2014 Vosne-Romanée Village

"The 2014 growing season was bizarre in the sense that there were a lot of ups and downs," said Jean-Nicolas Méo in November."We had a rainy August until the 25th, and then good weather until September 19. The grape sugars accumulated very slowly. In fact, during the last week, nothing much happened to the sugars, perhaps due to vineyard stress from such a changeable year." It was a bit similar to Oregon in 2015, added Méo, who is involved in a new project there.

Méo began harvesting on September 12, "slightly earlier than we had originally planned," owing in part to the growing incidence of Drosophila Suzukii. (The team did two passes through the vines to drop fruit that was affected by acid rot. ) Although he had also carried out some green harvesting, he still brought in a sizable crop: about 20% higher than normal, whereas the previous four vintage were 5% to 25% lower than average."I wasn't wild with the 2014s at the start but today I'm very pleased with the wines," he summarized."It's an easygoing vintage but some wines are more serious than you would think." Incidentally, a few of Méo's négociant bottlings are likely to include some estate fruit in 2014.