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Chateau Margaux
The 2007 Harvest
Chronicles at
Château
Margaux -
Margaux
 September
18th 2007
The harvesting of the Sauvignon Blanc began yesterday after an
initial selective picking at the end of last week to bring in
those grapes with the most golden colour. It is already
guaranteed that 2007 will be an excellent year for white wine:
the relatively cool temperatures during the summer preserved all
of the finesse of the aromas and then the dry and warm weather
of the last three weeks intensified the concentration of the
berries. It is hard to believe, but in fact, we have the same
sugar levels as last year.
The picture of this 2007 vintage (rather than its potential
quality) has been tarnished by the less than sunny weather
conditions, which have been much less rainy than some have
reported and which people end up believing: 50mm (less than 2
inches) in July and 80mm (3,15 inches) in August - exactly the
same amounts as in 1996. Will the beautiful weather we have been
enjoying for the last three weeks produce the same successful
scenario for the red varietals, and in particular for the
Cabernets ?
September 20th 2007
The harvesting of the white grapes is done very carefully. The
wonderfully consistent sunny weather and the superbly healthy
grapes are providing us with the rare luxury of being able to
pick and select with painstaking precision. For each plot we
have been able to go through each row on three separate
occasions.. And there is more good news: we also believe that
this year's crop of Pavillon Blanc will be the normal size.
The ripening of the Merlot is quite slow, which is not a problem
since we wish to let the grapes benefit for as long as possible
from this lovely sunny weather which has at last arrived. Maybe
we'll only start the picking of the Merlot when the bigger
harvesting team arrives in a week's time.
So the most exciting moment of the year has arrived, when the
harvest is about to be picked and when hopes and expectations
rise and doubts begin to surface..
September 25th 2007
Yesterday we finished picking the white grapes. This long period
of harvesting was made possible by the magnificent health of the
grapes. It also reflects our eagerness to get the very best out
of this year's crop. The Abel Laurent cellar, where the Pavillon
Blanc is fermented and aged, is already filled with the lovely
aromas that are so characteristic of the fermenting musts of
Sauvignon Blanc. Let's hope that our yeasts will be able
complete the job of transforming the berries’ exceptionally high
levels of sugar.
Today and tomorrow there will be no picking; it will only resume
on Thursday with the arrival of our larger harvesting crew. The
weather continues to be quite nice, and the Merlot grapes are
gaining in concentration. In any case, they cannot lose any, as
they are in perfect condition. And when you look at them, they
even appear to be less ripe than they probably are in reality..
Who can tell?
September 28th 2007
("...") Today's short working day was immediately followed by a
long rest, because we have only decided to resume the picking on
Monday so as to allow the grapes to take advantage of the three
days of fine weather that have been forecast and to finish off
the laborious ripening of the Merlot grapes.. The Cabernets and
the Petit Verdot have just about caught them up. We should be
able to harvest straight after the Merlot, towards the middle of
next week.
October 1st 2007
So here we go again, this time for good. We're starting with our
emblematic plot (L’Eglise) nearby the church, which, if not the
best of our plots, is generally the one that produces some of
our best Merlot gapes. The weather was still quite cool on
Saturday but then changed dramatically on Sunday with a sudden
increase in temperatures, moving up to 25°C and 26°C today. This
warm weather should allow the vines to add the finishing touches
for a perfect ripening of the grapes. A few raindrops fell on
Sunday, and again today, barely 3 or 4 millimetres (0,1 or 0,15
of an inch), nothing really to worry about.
We are going to continue picking the Merlot until Wednesday, and
then we'll start the Cabernets which are also ripe and should be
of great quality.
October 3rd 2007
Today we are starting the picking on the lovely gravel outcrops
where the Cabernets have reached perfect ripeness and thereby
become more and more prone to an attack of botrytis, especially
with the present hot and humid weather conditions, although it
has not been raining. We have great hopes for these grapes whose
ripening process took full advantage of superb weather
conditions throughout September.
We still have almost half of the merlot grapes to pick, which
are both later-ripening and less prone to rot because of their
clay-limestone soils. We think we will pick them towards the end
of this week, but there is no hurry.
The harvest is therefore in full swing, and although we do not
know the final results yet, we can already say that 2007 will be
a very good vintage. Might I claim an even higher rank? We will
only have the answer to that question when we start tasting the
first vats.
October 8th 2007
The harvest continues with the same hot, sunny and humid weather
conditions, but still without rain. Our pickers haven't had to
put on their rubber boots once!
All the Cabernets planted on gravel soils, more prone to
botrytis, have now been brought in. The Petit Verdot grapes
remain to pick (a particularly good year for this varietal) and
the late-ripening Cabernet planted on less gravely soils.. And
almost half of the Merlot, which has remained in perfectly
healthy condition. We are going to try and see this year if the
Merlot's quality, which is often disappointing, might be
enhanced by a longer than usual ripening.
And to think that we have only one crop per year to do this kind
of trial! That only adds up to forty or so possible experiments
in a lifetime. We enjoy the privilege though of having 400 years
of accumulated experience here at Château Margaux - another
advantage of having a great terroir.
Chateau Margaux
http://www.chateau-margaux.com/
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