This year, the harvest at Domaine André Brunel began at the end of August and finished at the end of September! The harvest promises to be a high quality vintage, rich in flavour!
Beginning of the 2023 harvest
They started earlier this year compare to previous vintages:
- August 23rd: start of the harvest with our plot of Roussannes in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It’s early, but quite similar to what happened over the last ten years.
- August 25th: the harvest continues with our plots of syrah.
- September 19th: We decided to harvest our most ancient grenache vines : the Centenaire 2023 is in the vats!
- September 28 and 29: end of the 2023 harvest with our plots of mourvèdres.
Review of the 2023 vintage to come
We are very satisfied with the quality and the yield of our harvest this year.
It’s a vintage that can be described as early but which will certainly delight our palate.
A weather which favored the ripening of the berries
The few days of intense heat at more than 40°c (104F) that we had between august 20 and 25 caused a slowdown in the ripening of the berries and raised fears that they could be burned by the sun rays. Fortunately the thick foliage of our vines and a rainy weather in the days that followed allowed the berries to be protected and to restart their ripening.
The harvest continued under a pleasant sunshine during the day and coolness at night but without a gap of temperatures too important between night and day.
All these meteorological factors allowed us to obtain an optimal concentration of our grapes, maybe a bit less colorful than usual but don’t worry, the taste will be there!
After the harvest, the winemaking!
Once the harvest finished, let’s move to the vinification stage.
This stage should last the whole month of October, ending with the last devattings planned beginning of novembre.
Our new cellar allows us to have an even greater control of the different stages of vinification.
Thanks to a very precise temperature control management, we will express the full potential of each of our terroir and each of our grapes: black grenache, white grenache, mourvèdre, syrah and roussanne.
Fermentation
The whites ferment gently at low temperature in order to maintain freshness and to favor the fruit.
Red wine vats present aromas of ripe fruits. The tannins are present but will be softened during the post-fermentation maceration.
The good yield of grenache will give elegant wines, maybe with a slightly less dark colour than previous years but with a lot of taste and complexity.
We’ll give you news next january to celebrate the first tasting of the 2023 whites!
Published : 2023-10-04