Despite a cold and snowy winter, spring in 2009 was mild with no frost after February.  It was also a fairly dry season with little Mistral. The summer was hot and dry, but was very consistent and the temperatures went up progressively throughout June and July and ended with a peak the last 2 weeks of August with temperatures as high as 40°C.  It was not as hot as 2003 as temperatures cooled down at night and July was generally cooler.  We had rain on 6 July and then no rain fall till the middle of September.

Due to the high temperatures in August, the ripening of the grapes was accelerated, not because of the phenolic maturity but because of dehydration. Therefore we decided to wait and not harvest the reds too early and hope for further maturity. 

We started to harvest the whites on the 24th of August throughout the different Perrin Estates. The whites have good fruit and acidity and will be well balanced. We had perfect weather conditions for harvest with maximum temperatures running between between 20°C and 30°C during the whole month of September.

We started the red harvest with Syrah on 31st August and continued with the Grenache on 8th September.  The phenolic maturity had just turned by then and the Grenache has a nice colour, good maturity and great fruit.  2009 is a very good vintage for Grenache.

On September 16th we had just over 60mm of rain which we were all waiting for. The vines were suffering from hydrous stress and after that date the ripeness started moving fast.  We had harvest about half of the Grenache across the different estates but still remained to be started it in Coudoulet and Beaucastel.  We waited till the the following week to resume harvest after a couple of days of Mistral.  The end of the harvest went very fast. We finished the Grenache and started the Mourvèdre on 24 September.  The rain did a lot to the Mourvèdre and we are very happy with the results.

We finished harvest in Vinsobres on September 30th which is 300m high so needed a bit more time to ripen.

We are very happy with the 2009 harvest. The grapes were healthy with great fruit and good extraction and the first tastings show that we shall be making some great wine with soft tannins and great structure. Despite the hot temperatures we managed to maintain a good acidity thanks to the cooler temperatures at night.  You could compare this vintage to 2005 and 2007.

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The good rain we had last week was great for the vineyard, especially given that it is followed by an indian-summer kind of weather this week (today like yesterday is 30°C+ with great sun) and the weather forecast says it will remain like that for the week and maybe next week also. 

As a consequence, we really take our time in all our vineyards.

In Beaucastel, we are now harvesting quietly our oldest parcels of Grenache and the grapes look and taste great, with a very good balance. We will continue harvesting the Grenache slowly all this week and also the first days of next week. Then will come the Mourvèdre and Counoise.

At Domaine des Tourelles in Gigondas, we have not started yet. We should start the syrah this friday.

In Vinsobres, same thing, we should start the syrah at the end of the week.

In Cairanne, the syrah were harvested before the rain and we are doing the Grenache this week.

Most of our other vineyards including most of the 'regular' CDR are harvested and the first wines finish their fermentation.

At this stage we are very happy of the quality of the vintage.

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Take a look at the video update by Pierre Perrin:

Technorati Tags: beaucastel, perrin, rhône, vinification