François Cazin, Cheverny, Touraine, on Nov. 23rd

Vintage 2009 is beautiful, despite some worries about finishing the alcoholic fermentation on two batches of Sauvignon blanc. At picking time, the potential alcohol was 13%, but after fermentation it is above 14%, so it is no surprise that the last grams of sugar are hard to transform: at any rate, I will keep about 5 grams of residual sugar in the wine to compensate the high alcohol. The malolactic fermentation has started on these vats this week, but, as usual and with some patience, we'll get to a finished wine.

Chardonnay is easier than normally, its fermentation is finishing, and it is very promising, it has fat, roundness and citrus aromas, grapefruit particularly.

Romorantin is also easy, the first vats of sec are done, and after racking they taste easy-going, not too much acidity and good balance. I think in 6 to 8 months we'll have interesting wines. Our crop for the old vines and the late harvest are still fermenting, no doubt those will be beautiful.

Our yields were better than the preceding vintages, with 40HL/HA for Cheverny white, 30 to 50HL/HA for Cour-Cheverny.

A great harvest of red grapes also, the Pinot noir are very pleasant, with structure and color, the Gamay are deeply colored and strong, I did 20-day macerations, yet the tannins are silky.

from the Thevenet Family's Vineyards in Clessé

Christine et Eric Nicolas, Domaine de Bellivière, Touraine, on Nov. 20th 2009

We are very happy with our 2009 harvest. Quality and, at last, quantity are both here!

We picked under excellent conditions, be it the weather or the human factor, our team was great.

Summer went quietly, without problems, especially without the threat of mildew. We started picking on Oct. 1st with our red grapes and finished with a white moëlleux on Oct. 29th. It's been a while since the harvest took so long!

Our red wines are now out of the vats and into barrels. This year for the first time we only partially destemmed, and for now the results are good, the wines are richer. But aging is only just beginning.

In white, we picked everything between 13 and 14.5%, and the wines are dry, except for a moëlleux of Coteaux-du-Loire for which we harvested botrytised grapes in several passes. There is already a lot of minerality, with good acidity and superb freshness.

That's it, the harvest done it is time to go and pick mushrooms, there is a record crop of porcini in our forests this fall.

The crop in Loir-et-Cher according to Catherine Roussel, Clos Roche Blanche

On Sept. 9th: We will start our harvest tomorrow, Sept. 10th. The spring was "rotten" (i.e. too rainy), and the grapes that survived mildew, black rot and other fungi enjoyed a dry, hot, sunny August. That good weather is still with us and we'll start under the sun.

PS: not one mushroom in sight, but I have made delicious blackberry jams (I cannot help it, I have to pick something wild!)

On Sept. 17th: We started on the 10th, as planned, with the sun. I wore flip-flops until the 15th, but yesterday I had to use my boots, there was morning dew, and today we had to stop, it rained all day.

We have picked the Sauvignon blanc, Gamay and Pineau d'Aunis (no red from Pineau, we had too few grapes.)

Yields are not what we were hoping for, but it's not dismal either.

Sauvignon: 25HL/HA, between 13 and 14 potential, 5g acidity

Gamay: 24Hl/HA, 13.5, 5.5g acidity

Pineau d'Aunis: 19HL/HA, 12.6, 4.8g acidity

It's a beautiful crop, there was no sorting necessary.

On Sept. 28th: We picked our Côt vines on Sept. 24th, under sunny skies but wearing boots in the morning because of the dew. The Côt is at 12.6 potential alcohol, 6g of acidity and a PH of 3.38. Since the weather is holding, we have decided to wait before picking the Cabernets.

PS: still no mushrooms, alas!
On Oct. 2nd: We finished picking on Thursday Sept. 30th with our Cabernets (12.6 potential, 5g acidity.) We were wearing shorts and flip-flops, the grapes were superb, with a yield of about 30HL/HA.

PS: now I'm on vacation, and still there are no mushrooms, whaaaaa!

Domaine de Souch, Yvonne Hegoburu

On Aug. 31st:

The year has been quite good here. We treated the vines with our infusions of nettles, horsetail and yarrow, and, in July only, with powder sulfur and bouillie bordelaise.

The weather is beautiful, the grapes are gaining ripeness and the weather forecast is good for all of September.

The yields are low and I believe the harvest is going to be good. For the first time, we are going to pick by parcel, and we truly think that our wines will improve, the sec particularly. Trust us!

The harvest will last until the end of November.

On Oct. 8th:

We are busy preparing the harvest. Last week we picked our vines of Courbu, a half hectare. The berries were tightly packed, and this is a variety that must be picked urgently the moment it is ripe.

Around the middle of October, we'll start our "real harvest", we pick with a small teams of passionate people, it will take a month and a half for our 6 hectares.

Right now, everything looks good, it is sunny, the wind blows from the South, it should be a great vintage.

Jean Maupertuis, St-Georges-es-Allier, Côtes d'Auvergne:

On Sept. 3rd:

Here I see the harvest from Sept. 20th until the first days of October. For now, no climactic accident, no disease, the spring was ideal, the summer warm with a few storms but no damage.

The grapes are healthy, and the maturation quite advanced, so I am expecting, like a good part of the vineyards in France, a good vintage following two "difficult" years. The harvest is still a while away, so more patience is needed.

On Nov. 3rd:

The harvest started on Sept. 18th and we finished mid-October under permanent sun and summery temperatures. It was a slow-going harvest because we had to sort the berries that insects had damaged, a result of the high temperatures (one is never satisfied with the weather!) Fermentations are reaching their end and I will rack at the end of this week.

The heast during and after the harvest did not create major problems, even if the malolactic fermentations often finished before the alcoholic one.

The view of vintage 2009 we get now is of high ripeness and low acidity, the wines should quickly become pleasant and easy to taste (they are so already). They won't be long lasting though, so I envision early bottlings in February or March. There has been a triple fermentation on the sparkling wine (Pink Bulles) which made the wine quite unstable, but with the cold already here and disgorgement at the end of the winter, everything will be fine

Alain Girard, Domaine Girard, Verdigny-en-Sancerre, Oct. 24th

The year's climate:

The winter was cold and relatively dry, April started with three weeks of higher temperatures than normal, and May was also warmer. June and July were right on the average, and after mid-August it got really hot. On May 7th and July 16th, storms brought destructive hail to our vines, other rain storms kept the humidity sufficient in the soil until véraison (change of color brought by ripening.) Mildew was the main problem all through the season, but the dry spell of August and September gave us very healthy grapes. The yields are, alas, the lowest of many past years.

Maturation:

The sugar content shot up quickly and ended pretty high, while the acidity levels remained good, thanks to cool nights in early September, and the drought conditions.

Harvest:

The official date was Sept. 21st in Sancerre. We started on Sept. 24th and ended on Oct. 6th. We had good balance of sugar and acidity in all our plots, and picking was comfortable, with dry warm days.

Vintage:

This is a year for the annals, with structure and vinosity. The whites have subdued, very fine aromas, mainly fruity, with mineral and floral notes underlined by fresh acidity. These are generous wines, with fat and body, even a touch of heat, and a lively finish.

Tom Lubbe from Caudiès de Fenouillères, August 30th

Three Trees, Domaine de Majas,

Our harvest is going to start around Sept. 3rd with our plots of Chardonnay, and we should finish around Oct. 6th for the last Carignans.

This year, the spring was quite wet, and the presence of mildew was important. But despite the humidity, flowering went well and rather quickly.

At the end of June, the weather took a turn for the better, with hot days (82.4 to 84.2) and cool nights (57.2 to 59): this is typical of our location, with a climate both mediterranean and continental, at an altitude of 350 m. (1,148 feet), with the Pyrenees mountains surrounding our valley of the Fenouillèdes with peaks up to 1200 m. (3,937 feet.)

August was particularly hot and dry (100.4F day, 68F night), and ripeness came quickly.

For our estate, yields are going to be about 20% less than in 2008, but the greater concentration promises a good vintage.

Gautier Thévenet, Domaines de Roally et de la Bongran, Clessé, Nov. 4th

In 2009, we had a "good" winter, cold and dry; an ideal spring, with a homogenous flowering; and a summer that deserved its name.

In all, the vines' seasonal cycle benefitted from very favorable conditions this year. As usual, we were meticulous about plowing, but we got some relief from disease, mildew and oïdium, compared with the two previous years. Before the harvest, the grapes were impeccably healthy and it was easy to wait for the best picking time to achieve a balance of ripeness and acidity.

We started our harvest on Sept. 23rd, about three weeks earlier than in 2008 and its so-so summer. Potential alcohol is as we expected, between 13.5 to 14%; and, surprise, on our plot Chazelle (see picture) potential degree climbed to 15%.

The weather was almost summery throughout the harvest, and we ended up with highly concentrated musts, with great balance. The paradis (new wine partially fermented) is so delicious, we can look forward to a wine of great complexity.

The fermentations are going without any problem, but because the must is so rich, we expect it to ferment for a long time, the only way to get to a balanced wine.

This is an exceptional vintage, the climactic conditions were almost perfect and the harvest ideal. A year of good news, with, on a personal note, the birth of my daughter Ysé, in February.

Sophie and Pierre Larmandier, Vertus

2009 : A hot vintage. After early bud burst, the vines grew rapidly and flowering started at the very beginning of June. But it dragged on until the 15th, causing both coulure and millerandage.

There was rain every week from May to July, with Cramant and Avize getting more of it than Vertus. This humidity, accompanied by mild temperatures, brought about an invasion of mildew that we strove to keep under control. It also opened the door to grapeworms, and they really feasted on our wonderful grapes!

You will have understood: no water stress, a fine development of the vines, beautiful foliage. Then the weather was warm and dry, from August to October, which favoured concentration and the maturity of the grapes.

We chose to harvest from September 14th to 26th. In the sun and in the heat, we handpicked sweet, golden, but not very juicy grapes. For us, 2009 was a good but small harvest, just what we needed to make fine Champagne, and even a few casks of Vertus Rouge.

Yet another great vintage that lives up to the reputation of those fine, hot years ending in 9…