Winter was 79%; Spring 59% and December only 17% of average. The system works for consumers when the vintage is good, like 2016, because huge worldwide demand means that buyers get a chance to buy wines before the wines sell out or prices escalate. No matter your wine knowledge, we've got the accessories to improve your wine journey. But before it goes, let’s take a look at what happened in the world of wine this year. Harvest for Burnt Bridge Cellars began on August 30 (Merlot) and our last pick was October 13 (Cabernet) - so it lasted nearly two-and-a-half months. Seamless season of heavenly hangtime and phenomenal phenolic developmentFebruary saw abundant rains, followed by lots of filtered light in spring and early summer. Wine Harvest Report 2016: A Year of Challenges and Rewards in the Rhône Valley Both North and South produced promising wines this year, thanks to a summer that stretched into fall Workers bring in Grenache at Château St.-Cosme in Gigondas. The resulting drier soils, combined … It means that also 2016 vintage was excellent for us; for the composition of the grapes there was a high sugar content, good acidity and a particular richness in … MAIN Wine Wine Vintage Guides. Duh. Read Amanda Barnes' early round-up of the 2016 wine harvests in key regions across North America. This wine, though, is aromatic and pretty, more like the flower garden where one finds the porcupine. The one thing that is certain is that there will be much less wine in 2017 than in a normal year. The best Médoc red wines since 2010 as a general rule, although several estates also produced excellent 2015s, especially in Margaux and southern parts of Médoc and Left Bank in general. Grape pomace is the stuff leftover after the wine is made and it includes the skins and seeds of grapes. Was 2016 a good year for wine?In a word, YES! The e-commerce site eBay launched a wine portal. Here are some of the highlights: A winery in SF called Ava Winery made a 100% synthetic Moscato using the building blocks of wine: water, ethanol, amino acids, and aroma compounds. A group of Master Sommeliers was tested and they appear to have a much thicker zone in the part of the brain associated with smells and memory. A warm year gave structured and balanced reds. A blue wine was created in Spain this year using anthocyanin-based dyes (the same pigment in wine grapes). @WineFolly, study is particularly exciting for viticultural scientists, wine will increase your happiness by 10.79 points, April fool’s post about vines in outer space. A guest had ordered a bottle of ‘07 Napa Cabernet ($70) from my wine list (that’s right, in case you didn’t know, I run a restaurant/wine bar). Clean fruit typical of the 2016 harvest. The 2016 Growing Season & Wines As it happens, microbes turn out to be one of the key indicators of terroir in wine! Even though there are only 80 acres planted so far, the region is on the up and up. Well, now it’s the end of December and 2016 is about to be a not-too-distant memory. Was 2016 a good year for wine?In a word, YES! The China wine import business grew by 20%. Idaho had a big win this year with the creation of the Lewis-Clark Valley AVA. At Wine Enthusiast, we call it “classic.”Wines that sing. Many say quality matched 2015, but add that 2016 is different in style. In 2016 there were 13,652 hectares of vineyards in Barossa and 64,362 tonnes of wine grapes were crushed in that vintage. It's always a challenge to plan picks from a couple hundred miles away from the vineyard. This year, a former professor of pulmonary medicine has developed a special filter that will retain these precious aromas. Ironically, we had made an April fool’s post about vines in outer space just one year ago… #isthisforreals. Our wine vintage chart contains vintage ratings on the top wine producing regions around the world for red, white and fortified wines, including Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone, Rioja and Tuscany for red wines and also Alsace, Germany, Burgundy and Sauternes for white wines. This blog summarizes why 2012 was a good year for California wine and how this quality-quantity marriage came about for the 2012 wines. Don’t take our word for it, you can watch series one on Hulu! A high-quality map of the Cabernet Sauvignon genome was drafted with an open-source genome assembly process. A number of Bordeaux 2016 wines have improved in the bottle since en primeur season. Several Bordeaux 2016 wines have improved even further since en primeur season, and there is particular excitement on the Left Bank where several top Médoc estates have outperformed 2015. The show will star John Cho (of Harold and Kumar and Star Trek fame) and is about “a brilliant con artist who dupes the wealthiest, most powerful people in the country into paying millions for fake wine.” The plot sounds strikingly similar to what happened with Rudy Kurniawan. Revenue at alcohol giants Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) and Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) grew by 19.1 per cent and 15.7 per cent last year. They are by necessity general in nature, but can help consumers make good choices when faced with unfamiliar wines. Her answer was brief: ‘I think optimism,’ she replied. The relatively mild sum… Perfection. The 2016 growing season presented château owners with plenty of challenges, but ideal weather at the most critical time of the year made up for the early struggles of the vintage. Vintage charts summarize the quality and character of the wines from a particular region in a specific year. Despite the early start many regions experienced cooler ripening periods, and drought was less of a defining characteristic than last year. It was a good year for grog sales. Both bud break and flowering occurred a bit late, but under ideal weather conditions, creating plentiful and even fruit set. We made about 15 trips and crushed nearly 35 tons - up a little bit over 2015. 2016 Bordeaux: It’s Now or Never, Baby. Included in the launch of Tiangong-2, China’s newest space lab, were a selection of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Pinot Noir vines. Vintage. We just had our 6th anniversary party and a lot of folks wanted to know how crush went. About Our Tastings. The vintage chart and harvest reports provided by the Wine Scholar Guild gives you the ranking for every French wine region and vintage from 2000 to today. Cow farts/burps have been noted to producing at least 1/5 of the world’s greenhouse gasses. I was recently faced with a minor problem. This study is particularly exciting for viticultural scientists who are working tirelessly to create new disease-resistant and climate-change-tolerant grape varieties that wine drinkers actually like. But the team here and our awesome vineyard managers made 2016 as smooth as possible. 2016 is coming to a close, and it’s time to look forward to what 2017 might have in store. We actually reported on this in 2015, but then a more detailed study came out further detailing the importance of local microbiomes. Some estates will bottle no 2017s, others may bottle just a little bit of wine. Highlights. Bad news, burgundy lovers: there is a serious shortage of wine. They also help … Good growing season turned wickedly hot in early September, with no cooling-off period, then wildfires raged in early October, raising the specter of smoke taint. Let’s take a look at what happened in the world through the lens of our favorite beverage: wine. When it’s dried and served in a cow’s meal, it greatly reduces their gas and burps. Here are some of the highlights: Bill Koch (of the Koch Bros) sold off some of his fine wine collection with a 20,000 bottle sell on Sotheby’s and made $21.8 million (over $1k per bottle!). In one of those unexpected outcomes, one Pyrenees vigneron was of the view that the growing season weather for 2015 and 2016 were very similar. A deductive scientific study produced by the London School of Economics has determined that wine does indeed make you happy. Some of you might be nervous but don’t worry, there are some things to look forward to: It was hailed as a great success. noted to producing at least 1/5 of the world’s greenhouse gasses. The economic theorists among you may be bemused by this state of affairs, but vignerons in Burgundy tend to price each vintage on the basis of the likely size of the next crop. From beginner to professional, the right wine tools make for the best drinking experience. Over the past year, I rated more than 1,300 wines from Bordeaux’s 2016 vintage and only five were rated 100 points. While we were all freaking out about elections several large scale business acquisitions were being made. This year, France did not please the gods. Just 365 days ago, 2016 was a glint in our eyes and now it’s already over. Was it a very good year? Vintage 2015: Score 91: Drink Window Drink or hold: Description Hot and dry; structured reds, some hot: Description Hot and dry; structured reds, some hot: Vintage 2014: Score 89: Drink Window Drink or hold: Description Their site says, “Your favorite wines created from scratch on a molecular level.” Unfortunately, Ava winery is not as fast as a replicator, they’ve been “brewing” their second batch for months. a pdf of many of the top US multi-label wine brands. https://winefolly.com/lifestyle/wine-and-2016-a-year-in-review This is great news for those of us who love the natural products like cork and cotton t-shirts. Bordeaux 2016. On a scale of 1 to 100, wine will increase your happiness by 10.79 points, particularly when doing unenjoyable activities including traveling, commuting, and waiting. Do we trust it entirely? Napa’s most difficult season in recent memory. My question is: what’s wrong with rosé? Rating: 5/5 on Left Bank | 4.5/5 on the Right Bank. The hope is that being exposed to radiation in a space environment will cause the vines to mutate and become more resistant to climate change. Regional consorzi are predicting a good year with yields reduced about 10% to 15%. Have any amazing stories to add, or comments on the ones above? In the meantime, though, consumers will find plenty of fabulous wines from both 2016 and 2015. Go China! The best 2016s are deep and intense, yet also pulse with a real sense of energy. Drought broke over the winter, with lots of vegetation and healthy vines to start the season. The Indian state of Bihar (in the Northeast) decided to ban all wine consumption. Remember when 2016 was shiny and full of potential? Contact360-695-33631500 Broadway StVancouver, WA 98663info@burntbridgecellars.com. A warm year gave structured and balanced reds. Description. It’s a fitting achievement for this 10,000-case, family-run business. The 2015/16 growing season yielded a warm, dry, Spring, with good conditions for flowering and fruit-set. Andrew Jefford, award-winning wine journalist and WSG Academic Advisor has compiled information and written the vintage charts starting with the 2013 vintage. 30% of Loire harvest lost due to frosts in April, Hail in Chablis, Cognac, and Bojo in late May “etat de Catastrophe”, Hail in Bojo in June, some places have 70-80% crop damage. One reporter nominated chardonnay and cabernet as standout varieties, the overall quality being good to high. Of course, much of the final results will depend on the choices producers make over the next two years and how the wines themselves develop over that time. When you get great fruit, and don't have to meddle with it much in the cellar, you have the recipe for great wine. 2016. We went online and found a bottle of 1988 Château Haut-Brion for $440 with free shipping. Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were described as “outstanding”, while most wineries are hopeful that 2016 will become one of the region’s best vintages. North America’s 2016 vintage saw advanced harvests across the board, with some of the earliest picking dates on record. This is a serious bummer. Claiming its place as Wine Spectator’s 2016 Wine of the Year, it becomes the seventh Napa Cabernet to earn our top honor since the award’s inception in 1988. Boscarelli Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Boscarelli is always among the best producers of Vino Nobile and this year is no exception: fresh red plum fruit with good acid and slightly dusty tannins. Thus, the 2016 wines are more aromatic and deeper in color, but less structured, according to Alberto Passeri, the manager at La Gerla in Montalcino. Summer brought generous sun during the day and cooler marine influences, virtually uninterrupted by major heat spikes. Scientists theorize that developing these olfaction senses (smell and taste) may affect the onset of diseases Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. I asked Sue Bell of Bellwether wines what the trend for Aussie wine will be in 2017. The last year has been a good year for Australian wine, but I think that 2017 will be a particularly exciting one. Inclement weather caused so much damage that the production of the country was reduced by at least 10%. Fifth-generation grape grower Bret Munselle shared his thoughts on the 2012 vintage in the above video. We brought in some new fruit too (Malbec, Syrah, Cab) that we haven't had before, so it'll be fun watching these lots evolve over the next two years. Based on what I have tasted so far, 2016 looks like a year with dark flavors, but not as much depth, structure or tannin as is usually associated with vintages that have a similar flavor profile. https://www.decanter.com/wine/wine-regions/bordeaux-2016-harvest-report- No, but it does offer hope for collectors trying to off-load their wines. If you’re in the wine business, things were pretty hairy: The e-commerce site eBay launched a wine portal with thousands of wines up for auction/buy. The vintage is simply the year in which the fruit, usually one or more varieties of wine grapes, was grown and harvested.. To wine investors, wine collectors, or just the casual wine drinker vintage information is important, because the climate and weather conditions to which the fruit is exposed on the vine - will ultimately affect quality. Harvest for Burnt Bridge Cellars began on August 30 (Merlot) and our last pick was October 13 (Cabernet) - so it lasted nearly two-and-a-half months. Unlike other cities, it can cost a restauranteur in Boston about $450,000 for a liquor license (compared to about $2500 in Seattle). Annual (2015) rainfall was 338mm, 72% of the long term average. Cork giant Amorim announced that after sinking $15 million into R&D they have developed a cork that won’t cause cork taint (aka TCA–smells like wet dogs). I co-founded Wine Folly to help people learn about wine. This year the wine that particularly impressed me was this old-vine Tinta Barocca—an unlikely Portuguese variety, mainly used as a blending grape … The device is called AromaLoc and it should be available to white wine makers next year. On the Right Bank, Pomerol is a particular highlight. Read in-depth tasting notes and see ratings for hundreds of classified Bordeaux 2016 wines, re-tasted by Jane Anson this month now that the vintage has been bottled and beginning with Médoc. Here were the lowest moments: We thought the weather could get bad in France, but it’s nothing compared to what China saw: Yes, we’re headed into a strange new world in 2017. 2016: Score 91: Drink Window Drink or hold: Description. The wine made such a splash in the news that there is already a slew of knockoffs. In 2016, wine growers were anticipating a magnificent vintage before they picked a single grape. What you might not know is that a huge number of the delicate floral and fruit aromas in white wines “burn off” during fermentation. For starters, the weather was perfect throughout the growing season, says Jimmy Minutella of … Despite the dry conditions and hot December and February, yields were average to above average, following in the wake of four vintages below average production. BY ANTONIO GALLONI | APRIL 25, 2017 . Pyrenees. #microbiologistlove. Debbie, 72, is a fifth-generation Californian who grew up farming in the Sacramento delta. The site includes features like wine pricing trends so you can see if you’re getting a good deal. Bordeaux 2016 harvest begins after year of two halves But it's a waiting game for many following late flowering Mendoza vines during Argentina's 2016 wine harvest. James Beard Award-winning author and Wine Communicator of the Year. I'm really happy with when we picked the fruit this year too. The problem arose when the guest realized the bottle (after it had been poured) was in fact not from the ‘07 vintage as the wine list had stated, but actually ‘08. This year's growing season was less uniform, and the grape skins were thinner and more pliable than last year's. More good news: 2016 is a seriously delicious vintage. There are also fortified wine vintage ratings for Port where a Port vintage has been declared. Fortunately, with the lift on BYOB, more restaurants can offer diners the option of bringing in a bottle. 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