Enological: this is how the 2018 vintage will be.
For us wine producers, the current vintage is always the best (logically, we don’t have much else to offer at the moment). But crying is like people – to judge them solely on the basis of their presence would be unfair. Out of sight out of mind, respectively out of the bottle over the palate, and the noble drink is forgotten.
To subordinate the wine to sales pressure alone and to describe it accordingly can dull the enjoyment of wine and presents us with problems. This would be similar to the health warning on cigarette packs and should warn us to exercise restraint. In fact, we recommend just the opposite: it is always worthwhile to have a few vintages of a wine in the cellar. Wine enjoyment is a sustainable story and may be repeated with confidence. Because the noblest of all drinks must be confirmed as such again and again.
In this introduction to the 2018 vintage, the wonderful world of wine is revealed in all its complexity: humanity, nature, pleasure, economy, quality, thoughts of the future, discontinuity – we find all this and much more in a drop of wine. How was the 15 Rhone Blood®? How does the 18 present itself? Can anything be said about the 19 yet? The current vintage can not be without classification in
the previous years and the future expectation can be evaluated. To cut a long story short: The 18 will be radiantly elegant. Santé.
Admittedly, that’s a bit of a short description. A vintage as beautiful as the ’18 deserves a few more words. The years 2015 to 2017 were characterized by small, concentrated harvests, dense and scarce. In 2018, there was once again a satisfactory amount, also in terms of quality. No wonder, because the 2018 vintage was an exceptional year: enough precipitation in the winter, which soaked the soils well. Budding happened at the right time, without fear of frost nights, which, fortunately, had already passed. A dry flowering period, the bones have made the transition to the grape without any problems. A warm summer, beautiful foliage walls that allowed excellent sugar storage in the grapes. Wonderfully ripe and healthy grapes in autumn, ideal conditions for a beautiful wine. And now they are here, these exceptional wines from the 18 harvest.
The red wines are fresh fruity, with a beautiful elegance, with good drinking flow. Slight spicy notes appear, varying from variety to variety. The white wines of Valais are a worldwide insider tip for lovers of exotic aromas, paired with Valaisan down-to-earthness. It shows stone fruits (apricot, peach) on the nose, white flowers, freshness, good in alcohol without being intrusive. Here, too, the expression varies from grape variety to grape variety. (Amédée’s tip: Aphrodine® and Pinot blanc.) Our family wine, the Rhoneblut®, shows a beautiful red berry nose followed by fresh red berries (currants, sour cherries, strawberries), a pleasant and persistent viscosity in the mouth.
The Valais specialties live up to the term specialty. These are not everyday wines. Their enjoyment is not hurried, a little storage will help them gain even more character.
We have discreetly complemented the Amphore® blanc with Lafnetscha. However, it will certainly be another two years before his crop of 18 is bottled. Vinum-Lignum® wines have been resting in specially made barriques since the harvest. Patience is also required here. In about a year we can enjoy these delicacies. About the Domaine de Ravoire®: The grapes arrived at our winery from the Domaine de Ravoire in good condition and in excellent quality. At the moment, the different grape varieties from Ravoire are still stored in their fine barriques. The shareholders of Domaine de Ravoire will find at the end of August wonderful base wines for the assemblage of Domaine de Ravoire® white and red.
And finally, a chat from the sewing box: We have started a K-I-B project. This stands for Kvevri-Inox-Barrique, same grape variety, same vineyard, same cellar, but different containers. The wines should be ready for Christmas 2019. Let us surprise you.
