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Chateau Palmer
The 2007 harvest at Chateau Palmer, Margaux
 2007 September 20th, the first day of harvest!
We finally began the 2007 harvest. The quality of the grapes to
be picked has already caused a lot of discussions and has been
the subject of many press articles. In the last three weeks, we've been
fortunate with a cool weather in the morning and warmer
temperatures in the afternoon. These exceptional conditions for
September will allow us to pick grapes that have reached full maturity,
without disease.
Today, our vineyard chef, Jacques Dupin, distributed the harvest materiel:
a pull-carrier and shears (specifically for harvesting) to the
45 cutters and a basket carrier with suspenders for the 15 brave
carriers.
Our team of young Danes arrived early this morning and they enjoy the
fine weather. Thomas Duroux met them and told them how much he
enjoys the tradition of hosting them at Chateau Palmer, a
tradition that has gone on for over 10 years.
2007 September 24th
After harvesting the earliest plots of Merlot on Thursday and on
Friday, we're taking break while waiting for the next plots to
reach full maturity.
2007 September 25th
Maturity: Determining a harvest date for each plot depends on
the perception of its level of maturity.
For a number of years, winemakers essentially looked for
technological maturity, yet today phenolic maturity (for red
grapes) and aromatic maturity are also taken into account.
For a more precise definition of these three levels:
1. Technological maturity measures the balance between the sugar
concentration in a grape (sugar that, through its transformation
by yeasts, becomes the alcohol in wine) and its acidity. The
results are stated in sugar's potential for alcohol (17g/l of
sugar will give 1% alcohol) and in total acidity and/or in pH
for acidity.
2. Phenolic maturity measures the level of concentration and
extractability of the phenolic compounds (tannins and
Anthocyanin in particular) found in the grape. This is done by
tasting the grape but also through a series of tests (Glories
Index)
3. Aromatic maturity measures the level of aromatic qualities in
the grape. Tasting the grapes is the only tool available to us
at this time.
You can begin to talk about a perfect vintage only when you find
these three types of maturity simultaneously.
At Chateau Palmer, we prefer tasting the grapes to determine
their level of maturity. During harvest we spend every morning
tasting berries in the vineyard.
2007 September 28th
Harvesting "à la carte" Our picking team is still incomplete
because we're only using our group of Danish students in the
vineyards.
Organizing our harvest this way allows us to take our time and
to pick each plot at the right moment. The situation is as
favourable as ever: no botrytis, thick skins that little by
little become more fragile, which will help the extraction of
Anthocyanin and tannins.
We expect to finalize the picking of our Merlots by early next week.
As for the Cabernet Sauvignon, this morning's meeting to taste
the grapes should give us some indications as to when we'll
start picking them.
2007 October 2th
The Merlot harvest is coming to a close with the oldest plots on
the Palmer plateau. These grapes, which we have tasted numerous
times over the last few days, are now at their best: they are
rich, concentrated, structured and are very soft and velvety.
These are grapes that represent the personality of Palmer's
great wines!
Harvesting the Merlot took us almost 13 days! It was never been
seen before. It most certainly has a connection with the
duration of flowering last spring.
And the Cabernet? After tasting the grapes on Friday morning, we were
encouraged. The skins from early ripening grapes are already
very tender and let us hope to make rich wines. We expect to
begin harvesting by Thursday. At that moment we'll see if we need
to speed the pace of picking or if we'll need to continue to be patient
and to pay close attention to details.
2007 October 5th
We started to pick the Cabernet. We now finalized the Merlot
grapes on Tuesday evening
and, after a daylong break, we finally decided to pick
the earliest Cabernet-Sauvignons yesterday.
Wednesday morning, after the daily grape tasting, we clearly saw
a dramatic increase in their maturity level: the grapes are
tasty, the skins are refined, and the tannins are soft and
beautifully dense.
Convinced of their potential, we picked up our shears to bring
these delicious bunches to the winery!!
The good weather conditions predicted for the weekend and the
beginning of next week will give the grapes that are still in
the vineyard time to perfect their smooth tannins, giving our
2007 vintage all the elegance and mineral aromas of a great Palmer.
2007 October 12th
End of Harvest! The 2007 vintage is in the vats.
Chateau Palmer
http://chateau-palmer.com/fr1
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