2000 VINTAGE

The harvest is stopped by the rains on October 10th, the harvest brings a barrel/ha. Everything starts with 2 somp-killer selections, the rest is just putting the grapes on the ground.

WEATHER DURING THE GROWING SEASON

After a "rotten" spring, which raised serious fears of mildew, flowering went well in early June. Other than a few cool nights and a week of July 14th that was a trial for holiday goers, summer was warm, sunny, and dry. In fact, the drought conditions lasted until the end of summer. The crop was both plentiful and of excellent quality. The grapes were very ripe and ready for noble rot. At first, the dry weather in September slowed down contamination by botrytis.

HARVEST

Pickers went over the entire estate on 26/09 to harvest (mainly Sauvignon Blanc) grapes precociously attacked by botrytis. A few scattered showers gave new impetus to noble rot, and a 2nd round of picking began on October 9th. On October 10th, there were 9 more barrels of beautiful wine in the cellar. If the fine weather had continued, the equivalent of thirty barrels of wine would have been picked in 3-4 days. However, it started to rain on the evening of the 10th and continued for a week. The grapes from the end of the 2nd wave of picking were not deemed worthy of the estate. It then proceeded to rain non-stop (except for a lull from October 22nd to the 29th), at which time a third wave of picking brought in a few grapes. During a break in the weather on November 15th, pickers cut off the bad remaining grapes and left them on the ground. A year of low yields: 15 barrels of wine from15 hectares!

THE WINE

Fermented and aged in barrel for three years. Production : only 4,000 bottles Alcohol: 13.50° - Residual sugar: 124 g/l - Acidity: 4.80 g/l