From 25th September to 16th October 2014
The growth cycle for this 2014 vintage was two weeks ahead of the average over the past decade, due to a particularly mild and wet winter and warm weather in early spring. Cooler temperatures followed, especially in May, and slowed down the development until blossoming time. The beginning of the flowering was wet but beautiful weather soon arrived and allowed the last stages of the flowering to take place in excellent conditions and more quickly. A stormy period then set in through June and July with rain spells and some very hot days. The colour change was quite spun out over time but, just as the drier period had helped the flowering, the dry weather from late August through to the harvest, allowed the colour to even out at the end of the colour change phase and enabled an excellent ripening with a good hydric stress to guarantee quality. In this vintage of extremely generous growth , the succession of two careful deleafings and suckerremovals ensured good permeability of the fruit-bearing zones and helped to maintain each of the grape varieties in excellent health until their optimum picking dates.