Carmes de Rieussec

Another vintage that contrasts with the usual. At the beginning of the year, cool weather caused a two-week delay in vine growth. Despite low rainfall, all seemed well until April, when early morning frost hit our early terroirs. Fortunately, the most sensitive areas had not yet budded, thanks to late pruning. Dry, sunny weather right up to the harvest enabled the vines to catch up. Phytosanitary management was serene, and the team was able to focus on watering our young vines to limit losses. The harvest was early for our dry whites (17/08) and for the sweet wines we had to wait for the arrival of humidity and the onset of botrytis. It finally arrived, revealing great purity and virtually no waste. The rain of September 15th and the regular fog allowed the noble rot to progressively take hold. A first sorting on October 1st was promising but confirmed the very low yields of the vintage. Everything accelerated in the second half of October. The teams carried out up to 4 selections to end up with magnificent grapes of great freshness on 29 October.