Harvesting the 2013 vintage (video)

On 30 September, having the previous week harvested the Sauvignon Blanc and Gris, Semillon and Muscadelle grapes which each year produce Aile d’Argent, Mouton Rothschild’s white wine, the Château’s technical managers decided to harvest the parcels used to make Mouton Rothschild itself. Following a remarkably dry and sunny summer, the weather forecast for the first week of October was not very good. In anticipation, and to speed up the harvest, the call went out to all the employees of Baron Philippe de Rothschild to join the pickers. Leaving their day-to-day tasks, 125 irregulars rallied round with enthusiasm to swell the ranks of the regular harvesters. Together, they were able to bring the crop from 83 hectares (205 acres) of Mouton’s two favoured grape varieties, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, into the Vat Room in record time.

Harvested with painstaking care, the grapes were carried in open baskets to the sorting table at the entry to the vat room, then transferred into Mouton Rothschild’s new gravity-fed vats to start their fermentation. In a major innovation, transparent staves on the vats enable the technical staff to precisely monitor the vinification process.

The first vats of Merlot were run off recently. In a few weeks’ time the wine will be taken in barrels to the Grand Chai at Mouton to start the maturing process.

The team from the château have had their first tastings of the vintage. Philippe Dhalluin, assisted by Erick Tourbier, Technical Manager, and Gérard Linaires, Cellar-master, speak of very bright colours and are already full of praise for the natural crisp fruit flavours and grilled notes so typical of Mouton.