2016 Northern Rhône Vintage

Both the north and south had a mild winter and a cool, gradual start in 2016, but the cold and wet conditions were more acute and long-lasting in the north. A cloudy, wet spring delayed the start, with 52 rain showers between March and July, and disease pressure was high. A brief warm spell in March brought the buds out, and on 17 April a hail storm hit Hermitage, seriously reducing yields there. Flowering ran two to three weeks behind schedule. Mildew appeared as temperatures rose in May, June saw nearly twice the normal rain, and oidium struck in July, when some growers were also hit by hail. Then the season turned: August and September were warm and very dry, which turned the vintage around. The weather turned hot and extremely dry from the end of July, and in some vineyards drought stopped the grapes ripening and turned leaves yellow until rain arrived after the first week of September. Welcome rain fell on 15 September. The harvest ran from 20 September to 12 October, unhurried and around a week later than 2015, and was fairly large throughout the region except Hermitage.

• Wet spring: 52 rain showers from March to July; June nearly twice normal rain
• Hail on Hermitage on 17 April, with more hail for some growers in July
• Mildew in May and oidium in July; high disease pressure
• Warm, very dry August and September; harvest 20 September to 12 October

Hermitage took the April hail: it was the first hail Marc Sorrel had seen there, and it nearly halved his yields to 20hl/ha for his Hermitage Classique against a normal 35hl/ha, while Jean-Louis Chave harvested as little as 6hl/ha in some white vineyards. Chave's Rocoules parcel, which typically gives 18 barrels, would probably give only five. Because the hail came in April, before the grapes had formed, quality was not adversely affected. Condrieu had its biggest harvest on record at 38hl/ha. Crozes-Hermitage yields were high, as in most of the northern Rhone, because of the wet first half; green harvesting was needed and growers often waited into mid-October to pick. In Cote-Rotie, Jean-Paul Jamet had a notably dry year without excess heat and finished picking unusually late, on 20 October. In Saint-Joseph, Jean Gonon had rain, hail and mildew until the end of July before a dry August saved the day. Decanter's Matt Walls called 2016 a success in Cornas.

• Condrieu: Julien Pilon began picking on 16 September

The 2016s are slightly higher in acidity and slightly lower in alcohol than the 2015s, without the same concentration of fruit or weight of tannin. Decanter's Matt Walls described the general style as fresh with sprightly tannins and well-defined aromatics, akin to 2006 or 2012. Francois Tardy of Domaine des Entrefaux predicts the wines will always drink well and not close down, while Laurent Courbis in Cornas said it is not a vintage to age for a long time. At Hermitage, naturally reduced yields led to concentrated wines, with reds that have the sinew and muscle to age. Walls called it a year to focus on red wines, with whites an improvement on 2015 but short of 2014, and white Hermitage exceedingly rich and concentrated. Potential alcohol degrees were lower than 2015's despite the strong heat of August.