It’s harvest-time
When it comes to harvesting white grapes, you have to be early. Depending on the night-time temperatures, our harvesting machine (the latest model boasts a sorting table and other high-tech options) usually leaves for the vineyards at around 3am. Marie is always there at night to take delivery of the harvest, but that’s not all… In fact, we often have to press the grapes picked the previous day, because at Château Thieuley we use skin contact maceration for all our white wines to extract more aromas. As a result, Marie starts up the presses and at the same time manages the filling of the refrigerated skin contact maceration vats with the harvested grapes.
Our cellar teams arrive at around 6am to continue the work, still under Marie’s watchful eye: every day, they taste the musts and fermenting wines, measure the density, check the temperatures in the vats, ensure the hygiene and cleaning of the vats and equipment, and keep track of every plot, batch and vat… Every detail counts in the vinification of the whites: you have to be precise!
As soon as it’s time for racking, it is absolutely essential to avoid oxygenation of the must or wine so as to obtain a maximum of aromatic precursors.
Sylvie, who looks after the commercial side of the business, is never far from the cellar during the vinification process either… She is there to support the teams, tasting the vats of the new harvest every day, but above all helping Marie to draw up the harvest schedule. She scours the vines to determine the potential of each plot. She assesses the berries, the pulp, the skin and the seeds, and comments on the grapes and the vines themselves. “Such and such a plot with such and such a plot”, “this plot will wait until next week”…
Decisions about vinification are often taken by two people, but when it’s time to make a decision, Marie is in charge.
Lunch is often a family affair, a time for sharing with the older generations (Francis Courselle) and interacting with the younger generation. Juggling the harvest and the start of the new school year is not always easy… Vinification is still a physical and tiring job: we walk an average of 20 km a day during the harvest. Managing fatigue is essential, because you also have to know how to deal with stress caused by the weather or various breakdowns.
Tomorrow is another day… and we’ll have to get up early, once again, with the hope and determination of an even better vintage.
@chateau_thieuley
Photos by Sylvie and Marie Courselle.
