Bordeaux 2016 – the harvest in Pomerol, in pictures

pomerol-2016-91-of-118 This week has been dry and sunny, so we’ve decided to hold off harvesting the reds at Bauduc for the moment. We had a heavy dollop of rain last Friday night – straight after we’d sent out an upbeat monthly review – so an excellent September came to an abrupt end. Thankfully though, the rain was just a one-off and since then we’ve had fresh mornings and glorious days. We therefore thought we’d leave that downpour to freshen things up in the vineyard, and hang on for what they call optimum ripeness.
pomerol-2016-74-of-118 We also have a useful early warning system nearby, thanks to the earlier maturing vineyards of Pomerol some 25 minutes up the road near Libourne, where Tom goes to school. Our Merlot usually ripens 8-10 days later than at the top chateaux on the plateau of Pomerol so, after dropping Tom at school, it makes good sense – in the name of research, of course – to study the harvest taking place on one of the finest patches of dirt in the world.
pomerol-2016-81-of-118 Pomerol is a patchwork of small estates and it’s fascinating to see how they each bring in the crop, sort the grapes and make the wine. My photos include this year’s (mostly Merlot) harvest at Chateaux l’Evangile (the two pics above), L’Eglise Clinet (below), Clinet, Vieux Chateau Certan (top), La Fleur Petrus, Le Gay, Vray Croix de Gay, Clos l’Eglise plus Haut-Ferrand and Le Plince (the latter two being by machine).
pomerol-2016-109-of-118 And as they’ve been hard at it this week, that means we’ll be picking our Merlot from Monday onwards. More on our harvest, and how they’re getting on in other appellations, in the next missive.

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