{"id":7762,"date":"2013-06-02T15:52:58","date_gmt":"2013-06-02T15:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.leaandsandeman.co.uk\/blog\/?p=7762"},"modified":"2013-06-11T10:29:47","modified_gmt":"2013-06-11T10:29:47","slug":"2012-value-bordeaux-for-the-cellar-stephane-diefs-clos-manou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leaandsandeman.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/06\/2012-value-bordeaux-for-the-cellar-stephane-diefs-clos-manou\/","title":{"rendered":"2012 Value Bordeaux for the cellar: St\u00e9phane Dief’s ‘Clos Manou’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Clos<\/a><\/p>\n

Up in the northern M\u00e9doc, around the village of Saint Christoly<\/strong>, it was normal, right up to the 1970s, for farmers to have some maize, some cows, a few pigs \u2013 and 4 hectares or so of vines. Part of what is now Clos Manou<\/strong> was a 4 hectare \u2018Cru Bourgeois\u2019 called Ch\u00e2teau Cantegrive. Yet this is a very well-placed vineyard, with banks of gravel right on the river, just like the more prestigious appellations to the south.\u00a0Perhaps when they were gaining their fame, Saint Christoly was just a bit too far out in the boondocks.<\/p>\n

\"Saint<\/a><\/p>\n

The Clos Manou vineyard has been built up by St\u00e9phane Dief and his wife Fran\u00e7oise\u00a0over many years. Starting with 12 ‘ares’ (0.12 of a hectare), he now has 18.5 ha in production. He has only bought vines planted at 10,000 per hectare, which is double the norm this far north. His purchases include a parcel with the oldest vines in the M\u00e9doc, planted in 1850<\/em><\/strong>. The vineyard is fairly evenly divided between sandy gravel, clay-limestone, and gravel with clay beneath \u2013 the latter being the same as Saint Est\u00e8phe to the south. It is made up of 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot.<\/p>\n

\"St\u00e9phane<\/a><\/p>\n

St\u00e9phane Dief of Clos Manou with one of his 1850s vines<\/em><\/p>\n

St\u00e9phane gradually converts his vineyards as he takes them over, only gradually withdrawing the\u00a0fertiliser they have\u00a0got used to\u00a0for fear of killing off the vines, but eventually getting to a point where they are cultivated organically, and encouraging the roots to go deep rather than lying on the surface waiting to be fed. The vines that are \u2018in conversion\u2019 make the second wine, \u2018Petit Manou\u2019.<\/p>\n

Much of the work is painstaking and manual – the Diefs employ twelve people during May June and July in the vines. De-leafing is done manually, as is the sorting of the fruit on the vines to ensure a crop which ripens evenly. This was\u00a0especially important\u00a0in 2012 because the flowering was disturbed by rain and cold weather, so some of the grapes were a month behind those that were fertilised first.<\/p>\n

This work continues up to and during the harvest. You can watch a video of the harvest work at Clos Manou here – a video made by the Clos Manou team during the 2011 harvest:<\/p>\n