We've harvested some more pinot noir, this time from our Riverbed soils - a block called Grave, clone 10/5, that will essentially enter in the final blend of the Bel Echo pinot noir.
We are nicely surprised by the balance, and are satisfied to see that our focus this year in the vineyard to obtain less alcohol has succeeded. After a visit of our viticulturist consultant from France in November, Francois Dale, we began to work on reducing the vigour, or more precisely finding the right balance between too much and not enough vigour, with the intent to reduce our alcohols. This results in potential degrees of 13 to 13.5%, which is what we were aiming for.
This week again, our viticulturist consultant this time from NZ, David Jordan, has come to check on the maturity of the grapes with our team and the family, as well as to see the sanitary status of our grapes. It was very good to hear from him that our vineyard is absolutely healthy, when some part of the valley have been touch by botrytis due to the rainy month of february. The important for us being to continue progressing in our learning curve in our vineyard.
"In the winery, it is a real pleasure to play with such a beautiful harvest", these are the words of Lionel and Jean-Christophe Bourgeois, who would dream to have such pinot noir in Sancerre. And Lionel adds with his legendary smile: "Days like this, we understand why we came to establish our vineyard on the other side of world in NZ!"
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