Jim's Loire: 2014 Loire: Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé in luck again

Domaine Henri Bourgeois: grapes waiting to be

picked for a late harvest wine

(above and below)

Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé and the other Central Vineyards have been fortunate again in 2014. Not only have they had a good vintage but they have had a generous vintage unlike other parts of the Loire, where many producers have their third successive short vintage. In Sancerre and Pouilly quality producers like Domaine Henri Bourgeois, Domaine Vacheron, Michel Redde and Masson Blondelet have harvested around 60 hl/ha this year and the quality is high. Here 2014 appears to be similar to a vintage such as 1990 where both the yields were high and so too unusually the quality.

A big vintage in the Central Vineyards looks likely to widen again the wealth gap between Sancerre, for example, and the rest of the Loire.

(More details to add.)