Winemaker Emma's Diary March 2022

The main activity in February/March is always pruning and this requires a lot of attention. During the winter period there are two of us on the vineyard, my partner and I, to prune the vines by hand, so it takes some time.

Winter is a quiet period in the cellar, which allows us to prepare the next vintage. The outside temperatures have cooled the air in the cellar and also the wines. Some wines have fallen asleep before they have completed their malolactic fermentation. Malolactic fermentation usually takes place after alcoholic fermentation and is slower, so it is often interrupted by the arrival of winter. The risk of moving and working at this moment is to encourage the development of undesirable or harmful yeasts or bacteria for the wine. But no panic, this fermentation will resume naturally in the spring.

"After that we can finally do the blending, a moment we are looking forward to but whose secret I will not reveal to you yet!"

February was a rainy month. When the weather does not allow us to be in the vineyard, it allows us to prepare the coming year: prepare the next bottlings, take stock, choose new barrels for the new vintage...

Our choice of barrels depends on the type of wine we want to make. For our white wine, the Solaris, we are looking for a woody note without masking the aromas of the grape variety. We decided to work with French and Swedish barrels. And yes, there are good coopers in Sweden, it is very exciting to work with Swedish wood and Swedish savoir-faire. The French barrels selected bring soft notes of vanilla and pastry, while the Swedish ones balance out with strong notes of toasted bread, roasted hazelnuts, and a little smoky touch. For this selection, it is necessary to go and smell the barrels first, why not taste some wine witch has been aged inside them and after buy one. Each wine will behave differently depending on the barrel chosen. And often it takes several tries before you get the perfect match.

This is the joy of working with a living material, there are no rules!

March is finally here, and it brings light and the pleasure of working outside! And what a start! Two weeks of very good weather. Temperatures are rising above 5 degrees. Nature is slowly waking up, the ground is still frozen and hard in the morning but we are really getting close the big wake up. It was our first winter in Sweden and as French, it was not easy. I needed to experience it to really understand the importance of light for the people living here and where this unconditional love for spring comes from.