Broken down picking machine: one of the hazards of the vintage!
On our way back from Pouilly-sur-Loire on 5th October we dropped in to see Pierre Jacolin at Le Prieurié de Saint-Cérols (AC Menetou-Salon). Although the weather that Tuesday was pretty miserable, Pierre was reasonably happy. For a start he had a normal harvest in 2010 – very important after the series of hailstorms that hit Menetou in 2009.
Pierre: "We started on Thursday 30th September. Half the crop is now in with the Pinot Noir nearly finished. Yields for both the Pinot and Sauvignon Blanc are around 60 hl/ha with potential alcohol around 12%-12.5%."
The juice of both varieties tasted clean and fruity – like everywhere else in the Loire no false flavours. We left Pierre to get on to see how the mechanics were doing with his picking machine. Fortunately he wasn't picking that day.
