Château Haut-Brion: Wines
Come harvest time at Château Haut-Brion this is naturally achieved by hand. The decision to pick is made on the basis of a tasting of the fruit, as well as an analysis of sugar concentration, tannins and skin colour across the entire vineyard, which is divided up into a multitude of plots. Once picked, the ripe fruit is delivered with care to the reception and fermentation areas in the cellars, which sit adjacent to the château. Thereafter what happens depends, of course, on the wine in question, as there are both white and red wines made here.
The fruit is first destemmed and sorted, and this sorting will include traditional hand-and-eye sorting across a table, but since 2009 optical sorting has also been available. The role this plays depends very much on the vintage. Although 2009 was the first vintage this methodology was employed, it did not really contribute anything this year or in 2010 as the quality of the fruit was so high. The first time it really played a role was in the 2011 vintage, when the application of this technology removed 5% of the crop that had passed inspection on the table de tri.
