1998 Petit-Village

Ongoing improvements in recent years have resulted in steadily higher quality at this estate, and the 2000 release promises to be the best Petit-Village in many years. In 2000, according to manager Bernard Terrien, the estate did substantial crop-thinning in late July and early August, and also thinned the leaves throughout the vineyard at the beginning of July. More important are improvements at the harvest. The fruit is now brought in in 30-kilo cases, then sorted on two separate triage tables prior to destemming. All of the malolactic fermentation in 2000 took place in barrels, 70% of which were new. There was no stirring of the lees this year as the wine didn't need it, said Terrien. The yield in 2000 was about 48 hectoliters per hectare, and the grand vin represents a 65% selection of the crop. Michel Rolland has consulted here for several years.

This estate dropped nearly half its fruit during a brutal eclaircissage in August but still brought in a big crop, said manager Bernard Terrien. Following 26 days of maceration and malolactic fermentation in barrel, the wine remained on its lees until December, stirred regularly, with oxygenation ponctuelle (the injection of small amounts of oxygen as needed) used in order to skip a racking. Because of the fragility of the vintage, says Terrien, the wine was then taken off its lees; leaving it longer would have risked the formation of brettanomyces. Michel Rolland continues to consult here.

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.