Hand harvesting Syrah 2016

At Domaine La Tasque we harvested our Syrah yesterday. We harvested by hand under beautiful blue skies.

The pre-harvest debriefing was important as the grapes in one portion of the vineyard weren’t ripe so pickers needed to know which vines to pick and which to leave to ripen for another week or so.

The quality of the grapes is excellent. However it has been a very dry year and a thirsty vine means smaller berries and lower yields.  Our Syrah crop is about half of last year’s.

In the vineyard ..

In the winery

The small berry size meant that we adapted the way we process the fruit once it comes into the winery. We don’t normally crush the grapes but in 2016 it was essential to liberate the juice.

Destemming and crushing

Pigeage

And once the grapes were in the tank we use pigeage or punching down to extract colour and flavour.