Vintage Guide

The 2025 vintage was harvested around ten days earlier than average. Just enough rain fell in July for the vineyards not to suffer during the August heatwaves. Quality is very good, thick skins meant plenty of colour, with care taken in the winery not to over-extract the tannins. They are similar to 2022
but with more freshness. A lighter, fresher style is to be found from the 2024 vintage following a year that required extensive work in the vineyard to bring in ripe, clean fruit. The 2023 vintage is good, but the yields are down, some warm damp weather in summer means the Cabernets have outperformed the more delicate Merlot. The wines of 2022 are excellent showing a lovely balance of ripeness and juiciness that give them great poise. The 2021 vintage has made wines that are medium-bodied with good freshness, in a similar style to 2017. The 2020 vintage yielded wines that are aromatic and concentrated, quite big in structure with freshness and balance. The wines of 2019 are very concentrated, fresh, ripe and plentiful; all in all a very well regarded vintage.

2025 is a somewhat heterogeneous picture for yields; the end result is extremely low, but more than in 2024. Quality seems to be very good for the reds. A cool and wet 2024 season reduced yields, but diligent growers produced some promising results, albeit in small quantities. A hot growing season in 2023 meant sorting was required when the grapes came in to avoid any raisined fruit, but the results are very good and in decent quantity. The region basked under the summer sun in 2022, and thanks to cool nights, the wines have avoided excess alcohol while retaining elegance. The 2021 vintage was severely affected by frost in the spring, which means yields are historically low, but the wines are fresh and juicy. 2020 was one of the earliest vintages on record following a warm summer, but the wines have an appealing freshness too, like a combination of the previous two vintages. There was an absence of frost in 2019, but yields were still restricted, this time by drought. The resulting wines have great richness and concentration.

A mild winter and spring in 2025 saw an early start to the growing season, summer continued in the same vein. In common with other regions the yields are small. The harvest was historically early with many starting mid-August and some finishing before September. The quality is good with concentrated fruit and structure but with freshness and moderate alcohol levels. The 2024 vintage required a lot of work in the vineyard, but those that persevered have produced some very promising-looking wines, albeit in small quantities. 2023 was also a very good vintage, with the Southern Rhône having an easier time of things, but the results from both are showing great character. The North and South of the region both excelled in the hot conditions of 2022. The 2021 vintage has seen some good results, particularly in the North where attractive, aromatic, elegant wines have been made, albeit lighter in style. The wines from the 2020 vintage are a little fresher and more approachable earlier than those of 2019, which is a high-quality vintage with yields on a par with 2018.

2025 looks good across the country following a wet winter, mild spring and a largely benevolent summer. Italy is one country that had decent yields too, particularly in the south, putting Italy back on top spot as the world’s biggest producer. Opposing problems, in the North (too wet) and in the South (too dry), have delivered a modest harvest for 2024, larger than 2023 but still below average, of good quality, fresher in style than of late and harvested later. The 2023 vintage proved complicated, good in Barolo but trickier in Tuscany and southern regions, resulting in one of the smallest vintages of recent years. A dry winter followed by a hot summer certainly affected yields in 2022, but the quality is excellent across the country. Small but perfectly formed seems to sum up the 2021 vintage here in Italy. Across most of the country the 2020 vintage is very good indeed with ripe fruit and lovely aromatics. A classic if not straightforward vintage, 2019 has delivered some excellent wines but in smaller quantities.

A very good harvest across Spain in 2025 but with some regions, notably Rioja, having the smallest production this century. A small vintage in 2024 following a tricky growing season that, on the plus side, saw many regions come out of drought, but disease pressures have meant yields are small, just a little ahead of the tiny 2023 vintage. The wines of 2023 are in short supply but good quality, while those of 2022 – a hot, dry year – are excellent and concentrated. The 2021 vintage is very good after a warm, dry season with wines showing good concentration and aromatics. A wet first half of the 2020 vintage meant a lot of work in the vineyard was needed, but a better, more consistent second half resulted in some juicy young wines, while those ageing in barrel are excellent. A very good year, 2019 had warm, dry conditions but yields were limited by a tricky flowering period.

2025 was a trying vintage with extreme heat, with three months of drought culminating in 10 days over 40ºC in August. However, the second half of August and early September saw a marked cooling which provided near-perfect conditions for the grapes to mature. Some are reporting the smallest harvest in 40 years, but there is plenty of praise for the quality. 2024 has been generally declared, this being the first general declaration since 2017. The wines are wonderfully elegant, reflecting the slightly cooler growing season; they show a rare delicacy and freshness and will drink well in their youth, but also have the capacity to age for decades. A classic vintage! The weather pattern in 2023, fresher and less extreme than 2022 which was baking hot, suggests there could be an interesting comparison to come. In 2021 a small amount of top Single Quinta wines were produced but not a full declaration. There was plenty of beneficial rainfall early in 2020 but also plenty of heat which has given exceptionally low yields. What there is, is deeply concentrated and very like 2009 in style. 2019 was a very dry, but not hot, vintage which has given some characterful wines with great elegance; some excellent single quintas have been made.

The 2025 vintage looks promising in Champagne with the region walking the tightrope between ripeness and freshness. A cooler year, 2024 has made some promising wines with Chardonnay doing particularly well, after a tricky growing season across the region. 2023 was a complicated but abundant year with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on the best sites performing well. Yields needed to be managed, and some were picked too early during a warm harvest period. 2022 was another warm vintage with decent yields and as a result, an early harvest with clean fruit and good potential. By comparison 2021 – on paper at least – looks like a litany of woes but as so often in this region, out of hardship comes reward with some very classic wines being produced. 2020 also looks like it has the potential for great wines, but in a riper style following a warm year and a very early harvest, a year for Pinot-dominated wines to excel. Another challenging vintage in the vineyards that has given some very positive results, 2019 saw heatwaves and hailstorms reduce yields but with good fruit delivered at harvest.

2025 is a somewhat heterogeneous picture in terms of yields, the end result is historically low in quantity but more than in 2024. Quality seems to be very good for the whites. Very good results for 2024 in terms of quality see a fresher feel to the wines and slightly lower alcohol, but at the price of quantity, with Chablis particularly affected. With hot dry weather for the vintage, 2023 is excellent with a good quantity, stylistically similar to its predecessor. A warm season but with cooler nights, 2022 brought both excellent quality and, importantly, a decent quantity. The 2021 vintage was heavily affected by frost meaning quantities were well down, though the quality is very good. 2020 was historically early and regarded as a great vintage. 2019 is a worthy successor to the excellent 2018s and low yields have given very concentrated wines.

A warm vintage has given rise to some deliciously opulent dry whites in 2025 with an early harvest date to preserve freshness. The generally cooler conditions of the 2024 vintage has seen some super results in Bordeaux with the whites outperforming the reds this year. Similarly 2023 produced some super whites, with the extra freshness and lovely aromatics balancing ripe fruit perfectly. 2022 was a warm vintage leading to a record early harvest start in the first weeks of August, giving opulent, aromatic wines. The cool conditions of the 2021 season favoured the whites, giving the wines vibrancy and wonderful aromatics. By contrast the 2020 vintage was hot but careful vineyard management and early picking has delivered concentrated, crisp wines from this low-yielding vintage. Something of a Goldilocks vintage, 2019 was hot at times and cool at others with beneficial rains giving the perfect balance of ripe fruit and crisp, refreshing acidity.

2025 is generally regarded as a successful vintage, though rain during harvest made life tricky at the end of the season. The weather continued warm and sunny through the summer and an early harvest starting 8th September with Pinot Noir followed by Riesling for Kabinett wines. The results are good with excellent quality, likened to 2005 and 2022. All styles including some Trockenbeerenauslesen were made. A rollercoaster of a ride in 2024 saw frost reduce yields initially, then a yo-yo of wet and warm weather meant much work in the vineyards to combat disease was required. A small harvest of excellent quality has been reported, mostly at Kabinett level. A tricky 2023 vintage where the dedication of the grower had a big impact, the resultant wines are very good for those that did the graft. The warmest year on record, 2022 produced some super results. The wines of 2021 are lighter in style and more aromatic with evident acidity compared with the previous two vintages. 2020 saw a warm summer, giving ripeness, while a prolonged harvest gave freshness and perfect quality fruit. The 2019s show wonderful rapier-like style, good weight and depth; yields are lower than the generous 2018 vintage.

The warmth of the 2025 vintage was broken in September by some rains which saw the early onset of noble rot. The resulting wines have great depth and concentration. The 2024 vintage is much lighter and fresher in style with the wines showing more vibrancy and racy acidity. In contrast, 2023 was a vintage with richness in the wines but with plenty of acidity bringing balance. 2022 was very similar to 2023 but a little richer. The cooler 2021 vintage has delivered some super wines but in tiny quantities. They have lovely balance and purity with good botrytis character. The 2020 vintage was hot and dry, producing wines concentrated by the sun rather than botrytis, which arrived very late in the season, as it did the previous two years in 2019 and 2018, both of which produced some decent wines, but the growers required nerves of steel to wait for botrytis to arrive.

2025 was a year in which heat and hail played a part in the story, keeping yields low and concentration high while some beneficial rain in August helped maintain freshness. It looks set to be a promising year for sweet wines. The weather was challenging in 2024 with much work required in the vineyard to avoid mildew. The results show good freshness and some balanced sweetness but lacking the intensity of a great year. While 2023 was almost an embarrassment of riches with yields potentially huge if not kept in check by careful vineyard management. Those who did and sorted heavily in the winery (a year they could afford to be ruthless!) were rewarded with some very good results. The conditions of 2022 proved excellent for sweet wine production with a hot dry summer broken in September by some rain that helped noble rot to develop; the results are superb. The complicated conditions experienced in 2021 led to some exceptional sweet wines, the cooler conditions bringing natural freshness into the wines which balances the concentration brought by botrytis and much improved weather late in the season. 2020 gave small yields of very concentrated wines following a hot dry season, but the results are very good with nice balance and some botrytis character amongst almost tropical fruit. The conditions in 2019 just didn’t suit the production of sweet wines with few being produced.

Early reports of the 2024 vintage are very promising for this region with rainfall near the long-term average and less heat spikes in the growing season leading to well-balanced grapes at harvest time. 2023 too, saw more balance and freshness as the climate was not as hot as its predecessor when 2022 saw temperatures hitting 47ºC giving great concentration and power. In contrast 2021 was a gentler season without excessive heat that has delivered aromatic wines with freshness and elegance as well as depth. Plenty of rainfall in the first part of 2020 set up the vineyards perfectly to weather the heatwave in the summer giving small yields of deeply concentrated wines. In 2019 Portugal escaped the heatwave of the rest of Europe meaning the wines are wonderfully aromatic and elegant. Tiny yields for the second year in a row in 2018, after the previous year’s drought finally broke in spectacular fashion. Heavy rain caused soil erosion and hail was also a problem. A hot summer saved what was left in terms of quality but could not make up for the yields already lost. 2017 proved to be a hot, dry year with one of the earliest harvests on record and yields down about 35% but the quality is very good for table wine. 2016 was a complex but ultimately satisfying year with a wet winter followed by a summer that was drier and warmer than usual; the resulting wines show great balance and concentration in both red and white.