Burgundy Vintage 2007
Author: Jasper Morris MW
The vintage is early but will it be good?
We took these pictures of his grapes on June 16th this year to compare with the same pic on the same day a year earlier.
The beautiful April weather got the vine cycle off to a great start, but since then the weather has been almost as indifferent as in the UK. Picking started in late August and is going on this week – I shall be scouting around to look at the grapes as they come in and will report back.
I can’t wait to try the offerings from this vintage. I’ve had some great Burgundy in the past including your Chablis Seguinot Bordet from last year so I can only hum and wait to try this!
Great job on the blog too – what a perfect way to keep up to date with all the latest news!!
Thanks Mark for your enthusiasm.
Harvesting is pretty much finished now. The big week was that of 3rd September but those who held off until this week were able to pick in glorious sunshine. The chardonnay really needed the extra time as this year it was much slower than the pinot to ripen.
I spent this morning picking Le Montrachet with Donminique Lafon and his team, Glorious golden grapes at perfect maturity! I tried not to eat too many as we only get a couple of cases of this wine.
Jasper, Is that the equivelent of name dropping………letting us know that you were eating grapes that were destined to to make La Montrachet!
So have you an early opinion of the 2007 white burgundies, I am sure you do, the question was really do you want to share it with me?
Certainly was name dropping. And in fact the pickers were rewarded with a sip or two of 1993 and 1998 Le Montrachet at the end of the morning. Half a day picking is quite enough for me as the average height of pickers is about 5 ft 6 and I am 6 ft 5! Montrachet vines are no higher off the ground than any others in Burgundy.
2007 could be very exciting for white Burgundy – provided growers had the patience to wait long enough before they picked. The pinot vines were pretty much ready by the end of August but the chardonnays, though healthy, were clearly not yet ripe and the leaves were still green enough and vigorous enough to be doing their job of photosynthesis.
Both Dominique Lafon and Jean-Philippe Fichet, having picked their reds and tried a white vineyard at the beginning of September, stopped until the week beginning Monday 10th before attacking the bulk of their Meursaults – and the weather was perfect all week, with crystal clear blue skies and a cool drying wind. There was much less acidity in the grapes, more sugar and above all much more taste.
It was as crucial to hold back in 2007 as it was not to delay in 2006 !
Jasper