Palate
This is a terroir vintage, in which each plot fully expresses its singularity and contributes thereby to blendings of very great complexity.
Growing Conditions
A true terroir vintage. What is possible when grapes from an ensemble of plots express themselves fully. Favourable weather left the harvested fruit ripe, healthy, full of flavour and concentrated – and indubitably complex.
The cool, humid weather in early spring brought a late budburst and slow vine growth. With mild, dry and sunny weather in June, flowering took place quickly and spread evenly. The summer that followed enhanced the qualitative potential. It was of no extremes: no destructive storms and no heat waves, just some moderate, sporadic rainfall. Under such favorable conditions, plant growth rapidly stopped and the véraison spread as well as the flowering! The weather conditions in September and October were ideal for the ripening of the grapes and the harvest! A long spell of fine weather gave us the time to taste the grapes every day and patiently monitor their development until they had the right velvety, silky texture. Harvesting began 23rd September. The grapes arriving in the vat room were magnificent: perfectly ripe, healthy, juicy and concentrated.
Winemaking
Although this very fine vintage gave us the leisure to harvest calmly, it caused our oenologists some anxiety! The grapes arrived in the winery at slightly higher temperatures than usual.
The crops had to be cooled to make sure that the fermentation temperatures were well controlled. These efforts were both encouraged and rewarded by the very high quality of the daily tastings: we were stunned by the freshness, density and finesse of the batches.
