Harvest Reports
2006
From Vincent VisseqA special summer
Growing season conditions:
As the 2005 vintage, the growing season started late. The cold being the end of the winter and the beginning of spring is the main reason. Last Autumn was wet, which gave us good reserves in the soil.
The growing season started between two and three weeks late. We can expect the vintage to be late.
The Summer:
July was very warm; the French government implemented their plan of water restrictions. In our area, some storms gave some water to the vineyard, but storms didn’t want to come to Capion. We had just a few drops, not enough. We decided to do the green harvest on early grapes (Syrah, plus Whites grapes), and the Grenache because naturally there were too many grapes. The young plot of Mourvèdre on the back of the cellar also went through the green harvest this being its third vintage. On the others plots, nature gave us natural yields.
It was a very special August. The north wind blows all day long, drying the soil and the vines. The climate was very particular, temperatures stayed under the average temperature in august. Temperatures were very cold at night in our valley.
With these conditions, a late start, warm July and dry and cold August, we were expecting the vintage to be late.
Preparing the Cellar:
At the end of August, we prepare the cellar. We did blends for 1C 2C white. The 1C is a Chardonnay with a touch of Sauvignon blanc, about 50% of the Chardonnay was fermented and ageing in barrels for 12 month. The 2C is a blend of our best barrels. To make the blend, we tasted all the barrels, and select the best barrel or each grapes (Chardonnay, Viognier, Roussanne), and blend in one tank. Barrels were clean, ready to welcome a new juice.
Try to pick grapes with the ideal ripeness and between two rains...
The vintage:
First, we were thinking that the vintage will be late. However this wasn’t in this case.
White grapes ripened very fast, the berries were freshness and full of aromas. The first chardonnay and sauvignon were harvested on the 23rd of august. This means 1 week before the last vintage.
We picked our Viognier and Roussanne later, between late August and early September.
Then, we had a rest. This special summer was fine for white grapes but not so good for black grapes. We restarted harvesting the 11th of September. Like each vintage, the queen syrah was harvested first.
Before, we decided to make Rosé. To make it, we made a blend of Cinsault, Grenache and Mourvèdre. Harvested together, and pressed in the same time. We decided to pick only one grape per vine for the Mourvèdre, in order to give something special to our rosé and keep the others on the vines to pick later to make red wine. Part of the juice were fermented in used barrels.
We harvested the syrah du milieu first, then the Juge. We picked merlot too, but we left a plot of merlot in order to obtain more ripeness. The Cinsault was as ripe as possible, and we picked it just before the rain.
Just after harvesting Merlot, we had rain. It was Wednesday, we stopped harvesting.
We started again the Monday after, in order to finish picking Syrah. Next, we harvested the Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon plots. We left other plots like cabernet de la cave ripen a little bit more.
We had rain once more for the week end, but our vineyard was in an excellent state, so we didn’t have any rotten berries at all.
We let it reconcentrate some more time, and we finished harvesting Grenache, Cabernet, and Mourvèdre on Friday, the 29th.
The night after, a terrible storm hit Capion and the Gassac valley. Hale stone left us only a few leaves on our vineyard.
The storm:
The storm was incredible. It’s abnormal that we had hale stone by night. Some water come threw the storage so we had to change cases because they were soaked. We were lucky to have nobody working in the vineyard because a storm like that can cause many accidents. The alley of plane trees was full of fallen branches.
Wines have a high potential...
Quality of the wines:
White wines have a special nose, a special thing for the Viognier. For me it is the best Viognier I ever made. Chardonnay will be good after ageing;
Roussanne is always our favourite white grape. It always gives us roundness, good palate, and long after taste.
Colours of the red are almost black. The colours arrived very early during the maceration. We prolonged it to obtain right tannins and roundness.
The Syrah have more palate than last year, we used to call it “the middle mouth” milieu de bouche in french.
We made a very fruity Cabernet and Merlot, even with a deep colour.
The Mourvèdre will become my favourite grape after the Syrah.
About the Grenache, it stays always the most powerful grape.
At the end of the ageing period, wines will be both fruity, elegant, with a big structure and a long aftertaste.
