October 18, 2019 2019 grape harvest: an atypical and instructive vintage for Hennessy
October 18, 2019 at 03:56 pm
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After two weeks of grape picking under a beaming Charente sun, Hennessy has announced an initial assessment of this year's harvest. Almost summery weather has resulted in healthy, mature grapes.
Beginning September 13th, teams at Hennessy vineyards began harvesting the grapes, choosing the best possible moment for each plot. The very dry summer, combined with high temperatures, led to very rapid maturation and exceptional sugar concentration in the grapes compared with previous years. This resulted in a particularly brief harvest campaign.
Following periods of spring frost in May, flowering under rainy conditions in June and a dry summer, the harvest was smaller than in 2018 and the grapes reveal a balanced maturity that is rare for the Cognac region. Overall, the wines are fruity, retaining an attractive freshness and marked acidity, thus ensuring their stability during conservation ahead of distillation.
During this conservation, the yeast consumes the sugar in the grape juice, transforming it into alcohol. This stage ends when all the sugar has been absorbed. The wines are then kept in vats before distillation, after which the Hennessy Tasting Committee assesses the quality of the new eaux-de-vie to determine the optimal assemblages for Hennessy cognacs.
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LVMH - Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA published this content on 18 October 2019 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 18 October 2019 14:54:05 UTC
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