TIME OF HARVESTS

Secret of a successful vintage in Sauternes-Barsac wines

From mid of September, the «noble rot» or «Botrytis cinerea» install on the ripe grape increasing its sugar and aromas content. Pickings time has occur: Spread over a long period (about 4 to 6 weeks), about fourty pickers are strided all over the vineyard of Château de Myrat in order to select, only by hand, the right botrytised berries.

Sauternes and Barsac wines are not technical wines. Everything is done outside, on the vineplant, during the picking. With a main key, the changing weather in Autumn.
At château de Myrat, we are fungus pickers…we have to adapt, to decide, to select each berry, and that is essential! The picker is the first oenologist of our wines!

Each vintage will reveal the particularities of the picking and the rarefaction of the juice from natural concentration. Each week of harvest will add to the complexity and the balance of the wine.

At Sauternes and Barsac, quality and quantity are opposed: A vine plant usually produces one bottle of wine, here in Sauternes-Barsac we are very happy to obtain one glass of wine per vine!