Start of the harvest for Foncalieu winegrowers.
The 2021 harvest has begun! For a few days now, a new effervescence has been emerging in the cellars. Our Pays d’Ensérune winegrowers harvested the first HVE (High Environmental Value) white Sauvignon grapes on August 19th at dawn. The Muscats followed the next day !
Our teams are close to the winemakers.
Gabriel, our agricultural engineer, Nathalie and Anne, our oenologists, work closely with our winegrowers to check the maturity of the grapes. This allows us to define the best dates for the start of the harvest. Maturity controls are carried out on a representative sample of the vine row and allow us to obtain the first prognoses of the future harvest.
Harvesting at night for whites and rosés.
For early grape varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc, white grape varieties and those destined for rosés, the harvest is done at dawn or at night.
The first reason for harvesting at night is to save energy! Indeed, the grapes need to be fresh to start the fermentation. If the grapes arrived warmed by the sun’s rays, the winemakers would have to cool them down in the cellar. To save energy, our winemakers get up before sunrise to harvest the fruits of their labour in the vineyard. The harvest arrives fresh at our winery and we do not need to cool the reception tanks!
Moreover, at night the grapes are firm and concentrated in aromas. Harvesting them at this time of year preserves them until they reach the winery and preserves all their aromatic potential !
We wish our winegrowers a great harvest and a beautiful 2021 vintage !
