Harvest: from September 18 to October 11
Blend: 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 38% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot
The winter was mild in Saint-Estèphe. Rainfall was close to the thirty-year average (550 mm), with alternating dry and wet months.
Early April, in summer-like temperatures (25°C), budburst was uniform, including in plots that had been hit by hail in 2022. The Gironde protected us « in extremis » from the April 5 frost. Regular rainfall in spring, combined with mild temperatures, led to rapid growth in the vineyard. Flowering was early but good (mid-flowering on 28 May). All the work came at the same time: wire lifting, shoot thinning, top-ping, etc. Our winegrowers had to work tirelessly to help the vines through this intense period.
July proved to be a capricious month, with alternating dry and rainy days leading to storm fronts and the risk of hail: 13 days of hail warnings between April and August. Our collective protection system installed this year enabled us to avoid the worst! Efforts to protect against downy mildew were increased. Added to this was meticulous and repeated shoot thinning, judicious wire lifting and shallow tillage to drain water from the plots. The vines held out!
The extreme heat of late August and early September began to take its toll on the high foliage of young plants. We limited evapotran-spiration by shallow tillage and close mowing of the grassed plots. Our fresh clay-gravel terroirs in Saint-Estèphe once again demonstrat-ed their ability to cope with extreme conditions. On the eve of the harvest, the vineyard was green and healthy. The crop was looking generous and the weather mild, so we decided at the very beginning of September to remove leaves from our Cabernet Sauvignon vines to help them ripen and reach their optimum potential, a choice that paid off.
The Merlot harvest began on 18 September under magnificent sunshine and summer-like temperatures. This was followed by the Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and then the early plots of Cabernet Sauvignon. At the end of September, we stopped picking to allow our great late-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon to reach full maturity. These last grapes were brought in on 11 October. In total, it took almost a month of picking (the longest in the estate’s history) to harvest our 70 hectares. The crop turned out to be fine and generous: the reward for a year’s hard work!
