50 Shades of Grape

Harvest in the Northern Hemisphere spans the autumn months from August to November.

Early ripening grapes such as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are picked first, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah follow, and grapes for late harvest wines such as Furmint for Tokaj are picked last.

In northern vineyards yields are up by as much as 20%. The Champagne producers union declared that the harvest was "an absolute record in terms of volume". English vineyards are reporting bumper crops. In Veneto, the northern Italian region best known for Prosecco, volumes are up by 5%.

By contrast southern European vineyards are struggling Italy and Spain will produce their smallest vintages in six years. Drought and high temperatures throughout the grape-growing cycle hurt many vineyards.

The production of quality wines will be possible, but it will depend on the work carried out in the vineyard and the cellar.

In Languedoc-Rousillon the harvest started on 2nd August (a day earlier than 2022). Growers picked plot by plot, carefully measuring ripeness and acidity levels as they went. For those who could nuture their vines to full maturity and retain aciditiy, the vintage has the potential for great quality.

Conditions at Domaine Les Caizergues made for a tough year. It started with extraordinarily dry conditions and groundwater at the lowest level for many years. The drought conditions worsened through spring Rain arrived in May and torrential downpours defined June and July, creating less than ideal conditions.

"Rain in early summer provides the conditions for diseases such as mildew to flourish," explained owner Bob Middleton, "this year disease hit the vines harder than ever".

As an organic producer treating diseases can be difficult, Bob revealed, "some farmers had lost their crop by the end of June and just gave up."

Thankfully he held on and August saw a return to more Mediterranean weather.

Bob described how they got the best from the harvest, "some vines produced crops of wonderful, perfect grapes, others were riddled with disease. Careful selection was paramount. We hand-picked and selected as we went. We've produced quality wines, though it is not a harvest we'd choose to repeat!"

And then, a little magic, a bit of luck, a few millimetres of rain, and everyone was breathing again...

Further north, in the hills of Morgon, Dominique Piron drew upon fifteen generations of experience His description of the vintage was typically romantic, ?the grapes were very healthy, but multi-faceted Some were chubby and bursting with sunshine Some had lost part of their fruit due to hail Some, on lighter hillside soils, wrinkled from lack of water, were highly concentrated . A week before the harvest, we watched helplessly under a blazing sun and cloudless blue sky as the vines dried out.

"And then, a little magic, a bit of luck, a few millimetres of rain, and everyone was breathing again, people and vines alike!"

In Chapelle-de-Guinchay the harvest began on 8th September. "The summer was a scorcher," exclaimed Cecile Dardanelli of Domaine bel Avenir.

"To keep the grapes as fresh as possible we started picking at 6.30am each morning, luckily the grapes remained very healthy right up to the end". Cecile is working to get her Beaujolais Nouveau ready for the annual celebration on 16 November Tasting the wine from a tank, she shared her thoughts, "the vintage dances around your glass It wears a pretty ruby dress, there is harmony and complexity, and it is easy to drink".

Even in England, where newspapers have relished reports of bumper harvests, the story is one of careful selection.

Spring provided perfect flowering weather, no late frost, and 100%fruit set Rain irrigated vineyards ensuring nicely fattened grapes. In most vineyards harvest started at the end of September.

Paddy Gaunt from Sandridge Barton boasted of all-time high tonnage "But," he warned, "quantity does not guarantee quality. Sugar was low and acidity high. 2023 is more typically British than, say, the super-ripe 2022 vintage". This led to difficult decisions for the winery team Paddy explained that insufficient ripeness means there will be no red wine made at Sandridge Barton this year.

Peter Hall, the veteran maverick winemaker from Breaky Bottom, started his harvest a month later than any other English vineyard. Sitting in his cellar I asked him whether he thought other English winemakers had harvested too early. Magnanimously, he reasoned that scale made organising pickers more difficult. Then, he cast a mischievous eye over bottles spanning 50 years of winemaking. Landing on a bottle from the better forgotten 2011 vintage, he poured a glass, sipped, and said simply, "now, isn't that a good wine?"

The true measure of a winemaker is how they perform in a difficult year.

For your first taste of the 2023 vintage, Domaine bel Avenir Beaujolais Nouveau and Sharpham New Release are both available to order online, with delivery on 16 November aka Beaujolais Nouveau Day.