Bordeaux harvest: day 12

Published: 23 July, 2008

Alexandra Martet from Chateau Lavison, Entre-Deux-Mers has at last concluded the harvest, and all the evidence suggests it's not as bad as she first feared.

YES, IT'S FINISHED!!!!

It has been a long day from 6am yesterday until 1.30am this morning the sorting and selection of the final bunches was particularly difficult the light was fading and the noise from the reception area was becoming more and more unbearable.

Finally the grapes are in. We are grateful to the heavens for giving us such a good August. The Cabernets are likely to be, on average, around 12%, the acidity is a little high but the malolactic fermentation will sort that out (at least I hope so).

There is still plenty of work to be done but the pressure has eased a little. The yields will be between 38 to 42 hl/ha.

It's less disastrous than I had first feared. We will survive (I think) but the important thing now is to pay the suppliers and the employees. We can always hope for a price increase ..

The work in the winery is still very intense but now that the grapes are in, it is different we no longer listen out for the rain during the night.

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