The 2018 vintage was one of ‘twists and turns’ that was shy about showing its full potential until the assemblage.  We believe, on the whole, the reds are among the finest we have made at the Domaine.   But there were lots of reasons to have doubts along the way:  the hot dry summer pushed up the pHs and the accelerated growing season which made the picking date critical.   We started on August 30th and finished seven of our eight red vineyards in 48 hours.   While we had reasonable sugar ripeness 5 days earlier, we wanted to wait several days to allow the phenolic mosaic to come together and the tannins to mature as much as possible.  Our alcohols ranged from 13  - 14 degrees so picking even a few days later could have been problematic. Getting the extraction correct was critical, balancing the ripeness with the phenolics.  We increased the remontage frequency and employed a more gentle pigeage compared to the last several years.  After fermentation, a few malos started immediately after pressing due in part to continued warm temperatures – much, much earlier than we prefer!  But happily, through the élevage, we found that the surprisingly highish tartaric acid provides a lovely ‘grip’ to balance the ripe fruit. Yields for the reds were about 30 hl/ha which added to the concentration. These reds remind me of the 1985 vintage, which also had similar growing conditions.   The whites are pure and ripe with good acidity – a cross between 2015 and 2017 for recent vintages and similar to 1989, for those of us of a certain age: another hot, dry summer.