“Quality, quantity, concentration… these are the main characteristics of the 2015 vintage. The climatic conditions during the growth cycle until the harvest have been at their best to obtain one of the greatest vintage of the last decade.” says Sylvain Jean, Louis Bernard’s winemaker.
“After a wet and mild winter followed by rainy spring, which allowed a recharging of the water tables, the summer was dry and hot – i.e. perfect conditions. In August, sporadic rains followed by nice sunny, warm days and cool nights, were favourable to the grape maturity, particularly in the drier terroirs like Plan de Dieu.
In the Southern Rhône Valley, we started the harvest with the white varieties on 26th August in the earliest sectors and on 7th September for the reds, starting with Syrah.

Mid September some rainfall disturbed harvesting, without doing any damage to the grapes however. On the whole, the harvest is of high quality and generous for all grapes and Grenache and Syrah in particular :
- Syrah has very deep, purple colour, showing intense blackcurrant and pepper notes, mature tannins
with a reasonable alcohol level of 13,5%.
- Grenache has low acidity, generous yield, soft tannins, nice concentration and intense fruit aromas.
Rosé wines are very aromatic and have elegant, rose petal colours.
- Viognier is very aromatic and expressive.
- Red Côtes du Rhône and Villages wines are characterized by silky tannins and deep colours, producing generous, spicy wines.
In the Northern Rhône Valley, we also faced an exceptional vintage :
- Beautiful Syrah in Côte-Rôtie and Saint Joseph with a perfect natural maturity and good volumes.
- In Condrieu, because of the drought, Viognier had a smaller harvest than usual, however offers seductive open floral aromas.
- The crops in Crozes-Hermitage and Hermitage are very promising.

In Provence, the harvest was early and, because most of grape varieties were ripe at the same time, lasted a very brief period (15 days). The excellent weather conditions and the healthy grapes will produce a generous, perfumed vintage.

As a whole, the 2015 quantity is inferior to 2014 which experienced exceptional volumes.

The 2015 vintage promises to be particularly concentrated and should produce
exceptional reds in the Rhône Valley.