Chateau Teyssier 2003
What a scorcher!
I’m led to believe that in the last 100 years France has only experienced eight vintages with the heat that we got in 2003, and none with the degrees of heat experienced in August. It felt like being back in Australia!
The biggest disappointment of the vintage was the occurrence of millerandage (failed flowering) affecting a large part of the old-vine merlot. Not content with this setback, during the middle of Vinexpo, we received a belt of hail. The result – 30 percent of the production lost. This is now two years running and, for an estate like ours, not something we want to experience again for some time.
Oddly, like Australia in good years, we received good winter rains topped up from time to time in the early summer. The budbursting started early – very early. We did, however, get through spring without a frost, and although temperatures fluctuated wildly during this time, from the end of May onwards we experienced a summer that was most un-Bordelaise. Three months of unremitting sunshine and heat would necessitate the turning on of the irrigation drips in most parts of Australia, but that goes against the grain of the way that things are done in Bordeaux. The largest strain was on parcels of merlot atop gravel or sand over crasse de fer (ironstone deposits). In the intense heat berry-shrivel seemed a precursor to vine shut down. This was tempered by summer storms. On 24th June 160km winds ripped the branches off the trees in the park and threatened to do the same to the vines. They didn’t need to – the wall of hail that went through 6,000 Bordeaux hectares, including the vines around the Chateau, did it instead.
Having deleafed one side of the vines at berry-set, the second deleafing planned for the middle of ripening was cancelled due to the constant heat.
Australia has taught us to be wary of perfect numbers. The anticipated alcohol, Ph, and acidity can look great but the underlying phenolic ripeness – the key to avoiding greenness and astringency – can really only be judged if the grapes are chewed and tasted themselves. Neil Whyte, our Oenologue, spends more time in the vines during early vintage than he does in the winery. Although harvesting was occurring all around us we finally picked up our secateurs and cagettes only on the 15th September and started picking. We now have 40 hectares to get in – all by hand. As we were late to start we needed the weather to hold up. It did, and although sorting involved more sun burnt and shriveled berries than ones with rot, the picking passed smoothly.
Vinification went calmly – with only a small amount of difficult vats. Treatment of the juice and must was gentler than in most years with an increased amount of lees stirring. Our approach on oak is changing slowly – a stylistic desire to have the fruit dominate further in early maturing.
With this vintage, the team making the wines and running the vineyard celebrate ten years of working together – we think that we’re getting better at it.