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Chateau Haut-Brion - Jean-Philippe Delmas
Harvest
Chronicles at Chateau
Haut-Brion
-
Pessac-Leognan-Graves
Haut-Brion
2006: a year of contrasts and extremes
We have finished harvesting our grapes at
Haut-Brion on September 29th, 2006! It has now been one month since we started the meticulous harvesting of our vineyards vine by vine,
plot by plot.
The
harvest at
Haut-Brion started on August 29th with the picking of our white grapes. We started with the
Sauvignons and followed on with the
Semillons on September 4th. After this, we began harvesting our red grapes beginning with the
Merlots on September 7th and continuing on with the
Cabernet
Francs on September 18th. On September 21st .we began picking the
Cabernet
Sauvignons
Each year is different from the previous. After 2005, a year of
great heat and drought, the staff at
Haut-Brion had
to deal with a completely different type of
vintage. 2006 was characterized by frequent climactic changes shifting from one extreme to another.
And this pattern continued on until the end of the
harvest at
Haut-Brion.
The direct consequences of such a climactic variability is a potential of added frailty in the grape cluster due to the growth in the plant and the irregularity of the ripening.
The role of the grower is to allow the grapes to reach optimal maturity in the most favourable
conditions. It is true that the work for the technical staff at
Haut-Brion
was not easy this year and yet our success remained attainable.
In order to succeed we needed to accomplish an enormous amount
of work in the vines of the
Haut-Brion estate: we started with an early thinning of the leaves on the
cooler side of the vines by the end of June, followed by a
green
harvest,
for the purpose was to lessen the load on the vine and improve the
balance and
the air circulation. Later, a second thinning out of leaves was carried out. This required great care so as not to damage the
remaining berries. Last but not least man plays an essential role in the sorting of the
grapes during
harvest time. In a complicated
year such as 2006, such a level of care becomes particularly
crucial to produce
Haut-Brion's great wine.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the hundred, or
so, seasonal workers who stood with us at
Haut-Brion for a long period of at least three months while we
were waiting for the optimum moments for the picking of each
varietal
and each plot of
Haut-Brion.
Therefore, thanks to the great preparation and work on the
sorting tables in the vineyards, the technical staff working in
Haut-Brion's vat room was able to witness the arrival of
the containers for perfectly healthy
ripe grapes.
The
Merlots
are currently in the final phase of their
fermentation at
Haut-Brion and we are surprised by their density in color and by
the high degrees in
alcohol
reached as well as their strong
tannic
structure.
As for
Cabernet
Francs and
Sauvignons
at
Haut-Brion, which are still fermenting at this hour, we will let you know how
they evolve in due course.
Today, on Tuesday, October 3rd, we were surprised in the early
hours by a huge storm which approached in intensity the one that
hit us in 1999. Fortunately, the ferocity of the winds did not
last as long as in 1999. However, it was sufficiently strong to
bring down quite a number of trees in the park and gardens of
Chateau
Haut-Brion as well as some at Château La
Mission Haut-Brion. It goes without saying that we were very
much relieved to have had the entire 2006 crop already resting in the vat room!
Jean-Philippe Delmas Chateau Haut-Brion
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