Bounty of flavours of Burgundy 2014

I HAVE just returned from a second visit to Europe - Beaune, Bordeaux, Italy and Spain. From end-August through to the end of September, the weather was glorious, summer just starting to go into autumn, so the days were long with lots of sunshine. An interesting trip as it afforded me the (infrequent) opportunity to see Europe in summer again.

Everywhere we went it was sunny, hot and dry. The vineyards we saw in Burgundy, Bordeaux, Piedmont (Italy) and Bierzo (Spain) were laden with big heavy bunches of grapes hanging low on the vines. Harvest had not started - in Burgundy it was only for the reds as the whites had already been harvested.

Talking to the vignerons we visited in all four regions, the mood was cautiously upbeat, cautious because of successive poor to middling vintages in the past three years. At Faiveley, Mugnier and Lafon in Burgundy, Pio Cesare, Sandrone, Scavino, Altare and Giacomo Conterno in Piedmont, Descendientes J Palacios (Alvaro …