1997 Petit-Village

Petit-Village has been thoroughly revitalized in the few short years since AXA Millesimes purchased this property and brought in Michel Rolland as consulting enologist. Serious crop-thinning was carried out in all of the chateau holdings in '98, reported manager Bernard Terrien, and the estate waited to pick until September 29 in order to get thoroughly ripe polyphenols ("some of our neighbors started as early as September 14"). "Our grapes were very healthy; we didn't lose even 5% of them," Terrien noted. The cuvaison lasted 30 days, or a bit shorter than in 1997, and for the first time all of the malolactic fermentation took place in barriques, 72% of which were new. Petit-Village has stirred the lees during the wine's early months in barrel and has been using micro-oxygenation to polymerize the polyphenols--"to get more gras and length in the wines rather than simply to take the place of racking," according to Terrien.

AXA Millesimes, the owners of this underperforming but well-placed Pomerol property, brought in consulting enologist Michel Rolland following the 1996 harvest, and the '97 already displays clear signs of progress. Under the direction of Rolland, Petit Village has cut its total crop size by 20% and has introduced a second wine, Jardin de Petit Village. Petit Village was one of the last Pomerol properties to harvest in 1997, finishing on October 10, bringing in merlot with potential alcohol of 12.5%, higher than that of 1995. Cuvaison lasted 35 days, including nine days of cold maceration prior to the beginning of the alcoholic fermentation, and 80% of the wine went through its malolactic in barriques With the '97 vintage, the estate hopes to bottle without a filter.