Understanding Wine Vintages and The Pending 2022 Burgundy Release
How To Understand Different Wine Vintages: The term "vintage" is often used in relation to wine and many other things too, but it’s not always well understood. Does it simply mean old, or does it refer to good quality, or the best of something? In its own way, it can mean all of these things. Continue »
Mar 29, 2024 at 3:49 PM
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A Look Back To The 2017 Vintage
The 2017 harvest in Burgundy was a story of better fortunes and welcome relief from the trials and tribulations experienced the previous year. It’s true that wine-growing Europe suffered widespread spring frosts in 2017 which seriously affected producers—but for once, they were generally not Burgundy producers. Continue »
Dec 21, 2023 at 6:00 PM
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A Look Back at Our 2016 Vintage Report
If it sometimes seems like the life of a winemaker in Burgundy is a constant diet of sunshine, warm days in the field and effortlessly great wines, then years like 2016 exist to remind us that this isn’t so. Sometimes, it’s hard – brutally hard. You may not know if you’ll be left with any wine at all at the end of it. So if your first taste of the 2016 vintage... Continue »
Sep 13, 2023 at 2:15 PM
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Vintage Memories – the 2013 Campaign and Wines You Can Still Try
It was a small crop that Burgundy wine makers managed to gather in 2013, the fourth in as many years. Fortunes were split, as they often are; some of the wines were destined for great things, but for many it was a disastrous year. The locals call the weather conditions in a growing season ‘the campaign’ – which tells you a lot about the almost war-like mindset with which it’s approached. Continue »
Sep 28, 2022 at 5:35 PM
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Looking Back on 2018’s Astonishing Harvest
2018 marked an impressive milestone for winemaker Michel Arcelain. Astonishingly it was his 68th Burgundy grape harvest, and he was all smiles. He told us that in all the years he’d been harvesting here, he’d never known a year like 2018. Quite a statement! Continue »
Jun 24, 2022 at 5:15 PM
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Harvest 2021 – reaping mixed rewards from a difficult year
The winds of change are blowing once more through Burgundy’s rolling countryside. At this time of year—summed up by the poet John Keats as being one of ‘mists and mellow fruitfulness’—thoughts turn from the bright colors and heat of summer to the more subdued hues of Fall and a return indoors. Here, by roaring fireside we contemplate the year just gone, and begin to look to the one ahead. Change is the only constant in nature, and for the winemakers of this region it means harvesting those precious grapes that they have worked so hard to protect, over what has been one of the toughest years ever for Burgundy producers. Continue »
Oct 19, 2021 at 11:31 AM
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BURGUNDY 2015 VINTAGE REPORT
We have resisted writing the Elden Selections Burgundy 2015 harvest report until now (May 2017), mainly to let the hub-bub and hyperbole settle down, but more importantly to be sure that the claims we are about to make are justified. We’ve seen too many vintages vau... Continue »
May 12, 2017 at 2:35 PM
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Burgundy 2013
Burgundy 2013 was yet another small crop. The fourth in as many years. Some of it will be very good, in both red and white. But for some producers it was a disaster. As we always do, let’s start with a run-down of the weather conditions over the growing season (what the locals tellingly call ‘th... Continue »
Aug 1, 2014 at 3:03 PM
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Burgundy 2014: Early July
They always say not to count your chickens. And last week the aphorism hung heavy in the air. The violent hail storms that once again ravaged Burgundy, and pulverized (for the third consecutive year) the vines of Pommard and Volnay, broke the spirit of the region. Until then, a mood of optimism had Continue »
Jul 1, 2014 at 3:13 PM
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What a Surprise – Vintage 2012
Here in Burgundy last year at this time, the mood was dour. We were in the middle of a four month period of rain and miserable cold. Hail storms had machine-gunned huge swaths of the Côte de Beaune. And the threat of rot dangled over the vineyards.... Continue »
Jul 1, 2013 at 3:16 PM
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