The 2012 Bordeaux vintage for us, in Pessac Leognan was dry until the end of March. Next it was very humid until the end of July. This was followed by a hot and sunny August with 2 or 3 days of rain.

At Branaire Ducru, we focus on obtaining freshness along with the best purity of the fruit possible. And of course a lot of finesse.

We opted not to use the optical sorting. I’m not in favor of it. Wine making is at its best, when it’s hands on.

We completed our new fermentation cellar added, 10 small concrete vats. Also, now everything in the cellars is moved by gravity. Plus we have a new barrel room too.

The 2012 Bordeaux vintage turned out to be a great year for Merlot, with the ripeness of 2008 coupled with the balance of 1998.

During the 2012 Bordeaux harvest, we were on the drastic side, regarding sorting at Valandraud!

The 2012 Bordeaux harvest was late because there was a discrepancy between technical and phenolic maturity, meaning that sugar and acidity levels were normal, but grapes were still lacking aromatic brightness.