Vacqueyras’ Promising 2013s and Ready to Drink 2012s

The 2013 Growing Season

Broadly speaking, the 2013 growing season in Vacqueyras mirrored conditions in neighboring Gigondas, which meant a cold start to the growing season, with a meager flowering not occurring until the middle of June. The fruit ripened very slowly through a cool and mostly dry summer, leading to an extremely late harvest featuring much less fruit than normal. Picking occurred in cool weather and thus the harvest proceeded at a leisurely pace, with ample time for picking carefully—and for eliminating sub-par fruit when it arrived at the winery. While that was bad news for quantity, it turned out to be good news for quality, as the grapes - assuming they were allowed to hang on the vine long enough - could be picked at optimal ripeness and with healthy natural acidity.

One interesting factor in the 2013 equation in Vacqueyras is that all varieties achieved ripeness at almost the same time. Thus many estates were able to carry out their harvests in a long, continuous sweep—as opposed to the normal start-stop-start process required when the early-maturing Grenache is picked well before the other varieties ripen.