Vintage 2015 will be remembered fondly

   The calendar has just flipped to 2016 as we begin a new year and yet we are looking forward to 2015, or at least the 2015 vintage. Early reports are beginning to give us insight to what the harvest has yielded in the worlds great wine regions. Virtually every European wine region is buzzing about the quality of fruit produced in 2015 and one report after another leads us to believe that the year we just left behind will be talked about long into the future.

When was the last time that there was a buzz about Beaujolais Nouveau for example? Go back 20 or so years and it was the hottest wine out there as it landed in New York fresh off the Concord (now also long retired) just in time for Thanksgiving. Wine shops were gobbling it up and sending it out to their eager customers by the case load and everyone in the know was serving with their turkey and sides. With the world getting smaller and more regions and the american market getting a taste for the finer wines from around the world the Nouveau craze has faded but this year it saw a bit of a resurgence as reports of the 2015 vintage and the quality of the fruit emerging was so good. It will not likely ever be the "must have" wine for our annual turkey day celebrations again but it did see an increase in sales this year and it gave us our first peek at what we are in store for. From our point of view its class was well represented.

The hottest trend in wine, Rosé, is likely to give most consumers their first true look at the vintage once the cold weather of winter passes and the warmer weather, that seems so far away right now, has people looking for their Rosé glass somewhere around Mother's day. Our guess is that the red hot category will continue to explode with what is expected to be a season filled with great offerings. The warmer weather and great quality is likely to turn even the staunchest critics of the category into believers. Fear not burly men, as the Charles & Charles bumper sticker says "Yes, you can drink Rosé and still be a bad a**"

The best news is that even as we look in the rear view mirror at 2015 it still has a long road ahead of it. The truth is that this will be just the beginning of the road for the vintage and we can look forward to what is has produced for many years to come. Some of the worlds great wines such as Bordeaux, Brunello, and Barolo will rest comfortably in barrels for 4-5 more years before being re-introduced to us and even then they will just be babies.


Long live 2015!

_Cheers