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Wine Description
The Story
Doisy-Daëne produces a great Sauternes wine along with distinguished and unusual dry white Bordeaux: Grand Vin Sec du Château Doisy-Daëne.
During the great vintages, Doisy-Daëne produces a famous and rare cuvée of unequaled richness: L'Extravagant.
White vineyard
Replanted in its vast majority between the 50's and 60's, the Doisy-Daene vineyard is over forty years old. It is currently 18,2hectares wide. With a density of 7,000 plants per hectare, it is planted with 86 % Sémillon and 14 % Sauvignon.
Viticulture
Traditional ploughing is performed on the soil of our vineyard and no weed-killer is used. Organic manures are made with vegetal-based composts. Bud removal, trellising and leaf removal are carefully done by hand. We are engaged in a process of abandonment of the use of chemical synthetic pesticides on all of our vineyards.
Thus "grown like in a garden", within an orderly and well preserved environment, our vines produce early concentrated tasty grapes which have the smoothness and brightness of fresh fruit aromas we wish to obtain in our wines.In an effort to balance our carbon footprint, we manage as well a forest area equal in size to our vineyards.
Wine Information
The vineyard
Château Doisy-Daëne is situated on the Barsac plateau. This area is characterised by a unique geological formation. There is a thin layer of clayey sand referred to as "the red sands of the barsacais" which rest upon limestone subsoils. This porous limestone traps the rainfall during the winter and makes it available for the vines later on in the growing season. This contributes to the exceptional finesse of the wines from Château Doisy-Daëne.
The winemaking
The fine dessert wines of Château Doisy-Daëne are made possible by a very meticulous harvest carried out by experienced pickers through 3 to 6 passages. These different sortings make it possible to harvest the grapes with just the right amount of noble rot. The juices are then extracted by a slow pressing, before fermentation in oak barrels, which are renewed quarterly.
The ageing
10 months in barrel, followed by 9 months of ageing in stainless steel tanks before bottling.
Vintage 2019
BORDEAUX 2019 VINTAGE
When I was visiting Bordeaux early March, Corona was a threat on the horizon and France has been more concerned by a strike of the air traffic control. However, I was travelling to Bordeaux and had the chance to get some first insights to the 2019 vintage. I was very much looking forward to the “en primeur tastings” which were scheduled for March 26, 2020 but the tastings were cancelled mid-March. Immediately I contacted the different associations and wineries in Bordeaux and asked for samples.
The result was a small number of wines which arrived in Essen before the shutdown of France made shipments rather difficult. These first samples of the vintage 2019 were tasted under pristine conditions to assure a fair and equal assessment of all qualities. In fact, the samples proved right the opinion of some of Bordeaux’ leading figures. Bruno-Eugène Borie from Château Ducru-Beaucaillou sees 2019 in a line with the excellent vintages of 2016, 2010, 2009 und 2005.
Henri Lurton talks about his best vintage, along with 2016, he has ever vinified at Château Brane-Cantenac. Philippe Dhalluin from Château Mouton-Rothschild asses the vintage as rich and abundant in quality and also in quantity. After some smaller crops they came back to an average production.
Emmanuel Cruse from Château d’Issan sees that 2019 has a lot in common with 2016 yet preserving more freshness. It is a very good vintage but appearing at a very difficult time on the market. In fact, the start of this vintage was very positive. Enough precipitations during winter were retained by soils like chalk and clay. Vineyards on these water retaining soils had a huge advantage in the future growing period. With exception of a wet June, the vintage has taken advantage of a rather dry climatic condition, which prevented diseases in the vineyards to a huge extend. No chance for powdery or downy mildew. Even the heat waves were not really harming the vines as rain set in, always at the last moment but still early enough to prevent massive water stress and a slow-down of the maturity. The late physiological maturity brought a lot of alcohol, but the wines show more freshness as in the previous years.
Fabien Teitgen, Winemaker of Smith-Haut-Lafitte relates this freshness to the good acidity “due to cool night temperatures during the ripening period”. This fact is also good news for white wines. „They are the big surprise “, says Olivier Bernard of Domaine de Chevalier.
At Château Coutet in Barsac, Philippe and Aline Baly were harvesting in three passes with a total of 19 harvesting days. They judge the conditions as rather ideal: “These climatic conditions have generated a harvest whose quality is indisputably present.” Same samples made their way to Essen and I have tasted them. Some more samples are announced and will hopefully arrive during the current week. There will be a weekly update of my tasting notes, whenever samples will arrive.
Unfortunately, 2019 arrives in a difficult time, the Corona virus puts the world in fear and makes trade more and more difficult. Trade berries and new customs duties create a difficult frame for this vintage. However, we should not forget one thing: there are wonderful 2019s waiting for us, wines with ageing potential and charm which will survive every crisis.