Gold Medal Grande Reserve 2004

Unbeknown to us until recently, our Grande Reserve 2004 was awarded a gold medal in the VinoChallenge 2006 competition. We are very proud of this medal, as ours was the only wine from the Southern Rhône to win a gold.

Pruning

The winter pruning program at Mourchon is now completed and while working in the vines, we found the majority to be in good health and as always we are looking forward to this year’s budburst which should be sometime in April.

In order to give fuller explanation of the pruning, there follows an extraction from our website’s glossary:
The aim of pruning is to produce fewer, but larger, bunches of fruit and to therefore control the next harvest’s yield. Approximately 80% of each year’s shoot growth is removed. The method of removal is a highly specialized skill, as the pruning technique is related to how each vine has been trained to grow. After the pruning, the vine shoots or ‘canes’ are crushed and reintroduced to the soil to encourage humus. At this point, we also introduce a necessary amount of organic fertilizer made from sheep manure.