After a gray, long and harsh winter marked by three cold spells (mid-December, early January and mid-February) and despite a month of March close to seasonal averages, budding could hardly be early: between early and mid April. May was a beautiful month, remarkably dry, sunny and warm; the vines quickly caught up. The first flowers of the vine bloomed at the end of May and the mid-flowering of Merlots and Cabernets was reached on the weekend of June 6. The fruit set rate was satisfactory, only the merlots were affected by the coulage and millerandage after the cold night of June 7 and the abundance of rains which followed. The growth of the vines then slows down due to the installation of a slight water constraint, or even stopped, until mid-veraison, on August 6 for the Merlot, and on the 11 for the Cabernet Sauvignon. And finally, thanks to a month of August, and even more September, very dry and very sunny, with temperatures close to historical averages, we obtained a maturity that can be described as ideal. On September 29, we began to manually harvest the grapes we were going to use for Les Roses de Marie; exceptionally, Cabernets Francs, a usually late grape variety, led the way. Then, we picked up the Merlot for 3 consecutive days. And after a week's break, we resumed with the Cabernet Sauvignon on October 15. These are typically the little verdots that closed our harvest on October 26.
All the grapes harvested had two characteristics indicating their high quality: the berries were both small and full of color; their weight was low and their anthocyanin content very high, more than in 2009 and even in 2005. The degrees are generally high but accompanied by strong acidity, guarantee of structure, finesse and a good capacity for aging. The 2010 will undoubtedly be a typical Haut-Médoc vintage.