2017 Goulée by Cos d'Estournel

As usual, long-standing winemaker Dominique Arangoïts guided me through the latest releases alongside proprietor, Mon. Reybier, estate manager Aymeric de Gironde having swapped banks, taking over the running of Troplong-Mondot since last autumn. “We began with a dry winter. This was important for the following vintage,” Dominique explained. “The soils were not full [of water] by the time of bud-break and especially the clay soils were not saturated. There is a saying that when there is bud-break then the soil is completely saturated [after winter] but today, this is not true. The bud-break was early at around 22 March. May and especially June was very hot with four nights about 20° Celsius and then flowering began 22 May. In the middle of June we saw the first sign of hydric stress, which is quite early, one month earlier than usual. The flowering went well but we were wondering how to treat the vineyard. Then we had five days of rain, around 95mm, between 25 and 30 June, which restarted the growing cycle. July and August was not so hot and sunny, but it was dry, which was important for the quality of tannin. There was just 60mm of rain in July and August so that by the end of that month there was some sign of water stress. In some young vines, the leaves were beginning to turn brown. It was possible to have a rich vintage if it had stayed sunny, but rain came the beginning of September with cooler temperatures, so the skins did not thicken. We started the harvest on 12 September and it was necessary to pick rapidly because of the sanitary conditions. We would direct pickers to the parcels that had reached full ripeness and we knew exactly where to go. We finished the picking on 30 September, the yield around 43hl/ha instead of 50hl/ha last year because of the first hydric stress in June. The color came very easily this year and it was already black on the first day of skin contact. We made a one-month cuvaison as usual, the malolactic fermentation starting very easily. The wine is matured in 60% new oak.”