Monday, 16 July 2012

A country wide horizontal tasting

Horizontal tastings can be done to elicit the differences in both terroir and weather that can occur within the area of interest. For a region like Bordeaux, it can show how broadly similar weather can affect the communes in different ways due to the varying cepages and traditions involved in making the wines. For a larger area of interest like a whole country, it can illustrate what the highs and lows that the country has to offer for the year. Often certain areas will enjoy wonderful weather, whereas on others conditions conspire to make the life of the vignerons miserable. Rarely is a year universally good, or bad. As far as France is concerned, the millennial year 2000 was generally good across the board (except perhaps Champagne which is only fairly good). The picture was the lineup of a France 2000 dinner presented by PWC. For a better year than that, one can look at 1990, where it is just about excellent all over France!

No comments:

Post a Comment