After quite a wet spring, summer brought some nice and warm days, with dry periods (2 or 3 weeks) interrupted by one to three rainy days. We were freezing the sixth of July : a hailstorm passed through on the side of the vineyard, unfortunately the grand cru Zinnkoepflé was not spared.

With autumn, peacefulness was not yet in season. September was wet and cold and caused us to begin the harvest with a strong feeling of pessimism. Fortunately October and the beginning of November was exceptionally sunny and warm: we are not used to harvest with t-shirts !

After a budding delayed by two weeks, the flowering was good. Only the muscat offered the third of the normal harvest.

The stake of the vintage was, like quite often, the control of the strength : a strong vine had an excessive yield whereas a normal vine had a reasonable yield. Picking the grapes in excess was as usual of capital importance. In the good situations and in spite of the cold weather, the grapes offered a good maturity at the end of September (especially the skins were ripe). The sun in October made the development of Botrytis cinerea possible in favourable conditions. As a result, with desiccation and noble rot, the sugar concentration quickly increased without loss of acidity.

It began the first of October for the pinot noir and ended on the second of November. Strict selective picking in the vineyard and on the table was done with the pinot noir. The white grapes were picked at two time intervals. With a little bit of patience and generous hours of sunshine, very high maturity was reached. We can quote some examples of high potential alcohol content : 16,2° for the sylvaner Clos Saint Landelin, 15,8° for the riesling Clos Saint Landelin or 19,8° for the pinot gris Clos Saint Landelin.

The fermentation was regular, without increase of temperature. The acidity is fine and normal during tasting. The fruit aromas are still reserved, but a firm structure, well balanced with a beautiful fat impression seems to develop. The dark colours of the red wines are in adequacy with their interesting frame.

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