The end of a yearlong journey, the much-anticipated 2017 harvest came to a close on the final day of September this year. The last of the grapes have entered the cellar, where our team works and waits in patient anticipation of the next great vintage. It is their efforts throughout the year, their intimate knowledge of and utter devotion to the vine, that have led to this very exceptional moment.
The conclusion of one harvest also marks the beginning of the ones to follow. Upon surrendering their precious fruit, the vines enter a period of winter repose. Starting mid-November, our team of sixteen vine-growers—each of whom is entrusted with the same handful of plots, or forty thousand vine plants, year after year—begin gently reshaping each vine. Their precise gestures and sharp wisdom have been honed over time and are vital to the continuity and the inimitable profile of the wines of the estate.
Pruning is an essential act. Each vine reacts differently to natural stimuli and it is the memory of this behaviour that instructs each vine-grower in the choices he makes as to when and where to trim. Every decision is vital, for pruning means creating ideal conditions for the ripening of the grapes and ensuring the longevity of the vine. The knowledgeable hands that prune in the winter are not only guiding the growth of the vine stock, but they are also preparing conditions favorable to optimal exposure for each plot and consistent flowering throughout.
As the warmer days of spring arrive, the vine-growers observe the vine ceaselessly, walking up and down each row of the vineyard as they look for signs of the first flowers. Flowering, which usually occurs over a period of ten days, is a critical moment in the growth cycle of the vine as it determines the quality of the vintage and begins the countdown of 110 days to harvest. The first flowers appeared at Cos d’Estournel on May 25: the harvest would begin early.
Grapes begin appearing on the vine in the summer. Once they begin ripening, it is an undeniable signal that the harvest will soon come to pass. It was on August 5 that the grapes at the estate began turning from green to dusky purple, another harbinger of early harvest. It was also the last opportunity for our vine-growers to take note of differences between plots, plants and even the grapes themselves. For even the slightest variations in maturity levels helps determine which grapes to harvest first.
During the final days of August, timing for the harvest becomes more precise. Samples are taken—as they have been from the same vine plants for decades now—to compare potential alcohol level, phenolic compounds and the amount of tannins present in the grapes. Indicators of the maturity of the fruit on the vine, they educate the choices made by our winemaking team, led by Dominique Arangoïts (Technical Director), Angélique Meynieu (Cellar Master) and Michel Sementery (Vineyard Manager).
This meticulous consideration of individual vine plants is not in the least extreme; rather, it is essential to letting the diversity of the estate’s terroir reveal itself to the fullest. Our vine-growers’ intimate knowledge of the vineyard proves inestimable at this time, for it is what allows us to consider the vineyard vine by vine, adapting our methods as we observe, the goal being to determine the moment when the grapes of the estate will reach optimum maturity: a perfect balance of acidity and sweetness.
Ultimately, it is by tasting the grapes that our team decides when to begin harvesting. This year the first grapes at the estate were cut from the vine on September 12. 80 harvesters were on hand, all coming from the same village in Spain for the past forty years, loyal from one generation to the next. Essential to safeguarding the continuity of the vineyard and the identity of the wines of the estate, these men and women quietly harvest the most precious treasures of the estate as our vine-growing team passes from one row of vines to the next, often several times in a day, observing the cadence of nature to decide when and where to harvest each day.
As the grapes enter the cellars, they are channeled into one of 72 vats of different capacities. As unique as the grapes on the vine, the wine in each vat is elaborated according to its individual profile. Nine years after the creation of a vat room based on the laws of gravity, winemaking takes place under ideal conditions. In the vineyard, our vine-growing team continues to experiment with new techniques in the hopes of further sublimating the wines of the estate. This year grass was planted on the gravelly plateau of Cos d’Estournel to temper the vine’s vigorous nature and concentrate resources towards the grapes themselves.
Several weeks from now the blending process will begin and our winemaking team will come together to taste the different wines and create another expression of the estate. At the same time the vine-growers will once again take their places among the vines, in preparation of the 2018 harvest, the start of a new year…
