn brought some rain and the result was generally low alcohol levels and […]
The beautiful summer in Sweden this year has given the Swedish wine growers a long-awaited perfect harvest. Lauri Pappinen at Gutevin announces that he has picked around 7000 kilos of grapes from his vineyards around Näsudden in the south west part of the island of Gotland. This is the best harvest ever experienced at Näsudden. […]
Difficult year saved somewhat by nice autumn weather to give good quality but low quantity It has been a difficult 2014 in Austria, as in many other parts of Europe. A poor summer, with sometimes very awful weather, has made life difficult for wine growers in Austria (as well as elsewhere in Europe). But also […]
The harvesting machine today replaces hand harvesting in many places around the world. And harvesting machines are not only for simple wines. Small, efficient and gentle machines are also seen in densely planted vineyards where the grapes end up in prestigious wines. More and more grapes are harvested with machine. Today it is around 60%. […]
It is now a few years since I had the opportunity to visit Austria. That is sad because Austria is a wonderful wine country. Lovely whites from the famous grüner veltliner, robust and sometimes elegant reds from the Austrian signature varieties of zweigelt, blaufränkisch and sankt laurent. But you can also find more internationally well-known […]
In Champagne everything is harvested by hand in order not to risk that the must is coloured by the blue (red) grapes. But last year discuss begun about the possibility of introducing machine harvest in the region. The reason was that the government greatly increased employer contributions for seasonal workers. But the problem is that […]
It seems that the wine harvest in Austria was a difficult one but that in the end it can give some good wines, albeit with high acidity (good ageing potential?), and some excellent sweet wines. We have not been in Austria this year, unfortunately, so we cannot give you our own impressions. We have previously […]
In the last issue of The Brief we wrote about our own impressions of this year’s harvest around Europe. We have the privilege to actually be on site in many of the wine regions and see for ourselves what is happening. But it’s also interesting to hear the “official line” from different regions. Germany has […]
It seems that the wine harvest in Austria was a difficult one but that in the end it can give some good wines, albeit with high acidity (good aging potential?), and some excellent sweet wines. We have not been in Austria this year, unfortunately, so we cannot give you our own impressions. We have previously […]
We are fortunate to have the opportunity to travel around to many of the European wine regions at harvest time, thanks to our many wine tours. It gives us a unique opportunity to get a feeling for how the harvest is and plenty of opportunities to discuss with the wine growers. Here is a short […]
In the last issue of The Brief (did you get it?), we wrote about our impressions of this year’s harvest around Europe. We have the privilege to actually be on site in many of the wine regions and see for ourselves what is happening. But it’s also interesting to hear the “official line” from different […]
Champagne has now decided how many kilos of grapes that growers will be allowed to pick this fall. Champagne differs from other districts in France when it comes to determining the yield. In Champagne they make an assessment every year of how the market looks and based on that they decide how much champagne they […]
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