Vintage 2018 France – a test for organic winegrowers but looking good
Harvest is made joyful by good grapes and good people. We had both in 2018. The season started with a complicated spring – cold and rain that led to an estimated loss of around 25% to downy mildew across the region. Sean was diligent and got his timing perfect so our loss was under 10% – TG – given the frost losses of 2017.
Harvest started with merlot for sparkling Rosé on 4 September.
It was a gorgeous morning portent of what was to come. Perhaps the most beautiful weather overall ever for harvest time. Only one day with a bit of cloud cover and no rain during the 10 days of hand harvest with our professional team. I’ll do another post about the harvest weekend with owners of vine shares.
The following week we moved onto the sauvignon blanc then the sémillon.
sauvignon blanc and hands
actually this is not sauv blanc or semillon! its a rascally other grape masquerading…but its big and beautiful and tastes good so we’ll take it!
harvest trailor of sauvignon blanc
Team hurrah at the end of the whites harvest
Then the week of 18 September the reds – a perfect week of fruit days on the biodynamic calender.
Red harvest – just in time!
This was a dream harvest with perfect weather. The wines that are in progress taste fantastic. We look forward to sharing them with you in years to come. More photos to follow soon.
See our series on why organic and read more about biodynamics. visit to Chateau Feely in South West France ; stay with us or do a multi day course or multi day tour . You can read about the story of our organic farm the series includes three books Grape Expectations; Saving our Skins and Glass Half Full by Caro Feely. We also offer wine school including WSET certified courses. Join our mailing list to receive our seasonal newsletter, wine school, events, wine pairing, recipes and more info on this topic at the bottom right of this page.
