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PFV Members 2000 VINTAGE REPORT - Part 1,

    A first report on the Vintage 2000 from PFV members :
  • Marchesi Antinori - Tuscany: The favourable weather patterns at the beginning of spring favoured an early budding of about one week for the various varieties.
    All through the spring we had excellent weather, warm temperatures and the right amount of rain, resulting in excellent flowering and the relative vegetal cycle. This optimal vegetative balance of the vines resulted in start of ripening between the end of July and the beginning of August, about 7 to 10 days earlier than usual.
    The excessive heat wave around mid August, lasting only a week, did not slow down maturation, and the first grapes gathered showed immediate promise of an excellent vintage. Due to the early ripening of the grapes, we began to select and thin just after mid-August, so as to eliminate any eventual excessive production. In conclusion, the early harvest coupled with a rainless period of picking allowed us to bring in excellent mature grapes.
  • Joseph Drouhin - Burgundy: The Reds have a pretty colour, more intense in fact than last month. They show some nice fruit and have a lighter structure than the 1999's. The malolactic fermentation has already started, making these wines more complex and refined. The Grand Crus of our Domaine show great promise.
    The Whites of the Côte d'Or are now very seductive : well-balanced and elegant, they too should greatly improve as the malolactic gets under way.
    In Chablis, nature was for once very generous : no frost or hail during the year, the yields are therefore quite high. In our Domaine (35 hectares - 88 acres), the green harvest was even more drastic than usual in order to enhance quality. From the Chablis village appellation to the Grand Crus, we are most satisfied with these wines. They are typical of the appellation, with good acidity and mineral flavours. These wines have a lot of charm : they should be pleasant to drink early, in the bloom of their youth.
  • Hugel & Fils – Alsace: All producers in the wine world must have dreamed of a memorable vintage that would bear the magic 2000 number.Y2K in Alsace will be one of the best in recent years, with normal volumes and very good general levels of ripeness for all varieties. All year the weather has had ups and downs ; after early bud-break, a very hot May and June, a very cool month of July, warm and sunny weather returned in August and early September. Mixed weather followed until the harvest but luckily the early part of the harvest took place in dry conditions.
    The harvest of the "HUGEL" estate began earlier than normal, on September 25 as we were concerned with excess levels of ripeness in Pinot Gris in particular for the production of our Jubilee range. We started harvesting our very sound Pinot Noir with 13,5° potential and yields of 29,5 hl/ha. Once again, we did not regret the green harvest carried out in the majority of our vineyards in July. Throughout our entire harvest the weather remained uncertain with some periods of light rains but the overall results are above all our expectations with small quantities of SGN that will long be remembered.
  • Château Mouton Rothschild – Bordeaux:
    2000: A VERY HIGH-QUALITY VINTAGE. Early assessments of the harvest for Châteaux Mouton Rothschild, Clerc Milon and d'Armailhac and for Aile d'Argent indicate that 2000 will be a very high-quality vintage. White grape varieties were harvested from 11 to 20 September.
    For the reds, Merlot and Cabernet Franc were picked from 22 to 29 September, Cabernet Sauvignon from 2 to 6 October. The grapes were harvested at ideal maturity and in perfect condition. The crop was relatively small, helping to ensure a remarkable vintage.
  • Symington – Port: The mild and exceptionally dry winter of 2000 led to early bud burst. However, cool and wet weather set in during April and the rain persisted into May which registered three times the normal average rainfall for that month. This slowed down vine development and flowering was delayed to mid May. Flowering took place under the most adverse conditions and the scene was set for a very small vintage.
    Good weather followed, but even so veraison was later than usual and was only completed in late July. August brought some refreshing rain on the 23rd and 26th, followed by very hot weather up until the start of the vintage.
    It has been many years since so many of the quality indicators have been present in any one year. Namely the excellent fruit quality; high sugar readings; ideal weather throughout picking; very low yields; purple colours already apparent from the beginning of fermentation; wonderful aromas from the musts and the low juice to skin ratio. The wines are showing tremendous promise, with intense berry fruit aromas and full-bodied structure, which at this early stage is an excellent sign.
  • Torres – Penedes : The grapes have been maturing slowly, calmly, thanks to cool and sunny weather conditions, and we have been harvesting unhurriedly within what we could consider our habitual rhythm: Cabernet and Garnacha as of the 24th September and Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Parellada as of the beginning of October.
    As far as global quantity, this has come in between 5-10% below last year's total, depending principally on the type of soils and their capacity to retain moisture. New software developed by our technicians has allowed us to obtain an efficient control of our grapes maturity. Every day, teams of technicians visited various locations in our vineyards and analysed, in situ, the º Brix, the texture of the grapes and the pH levels. This data was entered via a portable computer so that our Director of Viticulture and our Technical Director could evaluate the evolution of the harvest and make appropriate decisions. Apart from controlling our vineyards we have also made exhaustive efforts to monitor the crop bought in over the last 20 years and separate it from the general harvest entries.


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