Pumping over at the start of fermentation for our first Merlot harvest of the vintage.

Pumping over at the beginning of fermentation offers several benefits: - preventing the cap of grape skins forming on the surface from drying out, which could foster undesirable off-flavours, - homogenising the vat, - supplying the oxygen essential for the yeasts to work effectively, - extracting colour. Once fermentation is well under way, we will simply keep the cap wet rather than carrying out full pump-overs. #ChateauCazebonne #Harvest2026 #Merlot #NaturalWine #BordeauxPirate #Bordeaux