SOUTHERN RHÔNE 2016
"For those of us responsible for following each vintage coming out of France (that’s all of us, right?) the 2016 vintage started out with a fair amount of uncertainty following the intense frosts the northern half of the country experienced…Chablis and the Loire Valley in particular. The frosts were particularly intense because of how unseasonably humid it was in the north in early spring, following a very mild winter. The Southern Rhône experienced a similarly warm winter (only ONE day of below-freezing temperature!) but the late winter and early spring were very dry and even though bud-break was a little early, it arrived under great conditions. The early bud-break did not lead to any kind of extreme advancing of flowering because practically no rain had fallen since mid-January, which continued through early June. These dry conditions slowed the vine’s development and allowed the vineyards to catch their breath a bit. When flowering did arrive, there was a bit of Shatter experienced by the old-vine Grenache. This is has become common and in 2016 the Shatter was considered the equivalent of an early green harvest, unlike the massive Shatter seen in 2013 and 2015 where most domaines saw 30-40% drops in production. No, 2016 in the Southern Rhône seemed to get just what it needed at every turn to produce a truly memorable vintage. After flowering, the dry conditions persisted through August with a couple of timely rainfalls (12mm in June and 15 mm in late July), paired with regular spells of Mistral and very warm temperatures. Leading up to the harvest in early September 2016 was shaping up to be a thing of beauty with a good amount of bountiful, healthy bunches on the vine. As long as the phenolic maturities could become unblocked by a nice rain, this harvest would go down as one any vigneron would sign up for each and every year! Sure enough, after the earlier-maturing vineyards and most of the white varietals were picked between September 8-13, a welcome 45mm of rain came down on September 14th and pushed the blocked vines through to the finish. With the forecast allowing most teams to allow the vines to hang a few days longer under ideal conditions, the real harvest got underway around September 18th and 19th and finished by October 1st. The resulting wines are a touch deeper in color than the 2015s, carry a little more cassis where the ‘15s or ‘14s were more kirsch-driven and possess slightly softer tanins thanks to superb acidity levels [THANK YOU MISTRAL!] and there was roughly 20% more wine produced than in the previous vintages. To recap…no frost…no hail…no rot…limited shatter…timely rain...ideal conditions...just about the only region in France to avoid all of the big threats. In a nutshell…all eyes are on the Southern Rhône for the 2016 vintage. We hope you enjoy the wines as much as we enjoyed tracking the vintage over the course of the year!" Alain & John Junguenet