For more than three months, an interminable period of heat and relative dryness settled over Provence. This exceptionally long episode came on top of a very low total rainfall since the beginning of the winter. Heat and drought are indeed the two main characteristics of the past year. The seasonal cycle began with a relatively harsh winter, punctuated by a few isolated storms. It was followed by a spring marked by frosts and violent hail falls which, fortunately, spared the vineyard

Château Peyrassol, officially labelled as an organic vineyard from the 2022 vintage. Our vines have resisted particularly well to this dry climate, with its sometimes overwhelming heat. With the exception of the very young vines and certain superficial terroirs, we did not observe any symptoms of water stress during the entire vegetative growth period. In bright sunshine, in very dry conditions, when even some trees were dropping and losing their leaves, our vineyard plots were bright green. Several protective factors for our vineyard came into play in this tense climatic context:

• a deep rooting of our vines,
• the proximity of the estate’s woods and garrigues, which drain the soil and favour the production of humidity,
• a decisive action of the teams in the vineyard with a parsimonious planting of cereals and leguminous plants between the rows, the subsequent covering of these plants which preserved a little humidity at the foot of the plant and, finally, a controlled leaf removal which protected the bunches of grapes from the scorching sun of the summer.

From August onwards, the ripening of the berries had its share of surprises in store for us. Sugar levels rose very quickly in the early grape varieties, with a reduction in acidity. On the contrary, the later grape varieties struggled to start their sugar load with quite unusual ripening. These surprising behaviours led us to be more vigilant, to meticulously monitor the vineyard, down to the very last vine, in order to organise a harvest that was finally very concentrated between 25 August and 28 September, so as to capture the berries at their best.

Fermentations ended with superbly aromatic white and rosé musts. The reds release beautiful colours and powerful aromas. The first tastings suggest that this will be a vintage of character.