A further installment from the delightful Matthieu Barret at Domaine du Coulet. It would seem, with the exception of the painfully low yields this year, things are looking good in 2010...
I was not able to write to you as regularly as I wanted to keep you informed about the harvest in 2010.
We have been cutting grapes for the last three weeks with a small team of 10 people. The harvest is healthy and ripe and over the third week we collected grapes with a very big phenolic maturity. This last week, we harvested the summit of our mountain (which is the base of Billes Noires) and the East hillsides (which is one of the bases of Terrasses du Serre).
I ‘ve decided not to make any “Gore” cuvee but a “big” Billes Noires
in 2010 which will be, in my opinion, a great vintage of elegance and fruit in the spirit of the 2007.
We brought in 11 plots which oscillate between 12.7 and 13.9 % of potential alcohol. The yield per hectare is close to 15 hl which is a little bit frustrating as it is way too low! This is the third vintage in a row, below our technical objectives which are 20 hl / ha (which is not very pretentious…).
This week we shall begin to draw off the first tanks for the first press - always good moments to share.
Our grape-pickers' team made a beautiful sorting with
a lot of precision, which allowed us to vinify almost all the tanks without SO2.
I enclose two or three photos of the grape harvests to make you share these beautiful moments in the life of the estate.
See you soon,
Matthieu"
