Could you please describe your philosophy on vineyard management ?

I would like to make two main points.

First of all, it is obvious that for the soil to express itself fully in the wine, yields must be kept reasonable, even if some of the finest vintages are also some of the most prolific ones.

At Carbonnieux, we don't have to make a special effort to limit yields for two main reasons: the age of the vines (an average of 26 years for the white wine varieties and 32 for the red varieties) and the poor soil, which provides excellent natural drainage.

Fertilizers are used with great restraint. Pruning depends on many dif-ferent factors, but is always quite severe. The vines are also trimmed to keep production down to the right level.