Why we harvest mechanically

100 % mechanical, on every parcel

We harvest mechanically, on every one of our parcels. Petit Chablis, Chablis, Chablis Premier Cru Beauroy: not one parcel is picked by hand, and there is no separate lot kept aside.

This is information we state clearly, in French as in English. It is part of what the estate is, and it appears on our technical sheets. The grapes reach the cellar without having been carried by hand, and the harvest runs inside a short, tightly framed working day.

We are not in the business of justifying ourselves. Mechanical harvesting is a working decision, and the work shows: what the fruit went through between the vine and the vat, the vinification says afterwards.

What it changes, what it does not

What mechanical harvesting changes first is the way the fruit is handled in the cellar: there is no whole-bunch pressing. The bunches arrive whole, and the pressing happens after, once the fruit has been separated.

What it does not change is the vinification and the ageing. The alcoholic fermentation is held between 19 and 22 °C, the malolactic fermentation is run by bacterial inoculation, and the wines age on fine lees from November to May. Petit Chablis and Chablis are aged in stainless steel; Cuvée Élégance and Premier Cru Beauroy, 90 % in tank and 10 % in new oak, assembled just before bottling.

In other words, the change of method changes nothing that happens after the harvest. It bears on how the fruit arrives, and on what the harvest is as a working day.

A decision taken in the field

The question is asked every year, at harvest time, and the answer is given in the field. The estate’s own technical sheets put it plainly: we harvest mechanically on every parcel.

There is a consistency with the rest of our work — soil maintenance entirely mechanical, harvest mechanical, vinification and ageing carried out in our own vats. The same undertaking, from the soil to the bottle.

And it shows in the calendar: around 15 September we start the harvest, for a fortnight. Ten to twelve days on our own parcels, plus a few days of mechanical harvesting as a contractor for other growers. At that pace the fruit comes in quickly, and it comes in in a single pass.

Information we stand behind

We prefer to say it plainly: our wines are mechanically harvested, on all of our parcels. It is neither a flaw nor a selling point we set out to use. It is a piece of factual information, and wine lovers, sommeliers and importers are entitled to it.

If it raises a question, the answer is simple: we explain what it changes, and what it does not. That is all.