As forecasted, we finished grape picking on Tuesday evening. This event was celebrated by the traditional harvest meal with the whole team!
The weather changed on Wednesday, and very heavy rains ensued on Thursday.
Rain on Thursday
Fortunately this bad weather only occurred after the harvest. It would have been impossible to get into the vineyards with so much water.
Now we have finished picking, we can appreciate how exceptionally lucky we have been this year. It is rare that harvest goes as smoothly as it has done in 2004. It is even rarer that all our grape varieties are picked so perfectly healthy and ripe.
The down side is that the quantities will be low (roughly 10% less than in 2003, and 40% below 2001). On the up side, the quality of the first wines that have been de-vatted is exceptional….
Harvesting boxes are carefully cleaned before being stacked away.
We thought it would be a good idea to continue this weblog over a full year, so that you can follow every step in the winery and the vineyard. What do you think? Please send us your opinions, comments and suggestions.
Congratulations first,
this seems to be an outstanding vintage and we can't await the first tastings of these wines.
I think it's indeed a very good idea to continue this blog. It's one of the rare possibilities to take a close look at the works and maybe also the problems you are confronted with.
Amitiés
Matthias
Please continue, it is very interesting to witness the harvesting, and the whole process. Just have to figure out the tasting part (in person).
Thank you for a very interesting Weblog. I would be excited to follwo your blog through the whole year.
Congratulations on a great harvest. I cant wait to try to the wines!
Thanks for blogging! It seems like almost all of the wine blogs currently on the net are only concerned with their own subjective wine tasting experiences.
It is great to learn more about the business. Thanks again!
Yes, by all means, continue! With pictures!