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Uutiset
| 10/08/2012 Harvest 2012: The picking of the reds |
The harvest of the red grapes, which had started on Monday October 1st, restarted today after a two-day break. The return of the fine weather has largely enabled the ground to dry again after the rains we had last week. It’s quite probable that the rain - the first really significant rain we’ve had since July 15th - will help the vines to perfect the grapes’ ripeness. So it was essential to wait a while… The Merlots will be finished tomorrow, or almost, and we’ll already be starting a few plots of the Great Cabernets, whose precocity and quality are always remarkable.
Viinin Kuvailu
The Story
Since the 17th Century, the first wine of Château Margaux has been recognised as being one of the greatest wines in the entire world. It owes its unique qualities to the genius of its terroir as well as to the passionate work of a succession of generations. It’s a remarkable wine that comes from a combination of characteristics that are only rarely found: finesse, elegance, complexity, density, intensity, length and freshness. Although its tannic concentration may be exceptional, it’s rare to detect astringency.
The great vintages are distinguished by their formidable ability to move us. The lesser vintages give pleasure to wise enthusiasts. They offer the advantage of evolving very rapidly and, reveal, after a few years, instead of power, this subtlety that is the prerogative of great terroirs. Château Margaux has an extraordinary ability to evolve. Over the years, it has developed a finesse, an aromatic complexity and a remarkable presence on the palate.
Château Margaux has sought to achieve excellence in its wines for over 400 years now through painstaking and necessarily long studies of its terroir, through a constant desire to learn and innovate, by remaining sensitive to demanding markets, and above all through a passionate commitment that has been shared by the families that have succeeded each other at the estate. At the end of the 17th century, it became part of the nascent elite “First Growths” – long before being established officially by the Classification of 1855. Since then, Château Margaux has known fame and fortune, seeing by experience how ephemeral both are.
The estate has 200 acres under vine. Each plot and each variety are treated differently from pruning throughout the growing season. Chateau Margaux’ goal is to nurture and maintain vines for as long as possible, as they believe vines need to reach 20 years of age to produce great wine. The estate is constantly trying to understand through experimentation how to improve soil health and fruit quality. Today, no insecticides are used, there is an important balance of healthy insects to counter pests, and any number of experiments with ploughing, organic farming, and biodynamic applications are ongoing. A final key point to note, Margaux has for the last 30+ years had among the lowest yields in the Medoc.
The wine was aged for 15 months, in 10% new oak and 90% second use barrels. Because of the particularities of the vintage, Cabernet Sauvignon made up an extremely high 88% of the blend, with Merlot only 12% of the blend. Importantly, the wine is held in bottle until ready to drink, which may not mean that vintages are released sequentially.
Wine Information
Paul Pontallier / Château Margaux/ Vintage 2012
Does the 2012 Chateau Margaux growing season remind of any previous vintage?
Paul Pontallier “The 2012 weather conditions are similar to those of 2000.We’ll see when tasting the wines this winter if the quality of the 2012 can pretend to reach the level of 2000.”
Tb: What part of the growing season did you find the most difficult?
Paul Pontallier “With the 2012 Margaux, it was probably the rainy spring as it created favorable conditions for the mildew to develop.”
Tb: Is that exacerbated by your continuing organic farming techniques?
Paul Pontallier “All the more so, as we are definitely involved in an organic vine growing approach at Chateau Margaux. In the 2012 Bordeaux vintage, the most serious threat we faced was mildew, which we successfully managed to control.”
Tb: Did 2012 Margaux vintage require the amount of sorting demanded by the 2011 vintage?
Paul Pontallier “Much less sorting was required in 2012 than we needed to perform in 2011. In 2011, we had to very carefully sort the clusters that were burnt with the heavy heat which occurred at the end of June.”
Tb: Did you experience problems with uneven flowering?
Paul Pontallier “Flowering was not especially uneven at Margaux. So it was not a problem for the 2012 Margaux. When it is, which very rarely happens, we can cut the clusters whose color hasn’t changed. “
Tb:e When did you start harvesting the 2012 Margaux?
Paul Pontallier “While we picked some Merlot plots before October 1, the harvest officially started October 1. We finished picking on October 15.”
Tb: Are you continuing to experiment with optical sorting at Chateau Margaux?
Paul Pontallier “Yes, we repeated an optical sorting experiment that we started last year. Like last year, optical sorting did not prove that useful as the grapes are being very efficiently sorted in the vineyard by our pickers.”
Tb: Did any varietal turn out better in the 2012 Bordeaux vintage for you?
Paul Pontallier “I don’t think that 2012 allowed one variety to perform better than another. As usual, because of our terroir, the Cabernet Sauvignon will be better than the Merlot.”
Tb: What are your alcohol levels for the 2012 Margaux?
Paul Pontallier “In 2012, we have precisely what we want at Margaux: around 13%, rather 13.5% for the Merlot and 12.8% for the Cabernet Sauvignon.”
If everything that took place until the end of June didn't offer what happened next offered additional challenges with 2012 Bordeaux vintage. After an average July, Bordeaux experienced a torrid heat spell and drought in August and September that stressed the vines, especially the young vines. At one point, temperatures soared to 42 degrees Celsius, which is 107 degrees! Other days crossed 100 degrees. It was extremely hot and dry. The vines shut down and the vintage was on track to be even later than originally anticipated. Close to the end of September, things improved due to the much hoped for combination of warm days, cool nights and some desperately needed rain, which helped nourish the vines. The initial days of October offered reasonably warm temperatures during the day, coupled with cooler weather at night for vintners with Merlot ready to pick.
Vuosikerta 2012
The 2012 Bordeaux vintage report.
The 2012 Bordeaux vintage is a year for vineyard management and workers. Call it a winemakers vintage, or change your tune and call it vineyard managers vintage. Either descriptor works perfectly. Wineries with the financial capacity to take the necessary measures in the vineyards during the season, coupled with the willingness to severely downgrade unripe grapes, will produce the best wines. Even then, it will be a difficult vintage with small quantities of wine. From start to finish, the 2012 Bordeaux vegetative season and harvest were stressful for the winemakers, the vines and with the grapes being vinified, the winemakers.
The 2012 Bordeaux vintage did not get off to a good start. After a cold winter and a wet spring, the April rains soaked the Bordeaux wine region. After the April rains, there were outbreaks of mildew, which required spraying. The month of May was warmer than April. Things calmed down a bit in June. All this resulted in late and uneven flowering. This resulted in small clusters of berries that ripened at different times, lowering quantities and requiring serious work in the vines and intensive sorting at harvest.
Although a growing season is never over until it is, uneven flowering never bodes well. Late flowering pushed back the entire vintage by 2 to 3 weeks, depending on the château. Generally speaking, late harvests are not generally a harbinger of good things to come.
If everything that happened up to the end of June didn't offer what happened next offered additional challenges with the 2012 Bordeaux vintage. After an average July, Bordeaux experienced a heat wave torrid weather and drought in August and September which stressed the vines, particularly the young vines. At one point, temperatures soared to 42 degrees Celsius, or 107 degrees! Other days crossed 100 degrees. It was extremely hot and dry. The vines stopped and the vintage was on track to be even later than expected. Towards the end of September, things improved with the much-hoped-for combination of warm days, cool nights and desperately needed rain, which helped nourish the vines. The first few days of October offered reasonably warm temperatures during the day, coupled with cooler weather at night for growers with Merlot ready to pick.
In the Médoc, you had to hurry and wait. Tom Petty could have exploded with “Waiting is The Hardest Part” because producers had to wait because Cabernet Sauvignon had difficulty maturing. It was already October. Conventional wisdom says that at one point there was little to gain by waiting and more to lose, so the 2012 Bordeaux harvest began to take place. Some estates began picking young Merlot in late September, but most held back until around October 1, and a few producers waited a week or more. Most growers brought in all their fruit by mid-October.
Pomerol is usually the first appellation to harvest, due to their Merlot dominated vines. It is interesting to note that the picking took place simultaneously on the left bank on October 1st. Many properties in Pessac Léognan started their harvest before Pomerol. Château Haut Brion began work on their young Merlot vines on September 17th and Château Haut Bailly was not far behind, with a start date of September 27th. Most castles were in the thick of things on October 4, although Domaine de Chevalier waited until October 8.
While the pleasant, cooler weather was initially forecast to continue, on October 8 things changed quickly when massive amounts of rain fell across the entire Bordeaux region. With accompanying temperatures in the mid-60s and higher in some areas, winemakers were concerned about the potential for Botrytis, due to the humid tropical conditions. At this point, the fruit had to be picked, regardless of the state of ripeness. Like last year with the 2011 Bordeaux vintage, maturation was uneven. It wasn't just the bunches that weren't ripening, individual grapes in bunches reached varying degrees of ripeness, making sorting more important than ever. Optical sorting was used more than ever with the 2012 Bordeaux harvest.
