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Tuesday, 13 October 2009

Where the Cher Valley leads – Bordeaux runs to catch up

Destemming by hand@Clos Chossay 2009

I was amused to see a story on decanter.com today reporting that Château Angélus, a premier grand cru classé in Saint-Emilion, will be destemming its Merlot by hand this vintage. Clearly Bordeaux here is taking its lead from the Cher Valley – firstly by Junko Arai of Le Bois Lucas, then Clos Chossay (all grapes have been hand destemmed from the first vintage in 2004) and more recently by Jean-François Merieau (Vignobles des Bois Vaudons).

Contacted by Jim's Loire, Michel Prenneur of Le syndicat des egrappistes manuels de la Vallée du Cher commented: "We are delighted that our work in here in the Cher Valley has inspired one of Saint-Emilion's leading châteaux to experiment with destemming by hand."

See reports of Cher Valley hand destemming here and here.

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