With a very hot and dry spring, summer appeared with a vine flowering three weeks earlier than usually. Throughout the vineyards of Bordeaux and even in our Appellation "Cotes de Bourg," rain storms always localized and more or less violent explain the very heterogeneous nature of this vintage in Bordeaux.
At Chateau La Grave, the water deficit and the effects of the dryness were felt early in July with a slowdown in the formation of the bunches and a beginning of wilting of the grapes on the less vigorous vines. The rains from mid-July have revived the maturation of the grapes and the good weather of August and September were in favor of a good ripening of the grape leading to early harvest which started on September 12th. At La Grave, the pressure of botrytis was rather low because we don’t have so much rain during all the season to the end of the harvest. Small bunches size and low juice in the grapes gave us a small red and white production in quantity. For the quality, even if the extreme years are rarely a great vintage, 2011, at Chateau De La Grave, is very satisfactory and promising for the future.
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