News from the cellar

This year's wine harvest was over in no time. Picking began on 15 October, with the last grapes going through the press on 4 November.

The rapid onset of noble rot from mid-October onwards caused some concern. As the botrytis came very late and was absolutely clean, we are highly optimistic from a quality standpoint. Nevertheless, noble rot always means lower yields – and this year's harvest loss was particularly severe. We are about one-third down on what we would normally aim for in terms of crop size.

Judging by the results in the cellar, 2013 is a terrific vintage. The young, embryonic wines are very minerally and elegant. They remind me of the superb 2004 vintage.