> What's in a vintage?

Everyone knows Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet and the quote "What's in a name?". In this famous tragedy Juliet explains to Romeo that a name is an "artificial and meaningless convention", that she loves the person who is called Montague and not the Montague name...

Now it's my turn to ask you: What's in a vintage?
The vintage is the year in which the grapes are harvested. With these grapes, the winemaker will craft the wine. The winemaking process consists of many different steps and at every step, the winemaker has to make choices, the right choices, to obtain a quality wine.
Of course the quality of the grapes is essential and sunny weather with some rain from time to time will help a lot to produce ripe grapes with a high sugar level, in abundance.
Other years, when Mother Nature is less generous, grapes may suffer from flood, drought or extreme temperatures. The winemaker will then decide a severe selection at the picking or sorting, so that only the best grapes enter his wine.
In both cases, the winemaker plays a determining role. As a proof: we have seen average wines in years where the vintage was classified "outstanding" and also the contrary, with excellent wines made in the years where the vintage was classified as "average".

Our aim at Barton & Guestier, is to produce wines with consistent quality and style.
This is what made the success of Champagne. Most of it is non-vintage.
What's important to the consumer is the quality of the wine inside the bottle, not the vintage written on the label.

On the occasion of our 290th anniversary in 2015, we will propose a new special cuvée, and as always our signature will be guaranty of quality.
Celebration will be key, with new exciting tools and promotions.
But celebration also means sharing, sharing with you, creating priviliged moments of meeting you, on your markets, on Fairs worldwide, or at Château Magnol where we hope to welcome you in June during Vinexpo!

In the meanwhile, I wish you the best possible end of years holidays and a good start of 2015!

Santé!

Philippe MARION
Sales & Marketing Director

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