Since September 13th of 1948, the town of Saint Emilion has celebrated the day of patrimony or heritage day ("La Jour du Patrimoine"). It is always third weekend of September and it marks the beginning of the harvest. The tiny town of Saint Emilion is inundated with tourist on this weekend to view the spectacular fireworks display set to music, the parade of the Jurade, along with many other festivities. The Jurade are members of a vinous brotherhood, wearing impressive red robes adorned with ermine, they proclaim the harvest. After solemnly attending mass they parade to the top of the tower in the center of town, Tour du Roy. Also, air balloons are overhead daily. One even landed directly behind our vines.
Such is the atmosphere at this special time of year. As we are prepared for the harvest we have many things to do. The priority at the moment is to bottle the wine from 2006.
The grapes from the 2006 harvest have been made into wine we are proud of. The 2005 wine of Saint-Émilion is noted in all vintage charts as a truly outstanding vintage, but we know that 2006 is even better for us. Since acquiring Château Plaisance we have improved the work in the fields, along with replacing equipment with the best possible. The wine is then aged for 18 months in new French oak barrels. Each barrel and each parcel of land have different attributes, so the expertise of our new personel is depended upon as the final blending of the wine is done. Every step is crucial. The end result; it takes two years to go from harvest to bottling.
This Monday we began bottling the wine from 2006. We had finished the final blending this past month. The bottles arrived last week, then the corks.
With our crew of five permanent workers we operate our own bottling plant right here on the premises.
After filling the bottles, they are placed into metal boxes and wrapped in plastic.
Since we alternate for lunch breaks, the sound "clink-clink-clink" is continuous. It is apparent to all the neighboring vineyards what we are up to.
The sun is shining. We have music playing. A real sense of unity has set in. It is a beautiful day!
