This year, nature has put us to the test. As if every season wanted to experience our strength. The succession of summer heat waves concentrated the clusters. The leaves yellowed, the vine resisted despite everything. The Bollenberg, limestone and arid by nature, took on the appearance of a Mediterranean maquis, transfigured by the scarlet earth and the raw light. And yet, despite these burns, the vines kept good. In this stubborn resistance, everyone was already seeing one of the best promises: that of a vintage of anthology. But nature does not let itself be tamed. She reminded us of a brutal setback.
After mid-August, everything turned. One hundred and thirty millimetres of precipitation in fifteen days; a sudden rain, heavy, insistent, as if the sky had wanted to catch up with one trait in the months of famine. From one extreme to another, from Charybde to Scylla: the vine, forced by thirst, suddenly had to face excess. The skins, some already weakened by the summer burns, split, and in these wet wounds, the rot became engulfed without delay. It was then necessary to compose each morning, plot after plot, to measure the cruel impact of this sudden reversal on a fruit that reached its maturity.
Our living soils held as much as they could. The limestone filtered, the clays retained, the marnes slowly absorbed. But everything was already too much. The brutality of the contrast has exceeded the defenses.
So there was only the decision left. It was not theoretical, but carnal, in the vineyard itself. Every morning, every row, a choice. Move? Wait? Risk? It was necessary to sort every bay that was laid or pushed away to save the best of each plot. Yields decreased.
2025 will not be an easy vintage. It will reflect the rigour of our climate and our fidelity to accept what the sky imposes.
The wines, still in the process, sketch whites with deep aromas. Black pinots, where the shadow of the heat waves in the depth of the shades, a rich texture inscribed in the matter, and suddenly, a vibrating freshness, sharp like a lightening after the storm. We take all our care so that this vintage, despite its excesses, finds its correctness, because that is where the truth of our profession lies.
To you who follow us, who open our bottles with confidence and curiosity, we just want to say thank you. Please accept that each year is a chapter, sometimes struck, always sincere.
Annabelle, Chantal, Christophe and the entire Domaine Camille Braun team