Eastern France 2007 - Sun-Rain-Sun

Eastern France is a nebulous area and stretches for our purposes from the sunny vineyards of Alsace sheltered by the Vosges mountains through Luxembourg on the slopes of the Moselle with its delicate, floral, almost Germanic-style wines to the sub-Alpine regions of Jura and Savoie with their old-fashioned whites and unique reds made from such recondite grape varieties as Trousseau and Ploussard.

The consensus seems that 2007 was another vintage rescued by a good weather around harvest time. Overall, mildew seemed less of a factor here than in other parts of France. The wines from Alsace should be particularly fine and white wines in Jura and Savoie look very good indeed.

Domaine Mathis Bastian (Luxembourg)

Anouk Bastian gave this succinct summary of their experience during 2007: exceptional weather conditions led to the vine being three weeks in advance of its normal cycle (compared to the previous 25 years). Flowering was very early.  A warm and sunny back season allowed the grapes to achieve optimum ripeness.

“2007 will remain engraved on our memory for the excellent quality of its grapes”.

Vignobles André Scherer ( Husseren-Les-Chateaux, Alsace)

Christophe Scherer explained that floraison went perfectly, and was in advance of the canopy development which seemed to forecast an early harvest.  “The year was marked by plentiful sun with a marvellously warm back season, giving us a very high level of sugar in the grapes, and this enabled us to carry out very satisfactory vendanges tardives.  No rain fell during harvest which was a plus for all our wines- dry and sweet.  We are very pleased to have chosen exactly the right time to harvest, meaning that the dry whites have a good acidity and all wines have a good balance.”

Domaine Daniel Dugois (Arbois, Jura)

“Climatic conditions gave us a year in which the vine was in advance ; April and May were particularly hot. Flowering came early and presaged an early harvest.  Frost did not pose a problem this year.  July was wet and brought the danger of mildew it to the growers of our region as elsewhere in France.  A cool August slowed up the ripening of the grapes, the vines’ original progress at the start of the season had led us to forecast harvesting on the 20th August, in fact we only started on 10th September in good weather conditions.  We harvested grapes in excellent condition- the reds had good colour and all grapes had a good level of fruit.”

Domaine Ganevat (Cotes du Jura)

Jean-François Ganevat pointed out that 2007 in his region had a drought which was offset by rain in June, July and August ( 400mm of rainfall fell during these three months and didn’t stop until 15th September.  It took him and his pickers seven weeks to complete the harvest.  The grapes were in excellent condition with good fruit and good acidity, thanks to the sanitising presence of a north wind during harvest which dried the grapes, fended off disease and which concentrated the juice in the grapes.  Jean-François described 2007 as “even better than 2004” which in his region was an exceptional vintage.  He pointed out that there had been no need to chaptalise, and described his 2007 white wines as “aériens” (ethereal)- by which he meant pure, uncomplicated and frank. An indication of the quality and health of the grapes harvested by Ganevat and his team is the fact that none of his 2007 reds needed sulphur and neither did many of his whites.

Domaine Bruno Lupin ( Savoie)

Bruno Lupin summed up as follows:  “Summer was marked by rain, while the back season was good and warm, enabling optimum ripening of the grapes”. April and the beginning of May were very hot and the vines were three weeks ahead of development schedule, however this was followed by a period of bad weather during flowering which in turn led to coulure and a consequent reduction in yield (he lost 25 % of his normal crop).