Just two days away from the end of our 2006 harvest and the weather remains on our side.
We are picking today our last two plots of Pinot Gris that have remained remarkably sound to this day. One is located up the road from the main street of Riquewihr and the other in the continuation of grand cru Schoenenbourg (in a "climat" called Kronenbourg).
The results are once again excellent with respectively 16,4° and 17,3° potential alcohol, right on target as a candidate for Vendange Tardive.
The remaining part of the day is devoted to Riesling in some less prestigious vineyards.
Thanks to some low yielding vineyards, the vigour has been kept under control and the grapes have remained rather sound with good sugar levels.
With such perfect harvesting conditions some of our seasonal pickers start to regret that in a couple of days things will be over for 2006. What a contrast with the atmosphere that we had 3 weeks ago where nothing could be fast enough, including for those that used machine picking !
This is how the Riesling grapes look in our lighter terroirs called the Harth of Riquewihr.
As the Riesling bunches were well aerated due to the low vigour, we had very little grey rot to worry about.
The grapes have continued to slowly ripen and have now achieved some very good levels of concentration.
We have therefore great expectations for 2006.
