Domaine Georges Michel Vintage Report 2008 by Swan Michel

The Chardonnay was next on the list for our first week and still no rain in sight. The fruit was extremely good and clean. Again perfect maturity with good acidity. My two French cellar hands couldn’t believe their eyes.

My uncle from Reunion Island also came to do the vintage with us. I made him work really hard; and he though that being a winemaker was just about tasting wine all day J

At the start of April we started harvesting the Sauvignon Blanc; which usually means very long hours waiting for the press to finish. This year was no exception, on the first day we started harvesting at 9pm and worked all night. It was a good night with just two of us in the winery, drinking coffee and playing music really loud to keep us awake. Luckily it wasn’t too cold!

We went to bed for a few hours sleep and then it was all on again with some more chardonnay arriving.

The last of the Sauvignon Blanc was harvested on the 9th of April. I was really happy that everything was in because it started raining heavily that weekend.

Lastly, we harvested, for the first time, our small block of Syrah. This was picked on the 11th of April, just 900 kilos. It was delicious; smelled and tasted like white pepper.

The next job was pressing the Pinot Noirs; we used a small basket presse to press all our reds. It does such a great job!

All the wines are now finish fermenting and are resting on lees to get some roundness. The Reserve wines are in barrels and we even made 2 barrels of Syrah.

Now is time for a bit of a rest and to say goodbye to my two very good cellar hands which I am going to miss a lot. They are going to visit NZ for a few months and then it’s back to France for the vintage 2008.

Dad and I are very happy with the 2008 vintage at Domaine Georges Michel; we got some excellent fruit and a good quantity so we can’t complain!

PS: look out for the Syrah 2008!!!

Cheers,

Swan