We have received an interesting letter from the Domain which I thought others would be interested in.
I am merely a messenger here. Copying and pasting. (translation obviously leads to some words just not so.)
2020, an exceptionnal vintage
At the time of confinement, mid-march, the good weather settles in France until mid-september. The vines
takes advantage to take a 3 weeks lead as soon as budbreak. It keeps it until the harvest, which will start on
August 17 at the estate. Historical precocity !
In recent years, we’ve made so many changes in the vineyard management :
- Return to « Gobelet » pruning to limit buds, and so, yields.
- Stop trimming to optimize photosynthesis, rooting of the plant, and resistance to vine diseases.
- Stop tilling and establishment of regenerative farming to enhance soils diversity, restore the bacterial
flora. Development of agro-pastoralism.
This agronomic approach, « Agriculture du Vivant », improves resilience, while increasing the natural
balance of the life of our plants.
These technologies combined with biodynamic methods, have the ambition to strenghten the « Vivant »,
restrict the quantity of grapes, to collect the healthiest, the most concentrated, the most balanced grapes.
After several years of application of these methods, the fruits we get have deeply changed. The special
conditions of the vintage have generated unprecetended and rather uniques balances.
In a logical way, we decided to increase the elevage in barrels until two years, to perfect the precision of the
cuvees. After that, the wines will rest in the cellar, to be released one year after bottling, that might happen
during fall 2023.
2020 allocations’ll be sent to you in spring 2023.
Now my added bit, this also means the next release will arrive in the U.S.
in the 3rd quarter of 2023/ 1st quarter of 2024. Wow,