October 2019

Harvest at Château La Clarière 2019 …

We brought in the last of the Merlot today (Wednesday 2nd Oct). Thanks to this year’s heat spikes some extremely high sugars were registered early on but were then diluted by the rain. It’s most unusual for rain to be welcome at harvest time!

The young Malbec came out less rich, so we are thinking of making a special little cuvée for you; a Primeur or Nouveau, i.e. a fruity, young, easy-drinking style for hot days. Not a rosé; we already do one, but a red that’s quite rosé-like but different. It’s actually the original Bordeaux red style, which in the Middle Ages was known as ‘Clairet’; a lighter style of red. Britain drank 2000 ships full of the stuff every year, apparently.

The Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc we are leaving on the vine another week or so. We could pick them now, but the weather forecast looks good-ish and the bunches look healthy so we will take the risk and see if we can’t manage another exceptionally rich Cabernet like last year.

The white is fizzing away gently in its brand-new barrels, soaking up those fresh oak flavours. I do so adore the smell of fresh-cut oak. I’m probably addicted. We’ve filled the white wine cellar to capacity. We just can’t make any more. Not until the new planting comes on stream, hopefully the year after next. We’ll have to enlarge the cellar ... must remember!

Clement, Olivier and estate manager Vincent (right) at the grape-sorter machine, waiting for the next batch of grapes to come in

We had lots of Confrères visiting this summer. Starting with the first organised tour to the newly opened (just; the workmen left two hours before. That’s France!) ‘Grande Salle des Confrères’ –the Hall of the Confrères. A brass plaque on the wall will commemorate the event. It was so hot that day! We were so lucky we had a cool-ish room for the lunch. There was again high heat in August when I welcomed a staff trip to the Château. The whole group will never forget the sight of their company’s founder fainting in the heat and pitching headfirst into the old lavoir. A lavoir is a big stone basin where they used to wash the bed linen. And I went headfirst into it. It was almost empty. On my way down I dislodged a rock. Which landed on my head. Does anyone remember the tale of the barrel of bricks told by Gerard Hoffnung on the radio? The horrified young staff thought they’d just seen the end of their Company Founder. But no. A few hours in A&E with lectures about the inadvisability of too much Champagne in full sun, and I was back home. Fine. More news soon.

During harvest, lunch is provided for the team, on this occasion a paella expertly cooked by Jean-Marc

P.S. The team did a comprehensive tasting of vintages 1984-2016 in September 2018. There’s a write up of each one on the Confrère page and a picture of the line-up above.