Vintage 2021: retrospective and perspectives at the gérard bertrand châteaux and domaines

Richard Planas, director of the Gérard Bertrand Châteaux and Domaines, looks back in detail at the 2021 vintage. Climatic conditions, soil preparation and biodynamic inputs: a review of 2021 from the vines' perspective.  

The essentials

• A dry year with marked and highly localised temperature variations.
• A vintage where the "winegrower" work bears fruit, approaching the harvest with well-balanced and fully healthy vines.
• Balanced load, freshness in the wines, fine acidity : the ingredients of a vintage that will stand the test of decades.
• A vintage with a typically Mediterranean profile, with localised climatic and hydric nuances — particularly in spring and the beginning of summer — that will undoubtedly highlight the typicity of each of our terroirs: from the Pyrenean foothills (Domaine de l'Aigle, Château la Soujeole, Domaine de l'Estagnère), to the coastal zones (Châteaux L'Hospitalet, Château des Karantes, Domaine de Tarailhan), passing through the foothills of the Larzac (Château La Sauvageonne, the Clos du Temple, Château des Deux Rocs), the Black Mountain (the Clos d'Ora and Château Laville Bertrou) and the Corbières (Château de Villemajou and Cigalus).

The harvest began on 26 August 2021, with the Sauvignon and Chardonnay from Cigalus, on a beautiful sunny day without excessive heat.

Across all Gérard Bertrand Châteaux and Domaines, the health of the vineyard is excellent, with a very good grape/leaf surface ratio: the ideal conditions to allow ripeness to progress until the end of the harvest.

Acidity levels are high, which promises fully aromatic and balanced whites and reds with superior keeping potential.

Overview of the 2021 viticultural campaign

From a general perspective across our 16 Châteaux and Domaines, with low rainfall (-30 to -50% compared to 2020), 2021 joins the driest years on record. Everywhere, rain fell mainly in autumn and at the beginning of winter; in spring, the picture was nuanced depending on the territories: rainfall was heavier inland than on the coast and in the Corbières, before a general and marked "summer dry spell".

A mild winter that was relatively dry led to early budburst in the vine. We had worked the green manures by sowing every other row in autumn.

In spring, we shall long remember the night of 7 to 8 April 2021, when a mass of cold air from northern Europe swept over the Languedoc while the vine had already begun its vegetative cycle. We protected the most exposed lower hillside plots by lighting nocturnal braziers, thereby reducing the effect of this spring frost on the forthcoming harvest.

When they were affected by this episode, our vines were in very good health. They came through it valiantly, supported by biodynamic care. A few weeks later we were able to observe that we had managed to preserve the harvest potential in line with our quality standards across all our Châteaux & Domaines, limiting losses to 20% of the harvest.

In the weeks that followed, flowering took place without excessive heat. It took its time. The spring rains, few in number overall, fell at the right moment, to take over from the autumn and early winter rains, and to ensure good mineral nutrition, essential for growth and the development of the leaf surface area (the photosynthetic engine of ripening).

We prepared the soils through regular work following the principle "one hoeing is worth two waterings": a technique that promotes the proper functioning of the soils by limiting competition between vines and natural grass cover, and stimulates nutrition through organic matter inputs to the soil. This also promotes the mineralisation of soils and the assimilation of naturally present minerals to allow harmonious development of the vine.

We combined this active presence with the application of biodynamic foliar preparations (horn manure and silica, herbal infusions and essential oils) and a reasoned supply of organic fertiliser to allow vegetative development in keeping with the crop load.

The summer was temperate, with alternating periods of seasonal sunshine and cooler spells. However, without rain, water management was a key challenge for vineyard management. We therefore brought forward the destruction of cover crops to limit competition.

Viticultural yield spans 2 years; as the previous vintage was generous in water, flower initiation took place under optimal conditions. A fairly generous cluster set was therefore observed very early on. The precise monitoring work of our pruners encouraged the right number of buds on each vine stock, in line with our ultra-premium wine objectives.

We approach the harvest with a well-calibrated "load and leaf surface" balance and functional foliage to ensure the ripening of the grapes under the best possible conditions.

The end of the season is taking shape around the famous "Indian summer", ensuring an exceptional health status for the grapes so that they can soak up the sun before vatting.

This year in particular, the applications of biodynamic preparations played a particularly important role in accompanying the harmonious development of the vegetation, and in stimulating the natural defences against climatic stresses (water stress) or parasitic attacks.

They followed one another in rhythm with the seasons and planetary alignments: Maria Thun cowpat compost in autumn, Horn manure in spring and Horn silica during the vegetative growth phases of the vine…

The biodynamic applications (based on herbal infusions^e, and fermented plant extracts) played a stimulating role for the vitality of the foliage. This year, depending on the estates, yarrow, nettle and oak bark allowed our vines to adapt to intense heat, dry periods or maritime humidity.

The health of the vineyard proves to be excellent, at the cost, as every year, of daily vigilance and attention to accompany each vine stock through to the harvest by walking every plot.

The harvest has only just begun and we are putting all our energy into this final straight to bring the grapes to their optimum ripeness and reveal all the aromas of an exceptional vintage.

Follow our harvests, estate by estate:

• Welcoming the future at Cigalus... bunch by bunch
• Welcoming the future... plot by plot with biodynamics
• domaine de l'Aigle, at the crossroads of terroirs and climates