Hello everyone,
September was quite intense for us. It was cold, with temperatures 5 degrees below normal for the entire first half of the month, and we started having ground frost on September 12. Things got even tougher from September 17 to 21, with five consecutive nights of frost. That's quite unusual for mid-September!
So, we had five nights without much sleep, fighting against the frost, making fires, taking temperature readings, and so on. Our wind machine proved effective in minimizing losses during the first four nights, until it refused to start on the fifth and coldest night... Without the machine, the ground temperature dropped to -6°C, and pretty much all the leaves were burned. A machine that doesn't work is not very useful...
IWe then had to harvest all the grapes, as without their foliage, the vines could no longer ripen them. But the good news is that the grapes were beautiful and ripe, thanks to the warm summer we had. We hurried to prepare all the equipment on Monday and started the harvest on Tuesday, September 22. Everything went very well thanks to a great team of pickers, and by Saturday, September 26 at 7 p.m., everything was harvested!
We did have some botrytis on the Pinots, but with careful sorting in the field, we only harvested grapes of very good quality. And let's say that after two weeks without much sleep, I was pretty burned out too (like the leaves)!
Right now, the fermentations are finishing up (100% indigenous yeasts this year on all the cuvées!), and the result is very beautiful. We even have a few surprise cuvées that we'll be pleased to introduce to you this spring!
Now, it's up to many of you to have a pretty intense 28 days. Good luck, and we wish you the best of luck in the current context...