The 2012 Pichon Lalande vintage is a mixture of issues we had to deal with. The season has been difficult in the vineyard. You can call 2012 Bordeaux a winemaker’s vintage.

The late harvest for 2012 Bordeaux might affect the en primeurs tastings. 2012 Bordeaux will have suffered from one month less of ageing in comparison with 2011 in April when the wines are shown to critics and buyers.

We finished picking on October 16. That makes 2012 Cos d’Estournel one of the latest harvest in the history of Cos d’Estournel. It was more than 4 weeks later than last year!

We have some vats of Cabernet Sauvignon with the same level of purity and structure we experienced in 2006. Perhaps coming after the 2005 vintage, consumers were not very interested in the 2006 vintage. Yet 2006 turned out to be one of the better vintages we’ve made at Chateau d’Issan!

With our terroir, we cannot talk about the 2012 Fleur Cardinale as a late harvest because we are used to it. Our philosophy has always been to wait for the optimal ripeness. So we waited, as usual.

At the moment, the 2012 La Fleur Morange is in the process of malolactic fermentation. Looking back, I think I succeeded in this complicated vintage, even though we came very close to having catastrophic year.