Vineyard: 3.5 hectares overall vineyard

Grape variety: 100% Merlot.

Harvest: 100% by hand on 16^th, 17^th and 21^st September.

Winemaking: Fermented in 15% New French Oak barrels, 15% 2nd and 3rd year oak and 70% in stainless steel

Ageing: 5 months on the lees with regular batonnage

Alcohol by volume: 12.5%vol

Residual sugar: < 2 g/l

Production: 10,000 bottles

After an uneventfully start to the growing year, just as March slipped effortlessly into April, ‘mother nature’ played one her deadliest cards and as the night-time temperatures dropped sharply, we were faced with the significant threat of crippling frosts.

In response, we quickly deployed hundreds of frost candles to protect our most vulnerable vines and placed our team on standby, ready to light the candles if the mercury fell to critical levels. Then, as the temperatures subsequently dropped dangerously low on four nights, we lit the candles several hours before daybreak. However, sadly by the end of month, we could see that whilst the frost had not touched all our parcels, it had badly damaged to our vines at La Devine.

From mid-April conditions also remained unsettled during May and on into early June, although the flowering and fruit set in mid-June was quite successful. However, yet more wet and humid weather arrived in late June, which renewed the pressure of disease and mildew and remained a constant threat throughout July and August.

As September arrived the improvement in the weather offered a welcomed window of opportunity as we started harvest on Tuesday 14th picking 3 tons of wonderful Semillon as the temperature reached 30C in the late afternoon. We carried on the next day picking the first of the merlot for our 2021 rosé wines and then followed that up again on Friday 17th and then on Monday 20th at St Quentin de Baron under hot and sunny skies and with similar conditions on Tuesday 21st we finished the 2021 rose harvest.

We then kicked off the red harvest on Wednesday 29th September picking the merlot at La Plantation as well as another ton from Le Menhir in the late afternoon and with a cool start on Thursday 30th we harvested at La Devine and picked the last of the merlot at Le Menhir.

On Friday 1st October we moved to La Plante, picking just the perimeter and the ‘7 rows’ and with the quality looking good, we continued at Le Garrouihl on Saturday under cool clear early morning skies that warmed to 24C by 17h00.

Time and the weather now seemed on our side and with a bright cold start on Friday 8th October we leisurely picked the Cabernet Franc at La Plantation finishing as the temperature reached 22Cby noon. The quality of the fruit was outstanding and that just left us the Cabernet Sauvignon to pick at La Pante Milleau on Thursday 14th October and then the 2021 Harvest was finished.