Last week we experienced the biggest downfall of snow in 25 years !  40cm of snow fell last Friday and a week later, patches still remain.  Needless to say that we had to interrupt all our activities mainly the pruning for the whole week.
Snow is actually beneficial for the vineyard as when it melts it penetrates slowly into the soil and helps break it up. Furthermore with the cold temperatures as low as -11°C  all parasites were destroyed. Today the sunshine is back and the forecast is for warmer temperatures in the next few days.

 

Since the end of harvest, we have been very busy out in the vineyard at Beaucastel. We have prepared the holes for the plantation of new vines in the spring, we have spread the compost  and we have hand ploughed a few plots. The autumn was mild and dry so we took advantage of these weather conditions to get a lot done outside.  Since Christmas there has been a change and it is now cold and quite humid.

In November we harvested our olives in Beaucastel and Vinsobres. It is a good year for olives and we will be producing some good olive oil for our kitchens!

The start of the new year is also a start to a new viticultural. Since the beginning of the week the entire team is dedicated to pruning at Beaucastel but also in Cairanne, Gigondas and Vinsobres.

In the cellars, the last malolactic fermentations of the 2009 are ending and we are very happy with this vintage which has a great structure with soft tannins.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy New Year.


A bientôt !