The 2003 Alsace Vintage
Date: Wednesday, October 25 @ 05:35:38 MST
Topic: Wine classifications AOC - Grand Crus...
The Vosges are usually Alsace’s blessing, bleeding off the rain and rendering
its sheltered vineyards drier and sunnier than almost anywhere else in
France.
In 2003, however, the Vosges merely exacerbated the heat wave
and drought experienced elsewhere. According to CIVA, it was the hottest
summer since 1540, and they really do have records going back that far.
Rainfall was virtually nonexistent (11.4 cm between May and September)
and temperatures were relentlessly hot – at one point exceeding 40ºC for
almost two weeks continuously. There is no doubt, therefore, that 2003
was an exceptional and extraordinary vintage, but apart from Pinot Noir
and a handful of anomalies, the quality will be neither exceptional nor
extraordinary.
Picking started on 25 August for Crémant d’Alsace,
8 September for AOC Alsace and AOC Grand Cru, and 15 September for VT
and SGN.
Generally, older vines fared better than younger ones. Vineyards on
lighter soils suffered the most. North-facing vines excelled, with a number
of growers contemplating extending these plantations, especially if 2003
is a wake-up call for global warming (average temperatures in Alsace have
increased by 0.6ºC in the past 10 years), rather than an anomaly.
The heat
and drought stress caused many vines to shut down their metabolic systems
during véraison, especially Riesling, which does not like hot weather and
stopped for 10 days or more.
Remarkable as it might seem for a hot year,
some Riesling even failed to ripen fruit beyond the 8 per cent achieved prior
to shutting down. This will be a benchmark vintage for Pinot Noir, while the
most affected category of wine will be Crémant d’Alsace, because its primary
grape variety, Pinot Blanc, was too concentrated, too alcoholic, and much too
low in acidity for anything other than a still wine.
Some atypically superb
Muscats have been made, but much of the Gewurztraminer curiously ripened
without changing colour and had exceptionally thick skins.
According to
Olivier Humbrecht, such Gewurztraminer grapes were sugar ripe but not
physiologically ripe. “In a year like 2003,” Olivier told me, “it was more like
a New World red-wine harvest than Old World white. Although most growers
had picked the greater part of their crop by mid-September, the grapes
were not physiologically ripe until mid-October.We had a little rain in late
September, after which the vine’s metabolism started to recover, adjusting
the balance of its fruit, even producing very tiny amounts of malic acid.”
Tom Stevenson
http://www.wine-pages.com
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