Vineyard & Soil - Château LAULAN DUCOS

Grape varieties

_______________________________

	The main variety, Cabernet Sauvignon (65%) gives the wine good structure as well as a bright, brilliant colour and good ageing potential.
	Merlot is less present (34%), but plays an important role in softening the firmness of Cabernet Sauvignon, while contributing an attractive, ripe bouquet. This is largely due to the fact that Merlot is an early-ripening variety.
	Cabernet Franc accounts for just 1% of the vines. Like Cabernet Sauvignon, it provides good ageing potential.

Viticulture

_______________________________________________

A great deal of effort has been made over the past several years to improve grape quality at Château Laulan Ducos:

- Green cover:	This technique enables us to regulate moisture in the soil.
The vines must compete with grass for water, which tends to drive their roots deeper into the soil. This makes for lower yields of higher-quality fruit.

- Green harvesting:	This includes bud pruning, suckering, and bunch thinning (which we mostly
do in plots of Merlot to limit the number of bunches, and increase aeration between the grapes to avoid the development of rot).

- Leaf thinning:	We eliminate leaves on the fruit-producing part of the vine starting in early July.
This tends to enhance ripening, and makes spraying against rot much more effective.

____________________________________________________

The Vintage

The grapes are mechanically harvested with state-of-the-art equipment. This enables us to wait for optimum ripeness and facilitates extraction of phenolic compounds.