Our vintage chart shows 2014 as a year of marked regional differences. Champagne recorded a good year, Burgundy good reds and outstanding whites, and Austria a difficult course for both white and red. In Champagne, the vintage – initially dismissed as average – now reveals precision rather than power, bright acidity and an intact structure; Chardonnay proved to be the star variety, and Krug and Dom Pérignon did not declare a vintage, whereas Roederer Cristal and Bollinger La Grande Année did. In Burgundy, it is above all the white wines that merit attention. White dominates the selection, followed by red, and alongside Champagne and Burgundy, Alsace, Wachau, Kamptal and Burgenland are represented.
Several wines from this vintage come from Zind-Humbrecht in Alsace, from Nikolaihof in the Wachau and from Waris-Larmandier in Champagne. Elsewhere, the weather shaped the vintage. In Piedmont, a cool, wet summer and hail in the commune of Barolo dashed hopes of a great vintage; those who delayed the harvest were rewarded with solid, scarce Nebbiolo, yet 2014 remains a light vintage with limited ageing potential. In Montalcino, estates such as Biondi-Santi and Salvioni dispensed with a Brunello altogether, and the remaining, supple wines should be drunk now. Along the Rhône, following hail in the north and botrytis in the south, the wines turned out lighter than usual on both sides, while Spain brought in a good vintage.
„volcanic“
In all wines: 133 Wines
