Sparkling harvest at Domaine Chandon is over!

Most wineries in the valley are just starting their harvest, but for us at Domaine Chandon we are done with sparkling wines!

We received the first grapes on Monday, August 22nd and the last on Friday, September 23rd. During this month, we have been very busy receiving and processing the fruit 24 hours a day. Everything went very well, we had a great team. This year we have interns from France, Italy and also two people from Domaine Chandon Australia and Argentina. It is great to have people from all over the world as it is an excellent opportunity to exchange information about our techniques, wines, cultures...

Most of the wines are now dry, just three fermenters left to go. We already inoculated the wines for malolactic. We are not doing malolactic on all our wines but just on the lots we selected. This year again has been a great year for sparkling wines at Domaine Chandon. The grapes had a lot of acidity which will make excellent wines - we are very excited about this vintage.

Now that we are less busy with the sparkling wines, we are bringing in our still wines made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier this week. At Domaine Chandon we never stop!

For me, I am happy that the sparkling harvest is over as I just completed my second vintage of 2011 after spending the first 4 months of this year in Australia working for Domaine Chandon in the Yarra Valley. I am now looking forward to some time off and my first weekend!!!

Good luck to all the other Winemakers in the Valley as you start harvest!

Pauline Lhote
Assistant Sparkling Winemaker, Chandon