C'est la quantité de raisins ou de vins produite sur 1 hectare . Le rendement s'exprime généralement en Hectolitres par hectare

Le rendement sur la Cote Roannaise

Au sein de l'appellation Cote Roannaise, le rendement maximum autorisé est de  66 HL/Ha.

. Cependant tout le monde est d'accord sur le fait que le vin reflètera au mieux son terroir aux environs de 50 hl/Ha. Au delà, le vin sera une représentation générique du cépage.

L'objectif principal malgré tout parmi les viticulteurs demeure le rendement maximum.

Nos rendements

Au Domaine du Fontenay, notre objectif est de réduire au maximum le rendement tout en respectant des limites raisonnables .Nos derniers rendements ont été:

2004: 47.3 HL/Ha---

2003: 11.8 HL/Ha(sécheresse exceptionnelle)

2002: 30.1 HL/Ha---

2001: 33.6 Hl/Ha

2000: 53.7 Hl/ha

Les déclarations de récolte  qui certifient ces chiffres sont à la disposition de nos clients sur simple demande.

Pourquoi est ce si important de limiter le rendement en viticulture?

Keeping yields low means that each vine only has to nourrish a small number of grapes. A vine with 10 bunches will be able to achieve better maturity( more sugar, less acidity, better colour) than the same vine with , say, 20 bunches. By aiming for a given level of yield , the wine maker will be able to influence the style of his wine to a great degree

Comment faire pour maîtriser les rendements?

We aim to achieve the best compromise between the quantity of grapes per vine and the maturity of the grapes.

At Domaine du Fontenay, we keep our yield under control thanks to:

       1- short pruning: we only leave 1 bud per stem when other wine makers will keep 2 (see photo at bottom)

       2- then , in May, when the vines start to grow, because Gamay is very vigorous, they tend to generate more buds from the base : we have about 2 weeks to walk around the vineyard to get rid of all the baby buds. The vine has to concentrate on the main buds (that we left when we pruned)

This tecnique is called de-budding(see photo at bottom) and has 2 main advantages: it selects buds from the beginning avoiding the concentration of too many grapes at one place. By doing this, it also prevents rot to get into big bunches of grapes later in the season

        3- In August, when the grapes start changing colour, we can use green harvesting (see photo at bottom) to make sure that yield will be low enough.

When instructing my vineyard workers for this work, I use the image of socks drying on a clothes line. For socks to dry properly they have to be spread out and not all pegged together. The same is true for bunches of grapes.

Once again it is an extremely fastidious job made worse by the fact that the grapes are still green and difficult to see amongst the leaves ( hence the advantage of not having thick and bushy leaf growth ). It inevitably involves losing part of the crop but the advantages easily outweigh this disadvantage. There is always a significant gain in sugar levels and a rot free crop at picking time.

 Pas de sucres                   Pas de filtration                 Pas d'additifs  

                                Texture soyeuse                 Pas de levures                 Pressoir traditionnel

                                Accueil - Cote roannaise - Mes Vins  - Commander- Chambres d'hôtes

Isabelle & Simon HAWKINS, Domaine du Fontenay, 42 155 Villemontais, France. tel 33 (0)4 77 63 12 22 fax 33 (0)4 77 63 15 95

Ecrivez-nous: info@domainedufontenay.com