To meet the expectations of the entry-level market for light wines, two Bordeaux consultants recommend that winegrowers harvest at technological maturity. In the cellar, they recommend limiting extractions.

Between €5 and €8, Bordeaux consumers are looking for wines that are easy to drink. "To vinify these more technological products, winegrowers must in a vintage like 2023 have the courage to abandon the ambition to produce products with a noble tannic structure and revealing their terroirs," says Romain Bocchio, consultant at Derenoncourt.

He recommends harvesting at less mature periods, and, in the cellar, infusing rather than extracting, a "less difficult and risky strategy than the vinification of wines for ageing".

 

"Our quality viticulture allows us to vinify fresher and lighter wines. We can replace the contribution of tannic structure by acidity and look for another complexity," he says.

At Enosens, Pascal Hénot agrees. "We must continue to make the great wines that we know how to make but keep in mind that the majority of our consumers are no longer steak eaters but chicken and quinoa eaters and that they want light wines. As when we had to swap our colourful rosés for pale rosés, we have to adapt to the market and progress on the entry-level range," insists the oenologist.

Pascal Hénot reassures listeners by explaining that a large part of the grapes of the vintage can fit into this scheme. "I am not thinking of plots too affected by mildew or too mature but all those whose yield forecasts are quite high and which will present a gap between technological maturity and phenolic maturity," he explains.

Don't harvest too late

In the coming days, the grapes will quickly take sugars and lose acidity. "In early sectors such as Pomerol, the harvest started on September 6," says Pascal Hénot.

"We will have to bring in the bulk of the harvest in mid-September, when the grapes will still have the "fresh fruit" profile sought by the market," says Romain Bocchio. In the cellar, winegrowers will have to avoid the extraction of hard tannins.

@VITISPHERE, Marion Bazireau

photo credit: Adobe Stock