To Plan For: The 2015 Vintage

Saturday evening, August 8, 2015

     It rained from early morning through the day and has not stopped yet.  Beau and I did a hike up to the marble quarry and extended the walk to go as far as Citou a village in the mountains before turning back because of the coming rain.  Tomorrow more of the same is expected.

     Besides the coolness, there is another reason to be glad about the raindrops.  If we have a few more days like this, the 2015 vintages in most of France will be as exceptional as those of 2009.  The first part of the summer was very hot and dry, perfect conditions for the development of the wine grapes.  The cool weather now preserves the juices in matured grapes which will be extracted in a few weeks.  If the summer goes well for the vignerons, in these last weeks before the harvest, the juices will reach their maximum flavor.  If there is no further rain, but instead sun, it will not be as good a year as 2009.

     For those of you who would take the opportunity to buy French wine in an exceptional year, stay tuned to the weather reports and the associated reports filed by those who follow the French wine market.  If it is an exceptional year, in the United States it is possible to buy Bordeaux wine "futures" through Sherry-Lehman in New York City.

     What buying futures amounts to is agreeing to purchase three cases of wine to be delivered to Sherry-Lehman in two years.  Sherry-Lehman has offered storage of the wine in their cellars for an additional year as part of the purchase price.  This amounts to a very decent saving on the per bottle price of a Bordeaux.  For instance, bottles Bill and I bought in 2006 (which we took possession of in 2009) ran about $25/a bottle, rather than the $45 each would have cost had we bought the individual 2009 bottles at Sherry Lehman when they became available.  If you like Bordeaux, it's a way of laying down bottles without paying too much.

     The wine from 2009 now?  Not comparable to an Haut-Brion of the same year, but exceptional in comparison to Bordeaux from other years in the same category, for which you might pay much more because its French and its what your wine merchant has available.