Chateau Clinet 2006

Description

At the beginning of the year, the climate gave very weak precipitations and quite fresh temperatures offering favourable conditions to avoid wood illnesses.The cuttings started at the beginning of February with great quality woods. The temperatures remained fresh until mid-April, and then exceeded 20C, which accelerated the growth of the vine that has been very slow until then.The re-plantation works of some parcels cut out in 2003 lying fallow since, and that represents over 1 ha was carried out in April 2006. June, July 71 mm rain and the beginning of August 49 mm rain has been extremely sunny, hot and dry. In such conditions of dryness, watering of the new plantations has been extremely well supervised.The strategy, decided at the end of June, to slightly defoliate the rising sun side, fully contributed to the homogenous and excellent development of the Chateau Clinet grapes. Thus, by the 10th of August veraison was complete on the totality of the Merlots. The choice to put under grass the rows between the vines due to the extreme heat and dry conditions enabled the slow down of the leaves growth which predicted an excellent quality concentration of the harvest. In spite of an overcast 2nd half of August with moderate temperatures, this month proved to be interesting in terms of the climate with only 49 mm of precipitation. Then, the beginning of September brought back the high temperatures.The harvest started on the 18th September with the gathering of young Merlot grapes plants and grafts according to a plan established the previous days. It went on until the 22nd September for the Merlots, before picking up on the 26th for the Cabernets Francs to end it on the 28th with the Cabernets Sauvignons. The totality of the harvest has been done in dry weather.The sanitary quality of the grapes was excellent, the grapes reached their technological min 13,08Alc. for young vines up until 14 Alc. as well as phenolic maturity. In order to respect the freshness and finesse of our wines, the extraction of phenolic materials are carried out very gently.The year 2006 has been marked by extremely favourable climate conditions on the whole Pomerol appellation. Chateau Clinets cultivation strategy has worked correctly.The potential shown during the first tastings confirmed that the 2006 vintage is an excellent one. – Chateau Clinet*90-92/100 Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate