NEWS

September – Early morning. The sun rises slowly over the vineyard, painting the sky in a vibrant red, melting into shades of orange, then pale pink. This delicate light washes over the estate now. As the dew begins to slowly disappear under the morning sun, Thomas, Sabrina and Sylvain roam the vineyard, tasting.

September is an intense month on the estate, since it generally brings the beginning of harvest. This year, the harvest began September 13th with the parcels of young Merlot. And since the beginning of the month, every morning the technical team has tasted the berries to keep track of the grapes’ maturity levels. They walk the vine rows of every parcel, picking berries here and there, analysing the flavours and smoothness of tannins in the skins and seeds.

Tasting grapes is an art unto itself. It’s the first step towards truly distinguishing the similarities and differences between parcels. It’s the moment when we begin to group the grapes, and even to blend them, if only at first in our minds. Some will reach maturity earlier, revealing themselves before the others. Eventually, this entire puzzle of parcels will be sorted through.

These daily tasting walks allow us to evaluate three types of grape maturity: technological maturity, which reflects the balance of sugar and acidity, aromatic maturity which indicates the aromatic style of the vintage, and finally phenolic maturity, which allows us to judge the quality of the tannins and overall structure.

We seek the moment when these three types of maturity are in sync, so that only the most promising grapes enter the vats. Each vintage is different, unique, and to best respect its style, the decision of whether to harvest or wait must entail a very subtle equation indeed. Each day matters. It’s a countdown whose sum provides the first score of the vintage.

September 2018 - With harvest time fast approaching, the work of green pruning is reaching its end. This extended viticultural period encompasses three main tasks: raising the support wires, removing secondary shoots and desuckering. Desuckering is the art of removing non-fruit-bearing shoots growing directly on the trunk of the vine. This helps the vine to concentrate its energy in the fruit-bearing branches, those which will carry grapes. As for removing secondary shoots (or épamprage), this is done throughout the green pruning period. But there is one form of this task which is specific to the late summer season. “Nous terminons les américains” (We’re finishing the Americans) – so will the vignerons describe this other type of épamprage. Behind this rather odd expression hides an interesting story…

Vitis Vinifera is the principal species of grapevine historically cultivated in Europe, and includes such well-known varietals as Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. Until the 19th century, it was always planted “franche de pied”, meaning simply that it possessed its own root system. It was a vine that could weather anything. Anything, that is, except the disease of the century: phylloxera, a little sap-sucking aphid which feeds on a vine’s roots, resulting in deformations which gradually cut off the flow of nutrients and water, killing the vine. So it was that, starting in the 1860s, entire vineyard regions throughout France and Europe were destroyed, all because of this devastating little insect.
 
There are several theories regarding the origins of the phylloxera epidemic, and how it came to proliferate throughout our terroirs. The most widely accepted theory concerns the New World. As the world economy was rapidly developing in the 19th century, the increase in transatlantic exchanges and the decrease in the time necessary to traverse the ocean led to the arrival in Europe of phylloxera, a species hitherto unknown here.

Another theory, more prevalent in biodynamic circles, postulates on the contrary that this aphid has always been present here, and that Vitis Vinifera simply lost its natural capacity to resist it. The rationalisation of viticulture, the depletion of grape varietal diversity, and the shift to systematic propagation by root cuttings would be, among other factors, responsible.

To renew Europe’s vineyards, wine growers came up with the idea of employing a practice already common in arboriculture at the time: grafting. Grape varietals of the Vitis Vinifera species were thus grafted onto other species of Vitis from America, such as Vitis Rupestris or Vitis Berlandieri, which are resistant to phylloxera.

“Faire les américains”, signifies cutting the non-fruit-bearing shoots growing on the rootstock, that is to say the “American” part of the vine, which prevents the grafted Vitis Vinifera vine from being rejected by its host. This specific type of épamprage, carried out across the entire vineyard, constitutes a long and painstaking task. On average, the job entails pruning 600 vine plants per hour and per person. Enough to keep everyone busy until the harvest…

April 2018 - How can we reveal all of life’s movements, of which the human eye captures but a fraction?
 
With Sèves Brutes: Raw Saps, the visual artist Nathalie Rodach has traced an itinerary through three familiar Bordeaux sites to explore this monumental question. In so doing, she has charted a map of a universe hitherto invisible to us, presented in three parts: the future, the present, and the past.
 
The future at Château Palmer.
Nathalie Rodach allows us to see the invisible, the lifeblood flowing within. She explores the living by seeking inspiration in the notion of raw sap, this sap composed of water and mineral salts which flows up from the roots to nourish the plant and stimulate its growth. To comprehend this process, Nathalie Rodach roamed throughout the vineyards of Château Palmer, to better discern the secrets of the soil. Last February, the artist laid down a kilometre of natural red pigment between the vines, leading finally to the estate’s winery – a nervous system of vine sap laid bare, yet only visible in its entirety from the sky. As Nathalie Rodach shows, sometimes the closer we are, the less we perceive. The installation at Château Palmer has since been swept away by the elements. But the videos of its creation, accompanied by a series of drawings, together render the contours of an elusive future. They are exhibited at Bordeaux’s Arrêt sur l’Image Galerie.
 
The present is also on display at Arrêt sur l’Image Galerie, in the form of an immense drawing which weaves together the stark white of absence and the sanguine red of life. Each one of the 180 sheets which compose it are snapshots, moments of suspended present, like so many traces to confirm an existence. The beating pulse of the living punctuates all the works that Nathalie Rodach creates. Each line she traces is somehow animated, like threads of life.
 
The past is made visible at a second Bordeaux exhibition centre: MADD-Bordeaux, the Museum of Decorative Arts & Design of Bordeaux. In the museum’s courtyard, Nathalie Rodach has unveiled fossils in glass. They carry the traces of a life that vanished long ago, fixed in lava and in memory. From these frozen fragments, traversed by red, black and white, can we reconstruct what was lost?
 
The present and the interpretation of the future can be discovered from May 17th to July 13th 2018 at Arrêt sur l’Image Galerie (for details, visit www.arretsurlimage.com). The past can be explored from May 17th to September 17th 2018 at MADD-Bordeaux, the Museum of Decorative Arts & Design of Bordeaux (for details, visit www.madd-bordeaux.fr).

April 2018 - In the Médoc, it’s often said that “the great terroirs overlook the water”. Last vintage, it saved them, thanks to the shielding powers of the Gironde estuary, meeting place of the Garonne and the Dordogne.

With a significant lack of rainfall and a particularly mild February and March, we’d expected the vines to awaken early from their winter dormancy. Sure enough, starting late March and into the first half of April, the buds began opening amidst optimal growing conditions. Then, during the nights of 27th and 28th April, the Bordeaux region was unfortunately struck by a particularly brutal wave of frost. Thankfully, the river, acting as a veritable thermal buffer, would protect the majority of Château Palmer’s vineyards, being situated on the first gravel rises along the shore. Only a few plots inland to the west would suffer from freezing temperatures.

Finally, late May brought the fine weather which would provide ideal conditions for flowering, and the promise of an excellent harvest. The spring remained quite dry until the month of June. As summer began, it brought several rainy periods which helped us traverse the season in confidence, but would slightly prolong the vegetative growth of the vines. The berries’ colour change would take place on schedule in mid-August. The rains of September then speeded the maturation of the skins. And so, harvest arrived early, with the vendange launching officially on 20th September. First picked were the most beautiful plots of Merlot, soon followed by the Cabernet Sauvignon and the Petit Verdot. By 29th September, the harvest was over.

From the moment vinification began, it became apparent that the conditions of the vintage, coupled by the respectful vineyard management methods we’d used to safeguard the terroir, would allow us to enjoy a great clarity of expression from our plots. For the very first time, the final blends of both wines were almost finished before the beginning of the malolactic fermentation.

Today, the 2017 vintage at Château Palmer is precise, without excess. The wines exhibit the elegant balance of our most classic vintages. Their velvety tannins and aromatic depth are promises of splendid ageing potential.