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Chateau la Tour Blanche - Corinne Reulet
Harvest
Chronicles at
Chateau la Tour Blanche
-
Sauternes
- Barsac
For
Chateau la Tour Blanche and the
Sauternes appellation, harvesting has
begun on the 12th of September 2006 with the first selective picking, called "sanitary
picking which allows to collect the
noble rotten berries and eliminate the berries that have benne damaged. The whole grape varieties
(Semillon,
Sauvignonand
Muscadelle) of
Chateau la Tour Blanche are included by this selection process.
As for most of the properties within the
Sauternes
Barsac
area, the year 2006 has been rather difficult at
Chateau la Tour Blanche, involving relatively low volumes. Yet the
harvest which proceeded over twenty days, from September 12 to October 11, had started
at a satisfactory level, with a high qualitative potential for
Chateau la Tour Blanche. But a nasty fly called drosophila disturbed
the
harvest year. These insects, also called fruit flies, proliferate thanks to favorable weather conditions and
harm the grapes by perforating the skin, which causes sour tastes in the
berries. The flies are thus responsible this year for 15% to 90% of loss of
harvest
at
Chateau la Tour Blanche depending of the type of soils. Once again the severe selection of the pickers made it possible to save the
vintage at the price of a very
low yields of approximately 6
hectolitres per
hectare! According to
the damage noted on a few plots, the picking staff at
Chateau la Tour Blanche had sometimes to implement three and four selective sortings.
A crop of only 230 hectolitres of
sweet wine could
be transfered to the vats of Chateau la Tour Blanche instead of nearly 550
hectolitres on
average years.
So far the various batches are very clear and have an excellent
taste, without aromatic drift. The bottle of
Chateau la Tour Blanche 2006 is thus not compromised even if the proportions between the first and the
second wine are not yet known,
fermentations
at
Chateau la Tour Blanche being still in currently in progress.
Corinne Reulet - Chateau la Tour Blanche
http://www.tour-blanche.com/
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