Hu Yue

The 2019 vintage can be considered as an especially hot and dry vintage in the Shandong province, with a great richness in the wines. The season started with very low water reserves in the soil due to the dry Shandong winter, but some rainfalls in April and May allowed the vine to build its canopy. The flowering period in June was sunny, allowing a good fruit set and therefore, a good number of bunches per vine. The particularly dry summer period demanded efforts to the vineyard team to bring water to the plants in order to ensure maturation. Veraison happened early, starting in the end of July for the Merlot and ending with the Cabernet Sauvignon in the first week of August. The harvest started right after the launch of our first 2017 vintage, and was quite dense, meaning that the maturities all came up in a restricted period of time. The team meticulously followed the maturations with an intra-plot selection for a harvest at the optimum maturity according to technological and phenological parameters. The Syrah was first harvested on the 21st of September, and the last Cabernet Sauvignon was harvested on the 18th of October.