Château La Cardonne
2023
Generally speaking, 2023 is a vintage that should be judged favourably – a good, even very good vintage, but not an exceptional one. But it is also a vintage that would not have produced good results ten years ago and whose heterogeneity does not allow it to be considered exceptional, even if it is likely to have produced a number of truly exceptional wines.
Indeed, as in 2018, we have a growing season in two parts – the first producing intense downy mildew pressure; the second producing precisely the conditions required to compensate for the deficit of the first half. However, the contrast between the two halves was much less extreme than in 2018 – the downy mildew pressure in 2023 came not so much from excessive rain as from persistent rain in a context of already high temperatures; and the second half of the season, although generally dry and hot, only became extreme in the final stages of ripening.