What a beautiful week!
We’re here! I can confirm that after several days on the whites we are very enthusiastic about the quality, I should say, many qualities of this vintage to come.
As is tradition at Fieuzal we started on the 2nd September with a parcel of young Sauvignon, then we carried on with patches of Sauvignon and finally a few Semillon vines on Friday afternoon. Well, the balance is looking very good so far; degrees varying between 12.6 and 13.4%, with Ph varying between 3.1 and 3.2. It's wonderful to drink the juice and I think it will be as much of a pleasure to drink our wines. However, even though the number of bunches per vine are what we expected, we’re getting less juice than we had calculated.  That is what a “dry" July does for you! Some 40 pickers have joined us for the harvest of whites. The grapes, once they’re picked and put into small trays (cagettes) are taken to the cellar where they are pressed or cooled down in a cold room depending on their temperature. It is always better to vinify cold juice (14-15°C). Next, a light decanting into small vats, still at low temperature, allows us to clarify the juice slightly. Now we’re waiting for the fermentation to start before putting the different batches into barrels. From the 9 parcels of Sauvignon we have at Fieuzal, 15 batches with different qualities and balance have been selected. Today we will finish the Sauvignons and the Semillons. In view of the very favorable weather at the moment I decided not to make a break in the picking because I prefer to work towards balanced acidity levels rather than letting the degrees get too high.
The next instalment very soon!
Stephen Carrier, Winemaker
