Harvest 2008 in Merfy

We were all scared about this year. We received rain during July, August … September …

No ! Not September, or maybe the beginning of the month. What a scaring situation when you imagine that your grapes will receive water during the harvest (It make a dilution of the flavors …). BUT ! It stopped raining on the 10^th of September … 5 days before the beginning of the harvest. And then came a perfect weather for the grapes, something I’ll certainly never see anymore in the future. A very nice sunn, with nice temperatures, wind and very fresh nights. This freshness during the nights succeeds to block the arrival of the rot. The sunn during the days were very good for the maturation of the grapes. And the result is here: A perfect year, with high maturity levels of sugar (about 10,5 – 11% vol) and a very nice sensation of freshness … Definitively a millésime !

Concerning the juices, the freshness shows us that it’ll be wine to age more than any other years. The Meunier shows some very nice notes of apricot on the nose, and the maturity exposes on the mouth. The Pinot noir is, on the contrary, much more closed, shows flower notes on the nose, and a nice finesse on the mouth. For the Chardonnay, it’s totally different from one parcel to another, but the most impressive sensation for me, is certainly the hard capacity to degustate those wines at this period. Strong and powered chardonnays for 2008, they will certainly have the capacity to age a long time in our cellar!

A very nice year, with good souvenirs !

Some pictures of this harvest :