Fortunately, the end of June brought more summery weather; however, the sudden growth spurt caused by the rise in temperatures made it difficult to attach the vines to the trellises. By the beginning of July, growth had fallen behind by three weeks compared to the average, and more than a week compared to 2012, which was particularly late. The summer heat was therefore very welcome, with high temperatures (over 30°C) in July and pleasantly warm weather in August. Like last year, the differences between day- and night-time temperatures in August were high, of the order of 12°C, helping to produce strongly coloured grapes with good aromatic intensity. Our vineyards did not suffer from a lack of rain over the summer: there was a late, dry period from mid-June, but storms at the end of July and in early August reduced any water stress; the water deficit was further reduced in September and October, resulting in the foliage having to be trimmed in the autumn.

The hail storm on the evening of Friday 2 August affected all of our vines in Castillon and Saint Emilion. The damage resulted in losses of 10-30%, and the stress to the vines further delayed the growth cycle. The start of ripening was late (20 August) and particularly spread out.
 

FAST HARVESTS, EFFICIENT SORTING AND EASY VINIFICATIONS
The serious threat of Botrytis in late September led us to bring the harvests forward a few days. It took just 11 days of picking to harvest the five properties' 105 hectares of vines, from 1 to 11 October. A lot of sorting was necessary, in order to ensure that only the healthiest grapes were used.

Yields production was similar to 2012, i.e. decreased by half, between 12 and 22 hl/ha for the red grapes and 35 hl/ha for the white grapes. The low yields are explained by the poor flowering of the Merlot in June, the threat of disease all through the year and Botrytis in the autumn, the hail in August and the low weight of the berries.