Vineyard Diary 2006
December 2006
This winter we have a lot of catching up to do in the vineyard, enough to keep out team of three fully occupied without consideration of the pruning. So this year we have engaged a team of three pruning experts to help. Our team will focus on the new plants which need training with new stakes and wires. We are also planting 2000 new vines in the gaps that appear after we take out dead or non-producing vines. We have to retention all the wires throughout the vineyard. We have terracing to attend to on two slopes which are dangerously steep and a lot of enrichment of the soil to keep up the health and balance of natural elements.
With all this work outside we are delighted that the mild weather has stayed with us through November and December.
November 2006
The portfolio of 2006 wines has expanded to cover almost every customer demand.
We have a Rosé for the first time since 2000. We have our traditional Lady red and Chateau Masburel red wines which will be barrel aged. We also have grapes harvested from our young plants which we are using to make a fruit driven red wine, aged in vat and available for early drinking next spring.
In white we have a super fresh Lady Masburel with crisp acidity and a delicious Chateau Masburel white for barrel ageing. In addition we have a semi-dry wine for foie gras and a Grand liquoureux dessert wine. So, eight wines to look forward to from 2006.
October 2006
This harvest is nothing if not exciting. On the 3rd we awoke to some pretty high winds which got stronger as the morning wore on until branches started dropping off the trees. And then, ominously, the power went off. In the middle of harvesting we were a bit stuck without electricity but, as patience is an essential ingredient of wine making, we waited. Until someone came by that is and suggested that it might be three days until the power came back. I immediately jumped in the car and raced downtown to buy a generator which were disappearing fast when I arrived. 250,000 homes were to be without power as the wind had twisted several pylons to the point when they collapsed. Our generator was sufficient to drive a single pump to continue work in the winery, plus the phone, a computer and a kettle for making tea!
Harvesting continued on the 2nd and the 6th with the Cabernet Sauvignon for our Lady Masburel. The final Cabernet Sauvignon for our Chateau Masburel was harvested on the 11th, to a huge sigh of relief. When the last grapes come in, we know that we have things in our control and nature has done it's best. Now it is up to us to make the best of what nature has given us! This year we have the benefit of some "New World" input. Jacqui Christie has joined us for the harvest from the Hunter Valley in Australia where she plans to make high quality wines. Although here to learn, her natural enthusiasm was infectious and we took advantage to learn how things are done "down under". I wonder if you will be able to taste the difference when the wines are released!
September 2006
So it has arrived again, harvest time. We work all year for this moment and it is always nerve wracking. Knowing that there will be long days, and long nights ahead, the team tries to accumulate some hours ahead of time but it is not relaxing, just waiting.
The first two weeks of September have been glorious, sunshine and no rain. And so on the 14th (a full two weeks later than 2005) we started to harvest our Sauvignon Blanc for our Lady Masburel, ripe, with good aromas and good acidity. We took a four day break and harvested the botrysised (noble rot) Sauvignon Blanc on the 18th for a super-sweet dessert wine. Picking continued the following day with the Semillon and Muscadelle coming in on the 19th. Our top white Sauvignon Blanc, destined for the Chateau Masburel was picked two days later on the 21st to a sigh of relief and a breather before harvesting the reds. Blessed with a week of sunshine, we started picking the Merlot on the 27th, fully ripe. Then for two days we picked the young plants which are now up to six years old. The Malbec and Cabernet Franc is destined for a very special Rosé and the Cabernet Sauvignon we will use to make a young red wine for earlier drinking. On the 29th it was time to attack the Semillon by hand and harvested a tiny quantity of totally botrytised grapes, perfect for this years liquoreux.
Whilst we have had plenty of rain in September, we are high on the ridge and the rain clouds seem to pass us by to the south where there has been higher rainfall. We are happy too to have so much grass cover that drinks most of the water.
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September rainfall |
2006 = 150mm |
2005 = 57mm |
August 2006
It is time to give all the vines a 'haircut'! Their lengthy fronds, now almost touching across the rows, must be trimmed to a manageable length. The process is called 'rognage' in french and is carried out with an attachment of spinning blades on our tractor, a mechanised whirling dervish if you will. We took the chance too to rotovate between the rows of the new plants, to supress the precocious weeds this year without the need for a chemical herbicide.
We have unfortunately been a bit shorthanded this August because Didier, our 'jack-of-all-trades' in the team, had an accident on his motorbike and was off for two months to recover from a shoulder injury.
Weatherwise, August has been a disappointment, particularly for the tourists. It has been cloudy and cold with quite a few rainy days, 12 in fact. We are grateful though that apart from one short spell in July, there has been no hail this year.
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August rainfall |
2006 = 61mm |
2005 = 15mm |
July 2006
It seems that the heatwave has returned. July is a repeat of the extremely hot weather we had in 2003 interspered this year though with thunder storms. Four in total brought sufficient rain for the month for the vines and, unfortunately, for the weeds.
2006 has been a ferociously active year for weeds and grass that almost appear to grow back behind you as you pass with the mower. We have to be careful though because although it is tempting to keep the grass short, neat and tidy, there is a danger that if it rains a lot during the harvest we will have lost the protection that grass provides between the rows. So although Masburel has looked a bit wilder than normal this summer, we hope that our prudence will pay off later.
In the cellar, we are now getting a good appreciation of the fabulous quality of the 2005 vintage. It promises to be our best yet. The whites will soon be ready for bottling and the reds will need to saty in barrell until 2007.
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July rainfall |
2006 = 98mm |
2005 = 35mm |
June 2006
June is a month for work in the vines. The usual toil of "epamprage" sees the manual removal of the vine suckers that would otherwise steal rich nutrients from the grape ripening process. "Relevage" is also time consuming, the lifting of the vine fronds that otherwise do their best to take up every available square centimeter of horizontal space when in fact they need to be near vertical. 2006 has been a demanding year for the usual diseases of Mildew and Odium but our plants are so healthy we have only needed the final two treatments, carried out on the 10th and 30th June.
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June rainfall |
2006 = 43mm |
2005 = 5 mm |
May 2006
In May, we at last got around to the last job on the new plantation of vines; securing the stake at the end of each row firmly into the ground and tensioning the training wires. We did our first "desherbage" (weedkilling) in May and successfully avoided the winter "desherbage" in the interests of the least chemicals the better. The proof of our efforts to avoid chemicals wherever possible is bearing fruit (if you will forgive the pun) and the evidence of butterflies and ladybirds in the vines shows nature is producing it's own protection.
In the winery we carried out our second "soutirage" (racking) to help the development of the wine. Our 2005 vintage in white is already stunning and I am always tempted to drink it, it is so good. The reds though are proving obstinate, as are most other wineries finding. The second fermentation in which natural bacteria turn sour malic acid into soft lactic acid is slower than normal and patience is demanded. We let this process happen in barrel and despite our barrel store being heated to 18°C (our electricity bill was €2500 for the month of March alone), the wine will take it's own time to complete the malo-lactic fermentation when the weather warms up. I wish!!!
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May rainfall |
2006 = 55mm |
2005= 21 mm |
April 2006
Now the pruning is over it is time to catch up with the "attachage" (tying the vine branch to it's wire), a job for which we needed some seasonal help. We have also been mowing the grass and rotovating between the vine rows to freshen the soil. We did our first treatment of the year to protect the vines from disease. The wet weather has at last relented, which is just as well for working out in the vines can be soulless in the rain.
With the help of some inside knowledge from the French weather service, we have developed a theory of weather forecasting based on the wind direction at "Rameau". Rameaux is a Saints day 8 days before Easter (9th April in 2006) and every year has been eerily accurate in predicting the summer weather. If the wind on Rameau is from the west, it will be cloudy and wet in summer. If the wind is from the east, there will be thunderstorms and hail, as in 2004. If the wind is from the south it will be hot and dry, as 2003. If the wind is from the North/North West, it will be overcast, wet and windy; as this year. We are all hoping our theory has a flaw!
In the winery the work of "batonnage" (lees stirring) continued, as did "ouillage", the process of topping up the barrels to avoid air getting to the wine. If the air in the barrel store is too dry, it is surprising how much wine evaporates from each barrel so ouillage is very important. The ideal humidity in the barrel store is around 70% as this minimises evaporation.
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April rainfall |
2006 = 30 mm |
2005 = 141 mm |
January-March 2006
2006 proved to be no different from previous years with the challenge being pruning, pruning and yet more pruning. We have not been helped this year by the sudden resignation of Gustave, our tractor driver, for personal reasons not unconnected with losing his driving licence! So 75% of the team had 100% of the 110,000 vines to prune by the end of March. In fact the task was achieved with an enormous effort on the 28th March but it was the latest that anyone can remember finishing. Thank God it only needs doing once a year!!!
In terms of the weather, we thought it would never stop raining, particularly in March when we had more rain than the whole three month period last year. We also thought Spring would never come and in fact it didn't. So Winter 2006 will be remembered as long, cold and wet; an ominous foreboding for the year.
In the winery, we did a racking of the red wines, transferring them from barrel to cuve and back again to eliminate the lees and give the wine a good dose of oxygen. The 2005 vintage is looking very promising and the hype from the 2006 Bordeaux tasting "en-primeur" for the professionals, is that 2005 may be the best vintage in living memory. We can only hope!!!
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January/March rainfall |
2006 = 265 mm |
2005 = 112 mm |
For previous years
Vineyard Diary, click below
2001 2002
2003
2004
2005
2007