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Last month I reported on the success of the wine harvests in Barbaresco and Barolo and how the wine growers in Alsace and Franconia were extremely happy with the quality of the grapes they were about to harvest. We now hear that the Bordeaux harvest was the best in 30 years and that the Burgundy harvest was the best since 2005 and may even equal it. Global warming or not, grapes in these northerly production areas are ripening earlier and earlier and to a very high level.
2009, then, seems a good year for Old World wines. And for New World wines in our home state of Indiana. In our video looking ahead to the 2009 harvest, Jim Butler predicted one of his largest harvests ever in spite of some rather difficult weather conditions throughout the growing season.
At harvest time, however, Jim could report that after that cool, wet summer causing the grapes to develop behind schedule, “three weeks before harvest the sun came out. We had temperatures in the mid 80s with no rain and managed to get the grapes ripened.”
Last week, Jim reported the “fermentations were done and the wines appear promising. We squeaked by on this one!”
“Overall it looks like a very good vintage,” said Bruce Bordelon of Purdue University. Bruce is Professor and Extension Specialist for Viticulture and Small Fruit and was assessing the 2009 Indiana harvest. He called the year “challenging” because of severe cold in late winter, a delayed spring with plenty of rain followed by a cool summer. “But, with a very dry August and September across most of the state, and great temperatures (80s high, 50s low), fruit quality was excellent and growers were able to let fruit hang until flavors developed.”
Pruning and shoot thinning schedules had to be adjusted, but most growers achieved the crop load they needed. Based on what we know now, we should be finding more very good Indiana wines in the market place when the 2009 vintage is bottled and released.