Vineyard Diary 2004
December 2004
The year ended on a rather damp note with a wet month out in the vines. Pruning continues under cloudy and grey skies and little other work was possible due to the soft ground. In one way we are glad to see the end of 2004 since it has been a tiring and eventful year in which the hail attack in August was the most dramatic. Looking forward to 2005 provides an optimistic outlook for better conditions.
November 2004
The beginning of the month was busy in the winery dealing with the normal challenges of extracting the best from the grapes and the vintage. We continue to be happy with the whites and the 'Lady Masburel' red will be good. We are not sure the quality for the top Chateau red will be up to our normal very high standard and we may therefore be happy to settle for a great 'Lady Masburel' 2004. At the end of the month, the pruning started in what will this year be a marathon, with the new plantations providing lots of extra work. Rainfall in November was unseasonably low, which makes work in the vines a bit more pleasurable, although misty and cold weather could never be described as "fun".
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November rainfall |
2004 = 24 mm |
2003 = 92 mm |
October 2004
Harvesting of the white grapes Sémillon and the Muscadelle continued on the 8th and we started to harvest the red grapes with some Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon on the 13th. We continued harvesting red grapes until the 25th, waiting as long as possible for ripeness. For us, this was a delayed and stressful process because, after our hail attack in August, our vines have done their best to ripen the grapes with fewer leaves than normal. In fact they responded well and we have had a much better than expected harvest. The whites are particularly good, with very exotic aromas of passion fruit, melon, coconut and pineapple. Alcohol levels are lower than normal at 12.5%-13%. Fermentation was ideal for the whites, taking place in new oak barrels from Berthomieu, our favourite supplier at present. Maceration of the reds was more technical, with several challenges which are a result of the difficult vintage.
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October rainfall |
2004 = 75 mm |
2003 = 122 mm |
September 2004
As if the Gods had taken pity on us, the weather since our hail attack has been more than kind. We have had glorious sunshine, with high temperatures during the day and cold nights. This temperature range is good for the development of flavour and aroma, so conditions have been perfect for a good recovery. We have had some rain but in small doses fortunately. The 2004 harvest is later than 2003 which started early in September last year. Killing time waiting for the harvest to start is always a nervous ordeal and some work in the vines included installing support wires in the new plots of young vines. The waiting was over on 28th of the month when we started picking the Sauvignon Blanc.
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September rainfall |
2004 = 38 mm |
2003 = 39 mm |
August 2004
An eventful month to say the least!!! The whole of Europe seems
to have suffered an indifferent August weatherwise. And the Dordogne
has been no exception. Higher than the average rainfall and not too much
sunshine although it was warm. Then the big surprise. In the night of Monday
16th August we had the most ferocious hail storm which lasted for 15 minutes and
ripped through our precious vines.
For a week we thought that we had lost the harvest but just to prove how resilient vines are, we had new leaves within a few days and the grapes reacted to the shock by accelerating their ripening process. Our usual summer green harvest, to remove the grapes that will not ripen in time, was more severe than normal to give the grapes that were left a better chance to reach maturity.
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August rainfall |
2004 = 162 mm |
2003 = 73 mm |
July 2004
July has been a month of two halves. Early July was not kind to the tourists, dull cool days and not much sunshine. Some rain in early July helped relieve the vines after a dry June. The second half of July though has been glorious with high temperatures and lots of sun. The best thing though has been the cool nights. Cool nights and a wide temperature range between day and night have a beneficial effect on the flavour and aroma compounds in the grapes. So, July has been good for the vintage. Now we need some rain in August to accelerate the maturing and ripening process. In the vines we did a second 'epamprage' (cutting off unwanted vine shoots )in our top Merlot and finished the 'relevage' the lifting of the vines fronds to capture more sunlight. We did a very light 'rognage' to trim the fronds that were too long and heavy to stay aloft. Grass cutting has been a labour of love; 80 acres, even with a big mover, takes a while! To relieve the boredom, I had our three grandchildren in the tractor cab singing for several days which was great fun. Ploughing has also been on the agenda as has weeding the new plantations.
In the winery, we racked our red wine and gave it a good oxygen blast to open up it's development in barrel.
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July rainfall |
2004 = 31 mm |
2003 = 81 mm |
June 2004
Since the beginning of June the vines have been bursting with energy. Leaf cover ’effeullage’ is revelling in the conditions of the warmer weather and the ample ground water. The job now is to manage the leaf cover by raising the branches of the vines ‘relevage’ vertically to maximise capture of sunlight. It is time consuming and many vineyards just cut of the vine branches ‘rognage’ to make nice neat rows like box hedges. This does not help the grapes though and the extra effort is paid for in quality. We have invested this year in a new attachment for the tractor ‘releveuse’ to help lift the branches and tie them up ‘attachage’. It seems a bit fragile to begin with but time will tell how much it is a benefit.
"Floraison" or flowering has passed successfully between 8th and 16th June. This is a critical stage of the grapes development because if flowering occurs evenly and quickly it means an even harvest later in terms of ripe grapes. The longer flowering goes on the less chance there is of having all the grapes ripe at the same time. The next key phase is "veraison" when the green grapes turn red (60 days after flowering). Because this year the vines are very precocious, the Merlot in the region has suffered "coulure" in which the flowers abort and the volume of grapes is restricted. Because we prune ‘tailler’ in the winter in a way that restricts growth naturally, we have thankfully suffered no "coulure" at all.
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June rainfall |
2004 = 11 mm |
2003 = 51 mm |
May 2004
May is the month for grass cutting ‘tente’ , and 23 hectares takes some cutting! The first treatment ‘ traitement’ of the year was given to the vines and outside work continued with renewing stakes ‘piquet’ which support the wires and repairing the wires themselves. "Epamprage" was started, the process by which unwanted shoots at the bottom of the vines are cut away to reduce competition for water.
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May rainfall |
2004 = 89 mm |
2003 = 58 mm |
April 2004
Although the weather has improved with the advancing season, it is still cool and wet. All the work though is outside in the vines with pruning in full swing. It is taking longer each year because we have replanted nearly a third of the vineyard at much higher densities than before. So, although we have replanted about a third of the surface area, we have more than doubled the number of plants to be pruned! It is all hand work, and very skilled so there is no chance to rush it. The vines got their first ploughing and rotovating of the season in April.
The red wines in barrel were racked ‘soutirage’ for the second time to help their aging and maturation.
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April rainfall |
2004 = 105 mm |
2003 = 85 mm |
February/March 2004
Outside in the vines the winter continues with little sign of spring. We had a few warms days in March but the cold, cloudy weather continues. Although this is not a problem for the vines (in fact it helps us finish the pruning before the vines begin to bud for the new season), it is still a bit miserable for the team out in the cold and rain. Perhaps we are being paid back for the long hot summer in 2003! We finally finished the pruning on March 15th, on time, which was a big relief. We have replanted about a third of the vineyard but with much higher density of plants so the number of vines to be pruned ahs more than doubled. Since pruning is all skilled hand work it is a major challenge for the team to finish on time. But they did so well done to them!
In the cellar, the 2003 vintage is maturing slowly. The whites and the reds have gone back to sleep, languishing moodily in their barrels, waiting for warmer weather. Usually the warmer spring days will bring them alive but they are showing no great urgency to do so yet. This has been a bit of a problem for the "en-primeur" tasting season but the potential is clearly there for a fine vintage. Towards the end of March we had our first "producers" private tasting of the 2003 Montravel Appellation red wine and our first attempt was widely appreciated; a great relief for us.
It has been a busy bottling season too. The Chateau Masburel red 2002 is now in bottle and aging quietly in store before release. The 2003 Lady Masburel un-oaked white wine is now in bottle and will be released ready for this summer drinking.
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Ferbuary/March rainfall |
2004 = 75 mm |
2003 = 105 mm |
January 2004
First of all, apologies to all my readers (well the three Masburel fans who read this!): I have been off-line for three months with a computer software problem which denied me access to the website. Now it's fixed I will try and do a better job of keeping up to date.
January is normally a quiet month with pruning and yet more pruning. In the winery though things continue to be interesting as the wines are beginning to show more of their potential. The whites have been amazing. Fermentation and aging have been extremely fast and now are almost ready for bottling. It is extraordinary that they have reached maturity so quickly but this is obviously a reaction to the unique conditions of the 2003 summer, lots of heat and not much rain. The un-oaked Lady Masburel white is very promising, fresh, fruity and mouth-wateringly delicious. It should be available for summer drinking this year. For the reds, the Cabernet Sauvignon is superb with the Merlot being rich despite having a bit less structure than usual.
This years excitement is making our first "Montravel" red wine. Our white wines are already sold as Appellation Montravel but our red wines are sold as Appellation Cotes de Bergerac at present. Since 2001 our local region of Montravel has been authorised to make a red wine to rival our famous neighbour, Pomerol. It will be 50% Merlot with great aging quality but enjoyable when drunk young. We plan to start with a small quantity to gauge consumer reaction but it could be the direction for our top wine of the future.
We have been doing some experimentation this year to dramatically reduce the amount of sulphites used in the wine making process. Sulphur dioxide is universally used in all wine to control the bacteria that will turn your wine to vinegar. Normally it is undetectable in the finished wine but some consumers are extremely sensitive to it or react against. It is one of the reasons some people say that they don't drink red wine as it gives them a headache. The labelling regulations for the United States requires sulphites to be declared in the contents. At Chateau Masburel we already use the minimum but are now experimenting with a new process which naturally controls the bacteria without adding anything to the wine. The 2003 vintage currently has 50% less than previous years and we plan to go lower as we gain more experience.
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January rainfall |
2004 = 168 mm |
2003 = 45 mm |
For previous years Vineyard Diary, click below
2001
2002
2003