The Harvest of 2011-The Big Picture
The 2011 harvest was the second worst harvest since 2005, when we got zero fruit. The weather was extremely cold throughout the growing season, and it even rained during flowering—in June! Thus, the flowers never did set properly into grape berries. We got only 50% of our normal yield from Domaine du Docteur Rodgers and Domaine Valeta, and only 7% of our normal yield from the big vineyard, Domaine Lois Louise. Yes, you read that correctly, 7%.
However, the quality of the fruit is exceptional. We grew very small berries (giving concentration) with low sugar (giving Burgundian characteristics), but still got optimum ripeness (brown seeds, indicating ripe tannin).