2014 Northern Rhône Vintage

Across the Rhone Valley, 2014 brought no major hydric stress and good, even development across all varieties. In the Northern Rhone, a northerly wind and sunshine through August and September made up for an unusually rainy July. At A. Clape in Cornas, spring was beautiful and then June and July were rainy, but a good wind meant only some leaf pulling was needed to keep the vineyard healthy and the fruit clean. Pierre-Jean Villa called 2014 "a September vintage": a rainy July and August, then a gorgeous September. Jean-Louis Chave described a July so wet that the grapes got bloated and the vines shut down; September was great, but vines on slopes could catch up while those on flat soils that could not drain could not. A fruit fly spread acid rot in parts of the Northern Rhone, and rains hampered the harvest throughout the valley, though the Southern Rhone had more persistent September rains than the north. Harvest fell at a more normal time after the very late-running 2013, with most northern picking concentrated around mid to late September. Yield figures differ by source: Inter Rhone put northern Viognier yields at excellent, while Wine Spectator called Rhone and Provence yields very low, with some reported Cote-Rotie yields of just 50 percent.

In Cornas, harvest at A. Clape ran early and was done by 21 September, before a hailstorm hit. That hailstorm hit hard in Crozes-Hermitage, particularly in the prime Les Chassis area. In Cote-Rotie, ripe Syrah was the fruit of choice for Drosophila suzukii, a fruit fly that eats only red-colored fruit and pierces intact skins. The result was acid rot, and growers had to select carefully, with some reported yields of just 50 percent. In Saint-Joseph, according to Philippe Guigal of E. Guigal, the red was picked on 15 September at 14 percent potential alcohol, before the heavier rains.

Inter Rhone's own report has northern Syrah achieving perfect ripeness while retaining a good level of acidity, and calls the year's Viogniers particularly expressive. Wine Spectator judged that Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne wines in the north look excellent while Syrah in the north varies in quality, and found that the good fruit that was selected shows promise in a decidedly different style from the racy, acidity-driven 2013s. Pierre-Jean Villa: "We have purity and aromatics, but not the tannins or same structure. It's a softer vintage." Jean-Louis Chave: "September saved the vintage, but you can't save a classic vintage, you can only save a good vintage." For the valley as a whole, Inter Rhone president Michel Chapoutier said "2014 is distinctive for a freshness, minerality and texture which simply aren't there in sunnier vintages."