Par Corinne Conroy,
jeudi 21 octobre 2010 à 19:22 ::Accueil
Nous saluons la victoire de Lionel Vagnot, Emmanuel Rossier et Franck Donet, l'équipe gagnante en Résultat Net Cumulé. ET celle de Sébastien Dumons, Frédéric Champagne, et Philippe Drai, l'équipe gagnante en Brut Cumulé. Et bien entendu, comme chaque année, nous remercions chaleureusement l'équipe de Brane qui s'est bien défendue.
Sont arrivés en seconde position en Net cumulé, François Brun, Anne Marie Valette et Thomas Conroy.
Un merci tout particulier à Jean Marc, Anne-Marie (capitaine des Noirs et Ors!) et Clément Valette, venus en famille défendre les couleurs de Brane, en dépit de la 'Joanne' au Golf Bordelais dont ils sont des membres très actifs!
We would like to congratulate Lionel Vagnot, Emmanuel Rossier and Franck Donet, the winning Cumulative Net Score team.And Sébastien Dumons, Frédéric Champagne and Philippe Drai, the winning Cumulative Gross Score team.And, of course, like every year, we want to warmly thank the Brane team, which defended itself so well.
In Cumulative Net Score, François Brun, Anne Marie Valette and Thomas Conroy were in second position.
Special thanks to Jean Marc, Anne-Marie (Black and Gold captain!) and Clément Vallet, who came as a family to defend Brane’s colors, depite the ‘Joanne’ cup at Golf Bordelais, in which they are very active members!
A great vintage follows in the wake of 2009...and yet it is much different!
One of the keys, and a significant one at that, to this new vintage’s success dates back to the fall of 2009, as the month of November was exceptionally rainy. After 25 days of rainfall totaling over 200 mm, the water tables were completely refilled. They would then allow the vineyards to tolerate an extremely dry summer.
After a cold winter, the budbreak was a bit late (very first days of April). The summer weather that followed allowed the vines to grow rapidly. The first flowers were visible from May 25 on the early parts but the temperatures dropped and full bloom was moved back to June 6. The early Merlot plots suffered from this climate and experienced millerandage which, while severe on some stocks, affected only a limited number on these plots. The mostly dry spring finished with very strong rain on June 15 and 16. In fact, the precipitation, which reached 50 mm, did not greatly benefit the soil, as most of it had run off.
July was first hot and dry and then, like the first two weeks of August, was cooler than usual, especially at night. For this reason, veraison was slow in early August. The Cabernet Francs were the latest to undergo veraison. Late August and early September were hot, still with cool nights, which caused very rapid ripening. Sugar and phenolic compound potential was at its peak. The weather then remained nice but cool and dry.
The Merlot harvest started on September 27, i.e. 5 days after 2009. The berries, which were slightly smaller than average, had exceptionally high levels of sugar (14 to 15° potential alcohol) and phenolic compounds and higher acidity than usual for a great vintage.
The Merlot musts, which were highly aromatic with a rapidly intense color, were vinified using the traditional process and did not pose particular problems to the winemaker despite the very high sugar potential. Vatting finished during this period for the best Merlots. The wines are extremely rich.
Harvesting of Cabernet Sauvignons started on October 6 and ended on October 14. The health situation was perfect from the start to end of the harvest and harvesting took place under excellent conditions. The first finished vats are rich and powerful withaverage alcohol contents of 13 and unusual TPIs. Their acidity is more pronounced than the Merlots, but this sensation should reverse after malolactic fermentation, Cabernets having more malic acid and less tartaric acid.
Logically, as their veraison occurred later, the Cabernet Francs were the last to ripen. We harvested them on October 13. The musts are very aromatic, and the wines will surely be powerful and rich (13.5°).
Harvesting choices were particularly easy this year, with the various plots ripening one after another without sudden peaks. Yields should be close to 40 hl/ha.
Grape receiving had been re-designed in 2007 when we adopted the Viniclean system. This year, however, we wanted to completely change it in order to benefit from the technological advantages of optical sorting.
In order to preserve cluster integrity as much as possible, and to treat the grapes as quickly as possible after the harvest, we abandoned the use of baskets and instead opted for a new harvest transporting machine using small-capacity bins equipped with an air suspension and vibration emptying system. The grapes are checked on a first manual sorting table. After they are de-stemmed, they are moved to a vibrating optical sorting table, before they are crushed and transferred to vats.
This year, the Merlots were complicated to sort due to their millerandage. De-stemming was particularly difficult, but after 1 to 2 days of adjusting with young vines, the sorting system proved to be fully effective on this vintage. Green items, and shot, dry and damaged berries were removed by the sorting system, which performed extremely well.
The 2010 vintage will have been fairly easy to manage: treatments, ploughing and trimming were reduced to their bare minimum (our organic plots clearly posed no particular problem). The climate that alternated between hot and cold, with cool nights and especially an unusually long dry period, will produce particularly powerful, colorful and tannic wines. A vintage that’s sure to be a subject of conversation for years to come…
