2019

The 2019 year started under the rain with warm winter temperatures. As a consequence, the budburst took place 15 days sooner than usual. Flowering happened with slightly low temperatures and few rainy days caused flower abortion and millerandage. On the other hand, these precipitations were beneficial at the beginning of summer and helped us to handle July’s temperatures. During veraison, the sudden dryness locked some berries; we will sort them with manual harvest or with the optical sorting table.

The end of summer was cooler allowing the vineyard to rest. Some showers at the beginning of September arrived right on time to swell the berries … and our hopes. The harvest date of each plot is the key for this vintage. Regarding the choices we made during the season (leaf removal, plots’ age, soil composition, weather condition …), harvest choice is also crucial and requires a daily control in the vines. Each day, we walk miles and taste hundreds of berries in order to establish the harvest plan adapted to our plots.

We harvested the whites while keeping an eye on the reds! So fresh mornings the first days of September were perfect for two reasons: the white of Cantenac Brown had been harvested in perfect conditions and in the meantime the ripeness of the red grapes evolved phenomenally. Since the first analysis, merlot and cabernet sauvignon show remarkable polyphenols. The first harvest day was set on September 18th for the youngest vines. Enough time to get the team ready and then wait until the end of the month to harvest the great merlot and beginning of October for the cabernet sauvignon.